LINKIN PARK RELOADED

Origin         : Agoura Hills, California, USA( 1996 ) .
Genres       : Alternative rock, nu metal, rap rock, alternative metal, punk rock.
Labels        : Warner Bros, Machine Stop.
Associates : FortMinor, Dead By Sunrise, Jay Z, White Pegocorn, Tasty Snax, Relative Degrace.
Website     : http://www.linkinpark.com
Members   : ChesterBennington(Vocals)

                     Rob Bourdon (Drums)

                     Brad Delson (Lead Guitarist)

                     Dave PhoenixFarrell (Bassist)

                     Joe Hann ( Turnables, samples, keyboard )

                     Mike Shinoda (Rapper, vocal, keyboard, rhythm guitarist)

Emerging as one of the best American Band of the decade, LinkinPark’s foundation was anchored by three high school friends, Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson and Rob Bourdon. After the learning session Mike Shinoda took more interest in the band and recruited Joe Hahn, Dave Phoenix Farrell and Mark Wakefield to form a heavy metal band called Xero.

Due to lack of resourced the band failed to sign for a record deal. Due to stress and mental havoc Mark Wakefield (that time vocalist) left the band in search of better opportunity. Later on Farrell left with Tasty Snax leaving the band restructured.

After a while, Mike was able to find Chester Bennington as a replacement for a lead vocalist. The sixth member was Jeff Blue referred to the band by the vice president of Zomba Music, and LinkinParkwas hence ready to rise.

Chester Bennington had a very unique singing style that gave him recognition among the music lovers. His voice had a sensitive crush, that could make him sing softly, melodiously and the other second screaming to death. The metal punk connection between Mike and Benningtonhelped revived the band. The band changed its name from Xero to Hybrid Theory.

After working on a new material the band’s renaissance was culminated again with a change in name from Hybrid Theory to LinkinParkin 1999, a play and homage to Santa Monica’s Lincoln Park.

After failing to deal with a lot of major record labels, LinkinParkseeked for help from Jeff Blue who was the vice president of Warner Bros Records helped the band to sign a deal with the company. Hence working hard right from the beginning of the new millennium, the band was able to release their first album, Hybrid Theory, on Oct 24, 2000edited by Don Gilmore.

Hybrid Theory rose to be a massive commercial success selling more than 4.8 million copies earning it the status of best selling album of 2001. The alternative rock style used in songs like Crawling and One Step Closer established themselves as staples among the radio play lists during the year. Many of the singles were featured in films such as Dracula 2000, Little Nicky and Valentine. Hybrid Theory won a Grammy Award for the Best Hard Rock Performance for the song crawling and was nominated for 2 other Grammy’s Best New Artist and Best Rock Album. MTV awarded the Best Rock Video and Best Direction award for the song, In the End. Hybrid Theory was a great success and gave them recognition worldwide.

Linkin Park started receiving much invitation to perform on many high profile tours like Ozzfest, Family Value Tour. But the band formed their own tour, Projekt Revolution. It featured other notable artists like Cupress Hill, Adema and Snoop Dogg. Within a year LP had performed about 320 concerts. Now reunited with the former bassist, Phoenix, the band debuted Reanimation in Nov 2001, which claimed the second spot on Billboard 200, sold 270,000 copies in a week. Hybrid Theory gained top ranking in RIAA’s Top 100 Albums.

Following the tremendous success of Hybrid Theory LP worked upon a new album, touring the whole United Stated. Inspired by the rocky region in Greece, a new album named Meteora emerged. It featured, NU Metal and Alternative Rock styles, with a mix of native music instruments (like Shakhuhachi, bamboo flute Japan).

LP’s second album debuted on March 25, 2003instantly earning worldwide praise, going to be the # 1 in US and UKand # 2 in Australia, selling almost 800,000 copies and rated as best selling album on Billboard charts. Whereby singles like Somewhere I Belong, Numb, Faint, Figure 09 and Breaking the Habit were addressed as the best songs ever. By October 2003 LinkinParksold 3 million copies worldwide. Additionally Metallic being inspired by LP’s glory invited them to play at Summer Sanctum Tour 2003.

In early 2004, band released a new album Live in Texas, which consisted of some video tracks from the band’s performance in Texas. Meteora earned the band multiple honor and awards like, MTV awards for the Best Rock Video and Viewer’s Choice Award for Somewhere I Belong and Breaking the Habit respectively, Radio Music Awards and Artist of the year and song of the year for Numb (2004).

Following Meteora’s success, the band postponed working on a new studio album for next 3 years (2004 – 2006). LP continued to tour and work on many side projects. Benningtonworked with DJ Lethal, Dead by Sunrisewhile Shinoda worked with Depeche Mode. In 2004 band began to work with the rapper Jay Z, producing a remix album Collision Course. Shinoda formed a new separate band FortMinorwhich released its debut album Rising Tied.

At the same time band’s relationship with Warner Bros Records was deteriorating due to several trust and financial issues. Linkin Park participated in many charitable events, to raise money for the victims of Hurricane Charlie 2004, and Katrina 2005. Band donated $ 75,000 to the Special Operation Warrior Foundation in March 2004. They helped relief efforts for the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami 2004, hence setting up an additional fund called Music for Relief.

Later in 2006, band worked with Jay Z during which they performed Numb-Encore winning a Grammy for Best Rap/Sung collaboration.

Linkin Park returned to the recording studios in 2006. After spending 14 months, producing over a 17 songs out of 52, LP released a new album Minutes to Midnighton May 15, 2007, produced by Rick Rubin. MTM sold over 625000 copies in the first week, again topping the Bill Board charts. Album’s single, What I’ve Done, topped the chart with first rand. The song was featured as sound track in 2007 action flick, Transformers. Later year the band won the Favorite Alterative Artist of America. Band’s rest singles Given Up, Bleed It Out, Leave out All the Rest and Shadow of The Day gained a lot of praises. Band collaborated Busta Rhymes on his single We Made It, on April 29, 2008.

Linkin Park’s tour included performances like Live Earth Japan(July 7, 07), DownloadFestivalDoningronPark, London, Edgefest in downs view park, Torontoand Arena in England.

Benningtonand Shinoda stated a release of new album in an interview with MTV officially released on 29 June, 2008named Road to Revolution. Now this was the time to release a big album but first they toured whole US for inspiration. In 2008, Ben announced LP’s fourth studio release will be a concept album. But the release was being continuously postponed. During this time Bennington’s Dead by Sunrisewas released. Mike released the song (Lock Jaw) with Bourdon produced by a software company (Pro Tools 8). On May 18, one the best LinkinPark’s single New Divide was released featured as the sound track for the movie Transformers, Revenge of the Fallen. The single was a great hit success of the year. On Jan 19, 2010LP released a new single entitled Not Alone, for a relief called download to donate to Haiti, Earthquake Crisis.

The band also produced a video game titled 8 bit Rebellion for iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad. The game includes a song Blackbird at the end of the game.

D and Blackout. Side by side a new album LP Underground was released which contained multiple demos. Though the band didn’t see any much glory from the album, it seems that fans are not satisfied. So the album was a kind of failure, not a total failure because songs like Waiting for the End are one the best hits. Currently the band is on a tour called A Thousand Sun US tour which ended on March 13, 2011.

The next upcoming songs are Iridescent and a single for the upcoming Transformers part 3, Dark of the Moon. While there is no official announcement of any further new album release, but Chester Bennington has reported their next album, Linkin Park Reloaded, in an interview with Times Magazine. Waiting for LinkinParkto Rock And Roll again…
An Article By:  HappyChappy And SumoPunk.Check out the official LINKIN PARK RELOADED Page on Face Book here