Linkin Park Release Single 'Burn It Down'; Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda Talk New Album

Linkin Park Release Single ‘Burn It Down’; Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda Talk New Album

2012-04-16

Story by Anne Erickson

Hear Linkin Park’s new single, ‘Burn It Down’

Today is a big one for Linkin Park fans. The California rap-rockers have finally released “Burn It Down,” the highly anticipated first single from their upcoming, yet-untitled fifth studio album. In a chat with SPIN, singer Chester Bennington explained that the single, as well as the rest of the album, revolves around one similar motif.

“A lot of the songs revolve around people — a drifter, or a soldier returning home, or a child finding his or her place in the family,” Bennington said. “Once we start hitting lyrical themes that can whack you from all these different perspectives, we know we’re onto something special. We got a little more poetic, a little more colorful this time.”

Bennington also said to expect an album that truly sounds like a Linkin Park album. “On the last two albums, if someone brought in a song that felt very ‘Linkin Park,’ we were like, ‘Mm, let’s move on,’” he said. “We now know we have the skills and the tools to take those ideas and make them into what we’re actually looking for, as opposed to getting into it and discovering that it just sounds really nü-metal. That’s always going to be gross to us, but we can take elements of that and reinvent the vibe, make it now and fresh.”

Multi-instrumentalist and rapper Mike Shinoda went on to state that the new album will be a conglomeration of the group’s wide array of musical influences. “Some of these songs started off really mellow,” Shinoda said. “Some sounded very electro, and a few were folk, essentially. Our tastes have gotten even broader since we started, if you can imagine that. It’s like wrangling kittens.”

Linkin Park’s new album is set to hit stores and online outlets sometime in June. Read the rest of the talk via SPIN.

Listen to Linkin Park’s New Single, ‘Burn It Down’:

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Anne Erickson

Meet the expert - Author, writer and editor Anne Erickson is a Detroit-based reporter and radio host. She has written for the USA Today Network, Consequence.net, Blabbermouth.net, and many more. Anne holds a master's degree from Michigan State University. Contact Anne at anne@audioinkradio.com.

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