Linkin Park
Linkin Park - Living Things Review
Linkin Park - Living Things
Californian mash-masters return with a suitably state-of-the-art album.
Linkin Park - Papercut
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BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE
Since their inception in 2003, the Welsh quartet Bullet for My Valentine have been taking cues from '80s metal bands and the punk-infused metal of the new millennium to make melodic, metallic, dark rock songs. Originating from Bridgend, South Wales -- a breeding ground for likeminded groups like Funeral for a Friend and Lost Prophets -- the group consists of childhood friends Matthew Tuck (vocals/guitar), Michael Padget (guitar/vocals), Jason James (bass/vocals), and Michael Thomas (drums). Everyone in the group, with the sole exception of James, previously performed together for a few years in Jeff Killed John. One day before entering the recording studio, though, Jeff Killed John's original bassist abruptly walked out, effectively breaking up the band with his exit.
Regrouping under the new name Bullet for My Valentine (with James on board), the guys reworked their sound and were signed at their second gig by London's Visible Noise. They released a self-titled EP in the U.K. in November 2004, and their debut album, The Poison, appeared that next fall. One year later, they partnered with an American label, Trustkill, to begin releasing their material in the U.S. As a result, Hand of Blood -- essentially a deluxe version of the band's first EP -- was issued to American audiences in August. That same year, Bullet for My Valentine won Kerrang!'s Best British Newcomer Award and headlined the magazine's XXV tour. The U.S. release of The Poison followed in early 2006, as did a nationwide tour in support of Rob Zombie, and the album eventually sold more than 500,000 copies in America alone. Meanwhile, Bullet for My Valentine headed back to the U.K. in June for a third appearance at the annual Download Festival.
Scream Aim Fire appeared in 2008, marking the band's second full-length album and cracking the Top Ten in multiple countries (including the U.K. and U.S., where it peaked at numbers five and four, respectively). After touring, the band headed back into the studio, this time choosing Linkin Park producer Don Gilmore to helm the recording sessions. The result was 2010's Fever, another high-charting album with a slightly more mainstream sound than the band's previous releases.
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Discography:
The Poison (2005)
Scream Aim Fire (2008)
Fever (2010)
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Evanescence
The goth-inspired Arkansas rock band Evanescence, with its Linkin Park-meets-Tori Amos sound backed by chugging guitars, easily made it to the top of the charts in 2003 with its Wind-Up Entertainment debut album, Fallen.
Singer/pianist Amy Lee and guitarist/songwriter Ben Moody formed the band at the end of the '90s after meeting in their early teens during a "youth camp," Moody said in a statement. "I heard Amy playing Meat Loaf's 'I'd Do Anything for Love' at the piano. So I went over to meet her, and she started singing for me. I was pretty much blown away, so I suckered her into joining a band with me."
As a duo, Evanescence didn't perform live, instead opting to release EPs and the full-length Origin. Lee told the BBC that Evanescence was mastering demos in Memphis, TN, when she and the band were discovered by producer Pete Matthews. He shopped the songs to record companies in New York, and Evanescence - rounded out by bassist Will Boyd, guitarist John LeCompt, and drummer Rocky Gray - eventually landed a contract with Wind-Up, the home of Creed.
The soundtrack to the 2003 Ben Affleck action movie Daredevil brought success to Evanescence; the begging "Bring Me to Life," which appeared on the soundtrack along with the ballad "My Immortal," became a hit. (Paul McCoy, of label mates 12 Stones, rapped on "Bring Me to Life," which originated as a piano ballad.) The songs proved to be a head start to Evanescence's future hit album Fallen, produced by Dave Fortman (Boy Sets Fire, Superjoint Ritual) and released in March 2003.
Evanescence ran head first into controversy promoting Fallen. Originally, it was released in the Christian and secular markets; however, the band's use of profanity during an interview with Rolling Stone prompted its label, Wind-Up Records, to recall Fallen from Christian stores. Ironically, 12 Stones are also labelled Christian.
Fallen surpassed double-platinum status, reaching the Top Ten in the United States, including the Top Contemporary Christian Albums chart, the Top Five in Canada, and number one in the United Kingdom. It spent more than 100 weeks on Billboard's Top 200; Evanescence also managed to pick up two Grammys (Best New Artist and Best Hard Rock Performance) for the 2003 awards.
During a European tour late that same year, however, Moody abruptly left the group over apparent creative differences. Ex-Cold guitarist Terry Balsamo soon replaced him in the band; he clicked with Lee and the two became cohesive songwriting partners who worked to further define Evanescence's classically influenced hard rock identity. The band continued to tour nonstop for the next year, and they issued the live album Anywhere But Home (recorded at a show in Paris) in November 2004 to hold over fans hungry for their follow-up. It also went platinum.
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More internal band drama ensued - including Balsamo recovering from a stroke suffered in fall 2005 and Boyd's departure the following summer - before that album, The Open Door, finally appeared in early October 2006. Tim McCord (ex-the Revolution Smile) joined up in Boyd's place that August, switching from his usual guitar to bass. Spearheaded by the single "Call Me When You're Sober," the album displayed a broader emotional range amid the band's evolving sound. Evanescence played several intimate theatre dates immediately following the record's release before moving on to larger arena shows. ~ Christina Fuoco, All Music Guide
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Linkin Park
Although rooted in alternative metal, Linkin Park became one of the most successful acts of the early 2000s by welcoming elements of hip-hop, modern rock, and atmospheric electronica into their music. The band's rise was indebted to the aggressive rap-rock movement made popular by the likes of Korn and Limp Bizkit, a movement that paired grunge's alienation with a bold, buzzing soundtrack. Linkin Park added a unique spin to that formula, however, focusing as much on the vocal interplay between singer Chester Bennington and rapper Mike Shinoda as the band's muscled instrumentation, which layered DJ effects atop heavy, processed guitars. While the group's sales never eclipsed those of its tremendously successful debut, Hybrid Theory, few alt-metal bands rivaled Linkin Park during the band's heyday.
Drummer Rob Bourdon, guitarist Brad Delson, and MC/vocalist Mike Shinoda attended high school in Southern California, where they formed the rap-rock band Xero in 1996. Bassist Dave "Phoenix" Farrell, singer Mark Wakefield, and DJ/art student Joseph Hahn joined soon after, and the band courted various labels while playing hometown shows in Los Angeles. Few companies expressed interest in Xero's self-titled demo tape, however, prompting Wakefield to leave the lineup (he would later resurface as the manager for Taproot). Hybrid Theory became the band's temporary moniker in 1998 as replacement singer Chester Bennington climbed aboard, and the revised band soon settled on a final name: Linkin Park, a misspelled reference to Lincoln Park in Santa Monica. With Bennington and Shinoda sharing vocal duties, the musicians now wielded enough power to distinguish themselves from the wave of nu-metal outfits that had appeared during the decade's latter half. Warner Bros. vice president Jeff Blue took note and signed Linkin Park in 1999, sending the band into the studio with Don Gilmore shortly thereafter.
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Linkin Park titled their debut album Hybrid Theory, a tribute to the band's past, and released the record during the fall of 2000. "Crawling" and "In the End" were massive radio hits; the latter song even topped the U.S. Modern Rock chart while peaking at number two on the Billboard Hot 100, an example of the band's crossover appeal. Linkin Park joined the Family Values Tour and also played shows with Cypress Hill, leading the group to log over 320 shows in 2001 alone. Come January 2002, Hybrid Theory had received three Grammy nominations and sold over seven million copies. (Sales later topped ten million, earning the album "diamond status" and making Hybrid Theory one of the most successful debuts ever.) Despite their meteoric rise, however, Linkin Park spent the remainder of the year holed up in the recording studio, again working with producer Don Gilmore on a follow-up album. Meanwhile, the timely summer release of Reanimation helped appease the band's eager audience, offering remixed versions of Hybrid Theory's tracks.
A proper sophomore effort, Meteora, arrived in March 2003, featuring a heavier sound and stronger elements of rap-rock. Although the record spawned several modern rock hits, songs such as "Numb," "Somewhere I Belong," and "Breaking the Habit" furthered the band's crossover appeal by simultaneously charting on the Hot 100. Linkin Park once again supported the album with ample touring, including performances with the second annual Projekt Revolution Tour (the band's own traveling festival, which originally launched in 2002) and additional shows with the likes of Metallica and Limp Bizkit. Live in Texas was released to document the band's strength as a touring act, and the bandmates tackled various personal projects before beginning work on a second remix project.
Released in 2004, Collision Course found the band collaborating with king-of-the-mountain rapper Jay-Z, resulting in a number of mashups that sampled from both artists' catalogs. Collision Course topped the charts upon its release, the first EP to do so since Alice in Chains' Jar of Flies, and Jay-Z furthered his association with the band by asking co-founder Mike Shinoda to explore the possibility of a solo hip-hop project. He did, dubbing the project Fort Minor and releasing The Rising Tied in 2005 with Jay-Z as executive producer. Linkin Park then reconvened in 2006 to begin work on a third studio album, which saw Shinoda sharing production credits with Rick Rubin. The resulting Minutes to Midnight arrived in 2007, debuting at number one in several countries and spawning the Top Ten single "What I've Done." The single became the title song for the hit movie Transformers.
Linkin Park collaborated with Busta Rhymes in 2008 to create the song 'We Made It'. The following year, the sequel for Transformers included the song 'New Divide'. Chester then formed his own supergroup Dead By Sunrise and created the album Out Of Ashes in 2010.
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