Almost seven years after disbanding following the sudden death of singer Chester Bennington, Linkin Park has released a new song.
In reality, the unreleased song, Friendly Fire, was written during the sessions for One More Light (2017), which was their seventh and final studio album, but was not released.
It now serves as the lead single from his new greatest hits album, titled Papercuts – Singles Collection 2000-2023, which will be released on April 12.
As part of the promotion, the band also released a music video for Friendly Fire that features never-before-seen studio and live footage.
Lead guitarist Brad Delson revealed that the song “was always one of our favorite songs from the One More Light sessions,” but they couldn’t get it right at the end of recording the album, according to People.
The late singer Chester Bennington appears on lead vocals on the unreleased song Friendly Fire that was released Friday, ahead of Linkin Park’s greatest hits album Papercuts; seen in 2017
“Something wasn’t quite right, so as soon as we got to the finish line, we decided to put it aside for later,” Delson, 46, added.
The guys in the band hadn’t thought about the song for years, but it resurfaced when they started choosing tracks for the greatest hits compilation.
“When we started looking for an unreleased song to include in our greatest hits collection, I was blown away by the power of the song, the power of the storytelling, the power of the voice, the soundscape and I actually thought it was closer than perhaps we had imagined at that time,” explained the guitarist.
Rapper, guitarist and band co-founder Mike Shinoda confessed that the time the boys spent together putting together the Papercuts tracklist was a “joy.”
“Each song on this collection is both a singular moment in our timeline and an evolving story that is both ours and yours,” said the musician and producer, 47.
“From our first release, One Step Closer, to the new Friendly Fire, this tracklist spans all of our chapters so far.”
Formed in 1996, Linkin Park rose to international fame with the huge success of their debut studio album, Hybrid Theory (2000), which sold more than 32 million copies worldwide over the years.
The debut was powered by the four hit singles One Step Closer, In The End, Crawling and Papercut.
Bennington was 41 years old when he committed suicide in July 2017; They saw him two weeks before his death.
The unreleased song Friendly Fire is the lead single from the band’s upcoming greatest hits album, Papercuts – Singles Collection 2000-2023, which will be released on April 12.
With the vocal interplay of Bennington (vocals) and Shinoda (rapper) teaming up on some of the songs, the band also features Brad Delson (guitar), Rob Bourdon (drums), Joe Hahn (DJ and visual artist) and Dave Farrell . (low).
Linkin Park would also find further success with the release of their next album Meteora (2003), which sold over 16 million copies.
They continued to maintain their staying power over the years, despite taking hiatuses to work on side projects, and the remaining five albums were released, including One More Light (2017), which dropped two months before death by suicide. by Bennington on July 20, 2017.
In total, Linkin Park has sold more than 100 million albums worldwide.
Bennington, a native of Phoenix, Arizona, was 41 years old at the time of his death.
He left behind his wife of about 11 years, Talinda Bentley Bennington, and six children.
Linkin Park enjoyed great success with their debut studio album Hybrid Theory (2000)
Part of Linkin Park’s success was due to the vocal interplay between Bennington singing and Shinoda rapping in front of the band; The duo is seen at the O2 Arena on July 3, 2017 in London, England, just 17 days before Bennington was found dead by suicide.
The band has been mostly on hiatus since the Linkin Park and Friends: Celebrate Life in Honor of Chester Bennington tribute concert in October 2017.
The band released another unreleased song, Lost, featuring Bennington, for the 20th anniversary of the Meteora album in February 2023.
Papercuts’ upcoming album features 20 tracks: Crawling, Faint, Numb/Encore, Papercut, Breaking The Habit, In The End, Bleed It Out, Somewhere I Belong, Waiting For The End, Castle Of Glass, One More Light, Burn It Down. , What I’ve Done, QWERTY, One Step Closer, New Split, Leave Out Everything Else, Lost, Numb, and Friendly Fire.
Fans can pre-order or pre-save the album Papercuts – Singles Collection 2000-2023 ahead of its release on April 12.