Hybrid Theory Live at Download Festival 2014 out now!

[BlackChester]

Hoping for an iTunes release

 

not gonna happen. would be a dickmove to guys who preordered

 

Wasn't it supposed to be also a video CD/DVD? I was awaiting for a Live album like LIT or RTR

 

nope. maybe a livevideo, but no CD/DVD afaik

[Aiman]

Solid performance by the band. I like the way it was mixed. The guitars and vocals in particular sound great. MIke's vocals at the end of Crawling sound better than any other official recording I know of!

[SergSlim]

Interesting thing about this recording is that FLAC version of it is 24 bit, while THP in FLAC that was also available for download is 16 bit.

 

I ordered from US store to Croatia.

After redeeming the code I got an email (at 7:45 AM local time), but there was no links to download the show, as well as there were no links in My Account, after I registered on that site (though I could see my order). I sent an email to support, and got another email - same as the first one, but this time with the links (at 10:02 PM local time) and then also got a response from support (at 12:50 AM local time).

[andrei homchenko]

It sounds great!

[Astat]

Finally got to listen to this, and I'm amazed that nobody's pointed out the OBNOXIOUS out-of-time clicking noises littered all over this recording. Literally sounds like someone took a metronome ticking sound effect from a DAW and dropped it into the recording at random with no regard for the BPM of the songs. Breakdown of Papercut, beginning/scratch solo/outro of With You...they're so bad they practically ruin the entire experience of this otherwise beautifully-mixed recording. Ugh.

*Edit* HUGE mid-word skip during Mike's speech after Points of Authority too. Holy fuck is this amateur. It took them 2 months to give us this shit?

*Edit 2* Not one, not two, not three, but FOUR audible Auto Tune glitches on Chester's voice during Crawling. I'm hearing all this stuff on my first listen without rewinding anything, people.

Edited August 14, 2014 by Astat

[Geki]

I honestly loved the way that Chester sang Crawling. It's one of my favorite LP songs of all time and I think he did a great job, especially seeing as how it's such a incredibly difficult song to sing.

[Southpaw262]

Where's the synth in the Runaway breakdown?

 

By myself is pretty good, besides Mike messing up the first verse.

 

 

I like Live in Texas better instrumentally. Only two HT songs weren't played, not counting P5hng.

[JZLP-Benningstrong]

Who the fuck mixed this?

this is fucking amazing, best audio release since... Berlin 12

 

btw thx Geki for being a coward, hope you enjoyed the shit i sent you.

[Sukotto]

Despite the little mixing and lyrical niggles I enjoyed it, great to have this show. I wish I'd have got myself tickets now!

 

As it was a bonus for pre-ordering - and I like CDs so wanted it burned - I've put together a CD wallet case. Attached are the result and a PDF for anyone to use if you want this too!

 

 

LP_LiveAtDownload_Disc.pdf

[Stranger]

Despite the little mixing and lyrical niggles I enjoyed it, great to have this show. I wish I'd have got myself tickets now!

 

As it was a bonus for pre-ordering - and I like CDs so wanted it burned - I've put together a CD wallet case. Attached are the result and a PDF for anyone to use if you want this too!

 

LPLADCD.jpg

 

LP_LiveAtDownload_Disc.pdf

 

Thanks a lot for this! Already planned to create one.

[LPKode2]

Well I never got a email with a code to get it, even though I pre-ordered it. This sucks

[Astat]

Who the fuck mixed this?

this is fucking amazing, best audio release since... Berlin 12

 

btw thx Geki for being a coward, hope you enjoyed the shit i sent you.

Pretty sure Ethan Mates did this one.

[hahninator]

Downloading this now - sucks I missed the original release since I was gone. Hope it jams!

[hahninator]

After listening to this release in both the car (plugged the iPhone in) and with Beats headphones, I will have to say that I unfortunately am not very impressed with this release. Ethan did indeed mix this and I think that might have something to do with why I dislike it. I think Ethan does a good job mixing Linkin Park generally but there is a large discrepancy between his mixing and Pooch's mixing. Whereas Pooch sees Linkin Park night after night and deals with their live setting tenfolds more than Ethan, I think Ethan just being handed this to mix was a mistake by the band.

 

Starting out, I will say that the day Garo released his audio recording of the show, I put it on my iPhone and have been listening to it pretty much nonstop. The show as a whole I did not think came off very well.... there are many reasons for that, a lot of it dealing with a very quiet/silent crowd outside of the front section. Listen to Garo's recording between songs...I haven't heard an audience recording with that kind of quiet crowd in many many years (since Summer Sanitarium 2003, when Linkin Park was third on the bill). And Garo was in a good spot too. Chester coming out afterward and saying he hates festivals in the daytime, etc really confirms all I need to know about the show - the band would have much rather have played the album start-to-finish on a club tour in the United States in 2015 than have performed it at Download. They seemed unenthusiastic for a lot of the set and seemed like they wanted to get it over with. Sure, Hybrid Theory in full is epic, but the daytime setting for it with a lackluster crowd (no offense to anyone that was there, but you surely understand what I mean when I say that besides the front of the crowd, the place was dead), and no proper show intro, etc made it almost an awkward event to see/listen to. I'm pretty sure the Bristow crowd on Carnivores (20,000 people versus the people that Download claims attended the Linkin Park set - 50,000?) was way louder and crazier than Download just based on listening to videos and recordings. Even if you disagree with me, it is a fact that Linkin Park feeds on the crowd's ENERGY and rowdiness during concerts and they bring it extra hard/perform better when crowds are going off. Bristow had the full Faint ending scream (something I haven't seen Chester do in years at any show), even. Download you can tell doesn't impress the band.

So already, I think they have something going against them. Rehearsing for the new tour with new setlists, all new gear, etc definitely played a factor in this and the band seemed to legit be rushed and not prepared for the tour. I found it surprising they didn't use the other shows to road test/warm up Forgotten, By Myself, Pushing Me Away, or Cure For The Itch. Instead, they stuck with Points Of Authority, One Step Closer, part of Papercut, etc....songs that they have been playing almost constantly nonstop for many years. We could have easily guessed that they would mess up most of these one-off songs, and we guessed correctly. I was hoping they'd stick around for Carnivores since that was supposed to be a "heavy", "visceral" tour, but instead we are dealing with Burn It Down opening the encore, an extended club/dance set mid-show, and a lack of a lengthy heavy part in the setlist. But that's straying from my point about this release.

Like Astat said, this release has some major flaws, at least to me. I guess Ethan is to blame for this unfortunately. Upon my first listen, I notice a few glaring things like the crowd randomly cutting from being loud to being silent before With You (after One Step Closer). Next, those clicking noises all throughout the show are really obvious.... Uhhh...what's going on with those?

 

Ethan notoriously mixes the guitars a lot louder than Pooch. This is just a personal preference for me but I think I would rather have had a Pooch mix for this show. Yes it has a lot of punch but the overall sound seems really different than the experience you'd have at the live show (the kick drum isn't that loud, for example). The worst song of the show I will have to say is Crawling. The song sounds completely different than the last time they were playing it (2012 in Europe, right?). "Crawling in my skaaaan", the weird intro, and the autotune glitches make it a painful listen.

 

Papercut, One Step Closer, With You, and Points Of Authority all sound pretty standard. No huge problems, nothing epic. Crawling is a mess in my opinion. I thought this performance of Runaway was excellent and I love the bridge breakdown, even if it was a mistake to just let the sample roll with no one playing over it, ha. The song sounds really good right now...sucks they aren't playing it live in full.

 

Then the set goes right into By Myself. This arguably might be the best song of the show, which brings up the question of - why don't they want to play it on Carnivores Tour? Everything except Mike's slight vocal messup in verse two sounds really good in this performance of the song. Chester is on point for this one and they nail it. Sadly, In The End starts right afterward and they seem to just be rolling straight through the show without wanting to stop to chat or interact with the crowd about how this is such a special night. Mike even has to reiterate a few times after Points Of Authority that he wants the band to hold off on starting Crawling so that he can give a short speech.

A Place For My Head's intro sounds unlike any intro I have ever heard before (the guitar) and that's fine...no big deal there. Astat any idea here? It sounds really...raw like it's from 2001. I guess that was deliberate? Sounds way different than 2012-2013 APFMH. Anyway, this song kicks ass start to finish (even with Chester getting out of time on the bridge) and I REALLY WISH THEY WERE PERFORMING THIS ONE RIGHT NOW. But fuck it, on we go.

 

APFMH is such an epic song it doesn't surprise me that Chester forgot to do the intro of Forgotten, ha. This song came off alright...I can see why they don't want to play it anymore, though. Cure For the Itch is ok with the "new" (maybe super oldschool) Mike samples...nothing amazing there but it sounds fine. I prefer the MTM Tour Version aka remix of the track, though. Something I really thought they'd fix on the release was the intro of Pushing Me Away. Brad came in too early at the show and instead of looping the intro sample again before the guitar comes in, Ethan does the OPPOSITE and CUTS the intro and Brad's guitar starts ASAP. Blah, that's annoying as it gets. The band didn't seem super enthused about performing Pushing Me Away in 2008 when I saw them (Chester on the micstand the entire time and the band standing still) so I wasn't expecting much from this performance. However, they do sound really good on this one at Download and I am also surprised that they didn't want to keep this around even in one setlist.

 

Combining all of the factors such as Ethan mixing the show (super loud guitars and kick drum), the blatant editing errors, the band not seeming super enthused about the show, and the show seeming "rushed" (the best song of Download was Wastelands, in my opinion, and that comes as a surprise even to myself) makes the whole thing pretty mediocre to me. Nothing incredible here, nothing that's totally garbage but I doubt I'll listen to this release a lot. The biggest crime here is that Linkin Park didn't/doesn't want to keep any of these rarer songs around and instead go with what is comfortable (With You, Points Of Authority) in the setlists. I would have loved to have seen By Myself and Runaway.... maybe another time. At this point I really wish they'd do a Hybrid Theory club tour in the USA, but I guess that's out of the question. I'll end it here, but I am not impressed with the release.

[ChuckCheese]

I couldn't have said it any better myself.

[Astat]

Yeah, the APFMH intro guitar sounded weird on this one. It's normally drenched in delay, but it's really dry on this recording. I noticed it sounding odd on the audience recording too though, maybe Ben just didn't get the settings on the Axe-FX totally right for that part.

[Kruspe]

After listening to this release in both the car (plugged the iPhone in) and with Beats headphones, I will have to say that I unfortunately am not very impressed with this release. Ethan did indeed mix this and I think that might have something to do with why I dislike it. I think Ethan does a good job mixing Linkin Park generally but there is a large discrepancy between his mixing and Pooch's mixing. Whereas Pooch sees Linkin Park night after night and deals with their live setting tenfolds more than Ethan, I think Ethan just being handed this to mix was a mistake by the band.

 

 

I guess you're right about the fact that it's not that fun to play a festival like Download in daylight, but personally I completely disagree with bashing this mix. I like this way more than what we've heared over the last years. Ever since the release of the DSP's the complete Linkin Park live experience was gone for me. All the mixes were so awful that the only LP-performances I wanted to hear were the ones who weren't mixed by Pooch (if it was him who mixed the DSP's). Probably he is a nice guy, and I don't mean to offend anyone, but I just don't like the flat mixing: the guitar has been tuned down and isn't there anymore, Chester sounded like shit and the rest wasn't that great too.

 

Really happy with this mixing and sound. Finally some energy like in the old days.

[LESTAT]

I agree. I realize all of the flaws of this mix, but I'd prefer all of the Linkin Park mixes to be like this, than listening to any Pooch stuff anymore. He is a nice guy and professional, but has a REALLY bad taste.

[Geki]

This release kind of sucks, they shouldn't have released it.

Edited December 15, 2014 by Geki

[JZLP-Benningstrong]

I also prefer Ethan's mixing, taking the guitars to the front is a no brainer, in the things that Pooch have mixed they always sounded cheap.

 

It has some mistakes here and there, the autotune during their talking was a dumb mistake and i'm sure that if they corrected the Chester's flaws during Crawling everyone would be bitching ''hey they corrected Chester's vocals, another copy paste bla bla bla''

 

I also don't undertand why Hahninator said that 'he understand why they dont play Forgotten anymore' with a little bit of rehearsing they can nail the intro, the rest of it was played withouth mistakes and it has a lot of energy.

[Mau]

n00b comment - why can't I delete a post? :l

Edited May 11, 2015 by mauriciokkp

[Mau]

Even if you disagree with me, it is a fact that Linkin Park feeds on the crowd's ENERGY and rowdiness during concerts and they bring it extra hard/perform better when crowds are going off. Bristow had the full Faint ending scream (something I haven't seen Chester do in years at any show), even. Download you can tell doesn't impress the band.

Is there a video of that faint with the full scream? I can't find it

[hahninator]

http://www.nme.com/news/linkin-park/78422

This is right after Download, he says it with a bit of an attitude haha. Clearly not impressed by the Download set in the daytime.

 

Is there a video of that faint with the full scream? I can't find it

 

 

He's been doing it a lot more since 2014. He skipped doing that ending scream on Faint for practically years (except I guess in rare cases). I think it was at both the Orlando and Nashville shows this year.

[Mau]

http://www.nme.com/news/linkin-park/78422

This is right after Download, he says it with a bit of an attitude haha. Clearly not impressed by the Download set in the daytime.

 

 

 

He's been doing it a lot more since 2014. He skipped doing that ending scream on Faint for practically years (except I guess in rare cases). I think it was at both the Orlando and Nashville shows this year.

Oh, I was thinking in the full bridge scream , I think the last time I saw him doing the full bridge scream was back in 2010

[hahninator]

Oh, I was thinking in the full bridge scream , I think the last time I saw him doing the full bridge scream was back in 2010

 

Hmm that would be interesting to find the latest show he did that at! Let's start looking

 

IMO we will never find a Faint outro as good as Rock am Ring 2007. I believe LP knew how special Rock am Ring 2004 was (they definitely saw shit online saying RaR04 was better than the Live In Texas release) and they came into RaR07 with a "let's kick some fuckin' ass" mentality. OSC, the place went OFF. LP comes out looking like some badasses. And wow the end of Faint was incredible. Anyway all of that + the fact that was the only show Chester ever sang PMA piano off of the micstand and walking around....that tells me LP really knew it was a truly epic, almost once in a lifetime event.