On March 25, 2003 "Linkin Park" released their second album "Meteora". This is a very important album for the band, apart from the fact that it is one of its most commercially successful !!
At the end of 2000, the band's debut album "Hybrid Theory" was released, the birth cords of the album were very difficult not because of the "fetus" but because of "Mom and Dad". Many key managers from the record label and the music industry pressed and intervened drastically during the work of the young band. They had to wage a lot of wars in order to get the music they wanted, the way they wanted. In all the interviews and later also in their songs, Linkin expressed the difficulty and obstacles that the music industry posed to them.
Why is it important for us to tell this?
Because, after the album's release, the band went on two hectic tours to promote the album: "Hybrid Theory World Tour" and "LP Underground Tour". Concurrent with the tour, Mike Shinoda began working on a remix album called "Reanimation". Although this album did not get the attention it deserved, in our opinion, it is one of the great albums with a phenomenal musical production (we hope to write a review on it soon) !! So despite that... the album was an important milestone in the band's development process. Mike mostly, but the rest of the band members have also received positive reinforcement for the work they do and the music they create.
The rest of the band also worked on materials during the tours, finishing them off with no less than 80 demos of songs. At the end of the performances, the members gathered in the studio at Mike's house and began working on the album. The interesting thing about working on this album was the huge pressure on the band in terms of expectations to meet the success and quality of the first album. Guitarist Brad Delson, said the amazing part was that the significant pressure came from the inside and not from the outside. They themselves wanted to create music that would be the best they can and meet their own expectations. Yet they felt more liberated and did not build themselves into the format of a concept album or match the songs to each other, they simply created based on what sounded good and appropriate to them at that moment.
(Photo: James Minchin)
Although Don Gilmore is again the official producer of this album, Mike took a more significant role in the production this time, directing the writing and recording process and being involved in all the songs in every way. On future albums, he will take the reins completely and lead the production himself.
Mike and Chester Bennington who began to get to know each other through the writing of the previous album, delved even deeper into this album and established their musical connection in it. Although Chester still felt distant and not socially connected to the band, the musical connection between him and Mike was significantly strengthened in the writing of this album, and although they are very different people they found a common language in writing. Chester said they tried to write the songs from the perspective of emotions rather than the situations themselves. Emotions like frustration, anger, loneliness, and love are connected on a personal level because they both experienced them but from different situations.
With the release of the first single "Somewhere I Belong" which went straight into first place, it was already clear that this album was going to be even bigger than the previous album. Chester's scream of not finding his place with Mike's rap, distortion, and scratching immediately made the song a hysterical hit.
A few months later came out the single "Faint", a crazy bomb of aggression with an opening that launches your nerves up to space and shoots you from 0 to 30,000 km / h in exactly 15 seconds.
In an interview, Chester said in the context of this song, that the writing process was very spontaneous and unstructured, once they had a strong riff, Chester would just roar with it and from there they rolled. Everything was in a lab atmosphere with trial and error and when something came out that everyone loved it became a song.
The third single or rather, the third hit that came out of the album was "Numb", it slashed the charts and not only reached number one but spent 12 consecutive weeks at the top of the table and became a regular music video in MTV playlist. For Chester, the song is very personal and we are sure you all remember now his picture from the clip standing in front of the mirror and singing.
The next single "From the Inside" barely made it onto the album, because during the vocal recordings at the end of the work on the album, Chester was ill and had only two weeks left until the album was released. After he recovered he recorded the song right at the last minute. By the way, in the breaking part of the song Chester screams for a full 10 seconds !!
The fifth and final single from the album is "Breaking the Habit", one of the most powerful songs on the album. Mike said he thought about this song for 5 years and he wrote it about a friend who went through a number of difficult events with his family and it was very important to him to get it out, he did not think the song was suitable for radio at all.
The name of the album "Meteora" which means "mid-sky" in Greek, is taken from the "Thessaly" district in central Greece and contains a collection of Orthodox monasteries. There are spectacular and rare natural phenomena and unique cultures. There are about sixty steep rock pillars, on the back of which were built during the Middle Ages isolated monasteries that seem to hang in the middle of the sky. Mike said the power and uniqueness of the place influenced him so much that he was sure it was the name the album should have.
Regarding the album cover, if you asked yourself who is the figure on the cover?
The figure on the cover is not any of the band members but the graffiti artist Boris Tellegen known as "Delta".
Boris was invited by the band to help design the album cover, the goal was to create a huge wall painting that would be used as the album cover, but this was finally replaced by a picture of Boris painting the painting. Mike said they chose the image because it radiated a quiet power so distinctly that it grabbed them immediately.
Celebrating the 20th anniversary of the album's release, the band will release during April a “super deluxe” box set which will include rear and unseen materials, CD, Vinyl, and also some new songs which were recorded during the album's sessions but never released.
As part of the celebration the band released two new music videos to two of the songs from the box set, "Lost" and "Fighting Myself".
With a lot of hard work and quite a few challenges, this talented group of boys has released a masterpiece album, an album that puts Linkin as a legitimate, talented, and leading rock and roll band. An album that has sold more than 27 million copies to date and most of it was a regular and large part of the band's set in performances !!
Listen to the album on: Spotify, Apple Music