Linkin Park's third album has something symbolic.
It symbolizes the process of puberty of a child who becomes a man.
Let us open with a quote from Chester Bennington:
“We thought,‘ Fine, you’re pissing us off. We’re going to make something so different that you can shove nu-metal up your ass”
After two crazy and highly successful albums "Hybrid Theory" and "Meteora," the band members took a break to concentrate a bit on their personal lives. After the hurricane success in sales, performances, interviews, and a schedule of rock stars. They wanted to be with their families, with friends, and even to go to the grocery store (do you believe it?) To feel a little normal and put all this craziness on Pause.
But of course, over time they could not stop creating, Mike Shinoda set up the hip hop project "Fort Minor" and Chester the rock band "Dead By Sunrise" when before that the collaboration with Jay-Z called "Collision Course" came out.
The work on the album began in 2006 when the members were searching for themselves different and varied ideas and reach a state where they recorded dozens of demos that eventually drain into about 50-60 songs. From that point, they begin to work in-depth and formulate final materials. If in the previous albums, the working time on the album lasted about six months, here the members reached 14 months, a fact which in itself implies the way they work and how many attempts and various dilemmas they went through. For the album, they enlisted the megastar producer Rick Rubin alongside Mike, who is already regularly in charge of the production, a collaboration that has also continued for the next two albums that generally feature long-distance trips to new music spaces.
The band members just could not repeat themselves and maintain the same musical genre, both in terms of creation and in terms of musical relevance. To tell the truth, it would have seemed a bit lame and untalented, especially given the fact that along with their puberty, their fans have also matured. So it was decided to adopt the maturity which is reflected in the fact that...
Many orchestral strings were added with the help of Canadian conductor and composer David Campbell.
Mike's rap segments have dropped significantly (for just two songs) and are a larger volume form in harmony with Chester as background vocals.
Joe Hahn's scratching has dropped significantly compared to previous albums as Han moves to a more electronic position.
However...
The guitars got a different volume and character, with occasional small flickers of solos and mostly strong riffs in the chorus.
Unusual and amazing is the song No More Sorrow. A lot of use of electronic sounds that create a dramatic atmosphere and dynamics is very different from the use made of them in previous albums.
Two more elements have proven to be the puberty of the bunch with the spikes and wide pants.
The first (and do not laugh) is the Parental Advisory warning that, unlike the previous two albums, does not exist on this album, and the second element is the reference to politics and the environment that is clearly reflected in the lyrics of the songs and also in the clip of the first single from "What I Done".
If we're already talking about this song, then it's hard not to refer to the lyrics of the song which is a kind of farewell song of the band to what it was...
"In this farewell / There’s no blood, there’s no alibi / ’Cause I’ve drawn regret / From the truth of a thousand lies / So let mercy come and wash away"
This album is unquestionably a dizzying success for the band. It immediately snatched first place in the Billboard 200 and even more, he won first place in more than 20 countries worldwide!!
Looking back this is undoubtedly the album that was the band's opening shot in long-distance running and different, weird musical spaces, remember the DNA discussions, so this is one of them.
Listen to the album on Spotify, Apple Music