F
our albums in, the words
‘Hybrid Theory’ still mattered
to Linkin Park. Not because
of the long shadow and high
commercial bar the band’s
debut album continued to
cast, but because of what those words
signified. They certainly played on Chester
Bennington’s mind.
The singer was more settled than he had
been for some time, with he and his wife
Talinda having welcomed twin daughters,
Lila and Lily, in November 2011. But while his
personal life continued to provide him with
new sources of happiness, something was
niggling him on the professional front.
Chester didn’t mind there were as many
people out there who hated Linkin Park as
loved them; he’d had years to come to terms
with that and considered it par for the course
for a famous band. But he did care that creative
decisions he’d been party to had brought
about a split among their followers. And his
initial amusement with the varying reactions
to A Thousand Suns – between incredulous
disappointment and excited surprise – had
turned to hurt.
“The last record was the first time that the
polarising effect happened among our fans,” he
recalled, having struggled to understand why
some hadn’t viewed that last album as indicative
of the band’s ethos – their hybrid theory.
“Those two words are the essence of what
we are,” the singer explained. “We want to
take all these different pieces, splice them
together and create something new. What
better representation of that is there than A
Thousand Suns?”
Chester was also surprised that some went
so far as to suggest Linkin Park’s move into
wilfully experimental, wildly structured and
ambitiously conceptual territory was proof
positive they were no longer Linkin Park.
“I was thinking, ‘What the fuck are you
talking about? We’re not a different band’,”
he complained.These frustrations caused Chester to do a
spot of creative soul-searching, jumping in his
car and travelling from his native Phoenix to
the band’s home of LA, the same epic journey
his career had taken him on. The near-400-mile
drive gave him ample time to do something he
never usually did: listen to his band’s four albums
back-to-back. As the landscape streamed past
outside, what Chester heard as he listened
helped him come to an important realisation.
“There is no fucking question that we have
become a different band.”
With that knowledge, Linkin Park did what
they believed needed to be done: they created
an album that was a hybrid of every stage and
sound of their career to date – or, as Chester
put it, “A bridge between what we do now and
what we’ve done.” That way they could please
as many fans as possible, giving the older ones
a taste of the band they had become, and
newer ones a taste of the band they’d been – all
while bringing about a redefinition that would
satisfy themselves artistically.With a period of soul-searching leading to a key
realistion about themselves, LINKIN PARK set
out to paint a canvas encapsulating everything
they ever were, are, and would be...
LIVING
THINGS
KERRANG! 532012
Photo: PAUL HARRIES