Three years after their lead singer Chester Bennington died, the time has come to celebrate. This anniversary box set contains the original album as well as Reanimation (the remixed version released two years later by the band’s guitarist and rapper Mike Shinoda) and the Hybrid Theory EP, the group’s very first album released in 1999. Following these albums we are treated to a B-sides and Rarities, making the box set a particularly interesting release.
Mike Shinoda Unboxing - Hybrid Theory 20th Anniversary Edition Super Deluxe Box Set
Linkin ParkThe album also showcases the band’s love for England (where their music was lapped up) with live BBC broadcasts of tracks like In the End and Papercut on which Bennington holds back on his usually-hoarse voice for a softer take. The same can’t be said for the live performances at London’s Docklands Arena where the tracks A Place In My Head and Points of Authority end up sounding like a gigantic wall of sound.
One Step Closer - Behind The Scenes - Linkin Park
Linkin ParkThen there are the LPU Rarities, the fifth part of the box set. Composed of studio scraps and demos, it shows how Linkin Park evolved and includes Mike Shinoda’s work on drum machines and synthesizers. The group’s electronic side is emphasised here, forecasting the band’s sonic evolution and their leader’s solo career. Finally, to bring things to a close, the Forgotten Demos bring twelve unreleased tracks together from a time when Linkin Park were still called Xero. They were operating anonymously and did not yet have Chester Bennington in their ranks but rather singer Mike Wakefield. The sound was much more raw and simplistic. It's in this final part that we find the origin of one of the most important groups of the last twenty years.
