Altwire Exclusive: Meteora|20 Review

[LPLStaff]

Altwire is back at it again, this time with the exclusive first look at Meteora|20 with the first public review of the release!

There is a full run down of all of the "Lost" demos as well as a lot of feedback on the release in general:

"But I know you’re here for more than a recap of what you’ve heard, so don’t worry – I have what you’re looking for.
 

“Massive” begins with a glitchy, fast-paced breakbeat reminiscent of “Session” and some of the band’s late 90s demos. Soon, the track transitions to an alternative metal sound that would fit well among the hard rock sound of the early 2000s. In the verses, Mike Shinoda sings solo, delivering poignant lyrics such as “I guess it’s true, you can’t really change the person you’ll be. The least I can do is set myself free.” The song then progresses into an anthemic sung chorus in the style of TRUSTcompany. Shinoda sings, “I heard the screaming in my dreaming every night. I awake, and I’m still mistaking you for right.”"

Check it out in full here.

[abbaslp]

So "Resolution" is confirmed the Wizard Song but without lyrics/vocals...... Damn, should i be happy or sad???? 

[xeroboi]

2 minutes ago, abbaslp said:

So "Resolution" is confirmed the Wizard Song but without lyrics/vocals...... Damn, should i be happy or sad???? 

It got an rap from mike

[LPLStaff]

Wizard Song is truly shocking. Fully expecting it to sound wildly different due to the mention of Shifter being so different from the final FTI at NRG. So if Resolution made it to NRG the instrumental likely evolved heavily. It might be GREAT. Let's see!

[abbaslp]

Ok but........ I would miss those funny/cringy joke vocals by Chester..... It now confirms that they never recorded those vocals above this demo.... 

[letdownagain]

I find it encouraging that it’s a real song, because there’s a chance those Wizard Song vocals could be in the session files somewhere. Chester’s vocals are very obviously double tracked, so they did at *some point* commit vocals to hard drive, despite what Mike has said. I mean, they couldn’t remember “Lost” or the “Fighting Myself” chorus.

 

Team “QR code is the Wizard Song” over here.

Edited April 2, 2023 by letdownagain

[GC377]

31 minutes ago, letdownagain said:

I find it encouraging that it’s a real song, because there’s a chance those Wizard Song vocals could be in the session files somewhere. Chester’s vocals are very obviously double tracked, so they did at *some point* commit vocals to hard drive, despite what Mike has said. I mean, they couldn’t remember “Lost” or the “Fighting Myself” chorus.

 

Team “QR code is the Wizard Song” over here.

Maybe, and they absolutely did record something on the Wizard Song considering there's harmonies on the "Send me your power" section, but it was probably never bounced down from Pro Tools. 

[Andros]

Well..I have some mixed feelings 

[letdownagain]

1 hour ago, HFL377 said:

Maybe, and they absolutely did record something on the Wizard Song considering there's harmonies on the "Send me your power" section, but it was probably never bounced down from Pro Tools. 

Yeah, that’s what I mean by the double tracking; Chester’s clearly singing over himself, so *something* got put down. More fuel to fire though, possibly: Chester at the mic for a song we now know he doesn’t feature on. Did they try alternate vocals or did they just do “The Wizard Song” while working on other things? Clearly seems like early stages/demos recording in a makeshift situation and the tracking of “thoughts that take away my pride” at NRG shows that they were reworking stuff well into the official tracking stages. But I’m digressing.
 

Not sure what you mean by bounced down in this instance; like bouncing out a version of “The Wizard Song?” I’m sure they didn’t but I wonder if there’s just like muted vocal tracks in the session if they didn’t delete stuff. Even if they scrapped them from the session proper, if they weren’t deleted from disk, they could still be in the audio files folder. Depends how deep anyone would dig. I don’t think the playlist function was introduced until ‘08. All speculation/wishful thinking though.
 

My thought is do you want to include a song that has the same instrumental and invite that line of questioning again about “The Wizard Song” after being asked for 20 years if you’re not gonna deliver on it? Honestly, I’m probably overthinking it.

Edited April 2, 2023 by letdownagain

[Xandersilk]

3 hours ago, abbaslp said:

Ok but........ I would miss those funny/cringy joke vocals by Chester..... It now confirms that they never recorded those vocals above this demo.... 

it was confirmed when chester said it didn't exist lol
god if they actually tracked something that wack you'd think CB would know if anyone

[gorast]

All the cool shit in this review and we're here talking about The Wizard Song AGAIN, lmao.

 

This makes me very excited to hear the whole demos disc. Very surprising to hear that only Wesside is fully instrumental, of the demos of non-album tracks. I'm a little surprised that we're getting some vocal-less demos of Meteora songs, but it sounds like the balance is way in favor of vocal tracks, so that's great overall. And the notes about A6 - really feels like there's a ton of versions of that song in the vault, for some reason. They must have tried pretty hard to make it work.

[YRQRM0]

It sounds like Massive is a "full" song then? That's awesome. I thought we'd only get the 3, it's crazy to me that there's more. 

 

Seems ambiguous as to whether Resolution is also a full song, but if it was one of the 15 that made it to NRG, I guess so? 6 new full songs is awesome if so 

 

Also, I can't believe how much this fandom likes the wizard song lmao. It would be cool to listen to like once, but I'm much happier to hear that it has actual serious lyrics and that's what we're getting

 

[NJPLP]

I wonder if “Resolution” will have the exact same instrumental as “The Wizard Song” (or a similar one to “The Wizard Song”). 🤔

 

 

Edited April 2, 2023 by NJPLP

[RayGun4200]

9 hours ago, LPLStaff said:

Mike Shinoda sings solo, delivering poignant lyrics such as “I guess it’s true, you can’t really change the person you’ll be. The least I can do is set myself free.” 

Wow that just hits for some reason I can't wait to actually hear Massive and everything else tbh and what a turn Resolution is actually The Wizard Song instrumental we were off by miles lol. 

[Hybrider]

I am so satisfied with this release. This is the best gift from the band they ever released. 3 holy grails and unreleased demos. And this is still a peak. There is still a lot of unreleased Meteora material. I am so excited and happy. Thanks for this. We love the whole band.

[Hybrider]

1 hour ago, RayGun4200 said:

what a turn Resolution is actually The Wizard Song instrumental we were off by miles lol. 

We weren't. Wizard Song sounds similar to Lost. Some of the fans thought that from Wizard Song became Lost or it is the same song.

[Soeffingnaive92]

A little bit let down because we already heard all the Chester demos, but can’t wait for Resolution and other rap by Mike, always wanted A.06 with rap 

[xeroboi]

6 minutes ago, STRANGELOVE92 said:

A little bit let down because we already heard all the Chester demos, but can’t wait for Resolution and other rap by Mike, always wanted A.06 with rap 

We ain't heard them all 

[Soeffingnaive92]

20 minutes ago, xeroboi said:

We ain't heard them all 

All the demos with Chester on vocals ? MTV, Lost, FM and Healing Foot, am I missing something? 😃

[xeroboi]

35 minutes ago, STRANGELOVE92 said:

All the demos with Chester on vocals ? MTV, Lost, FM and Healing Foot, am I missing something? 😃

Massive think it got Chester 

[Soeffingnaive92]

1 minute ago, xeroboi said:

Massive think it got Chester 

Really ? ☺️ hope so. Nothing against Mike obviously, can’t wait the rap on A06 and Figure 09, but I wouldn’t mind another Chester vocal take we never heard 

[LPAAltwireDerek]

12 hours ago, abbaslp said:

So "Resolution" is confirmed the Wizard Song but without lyrics/vocals...... Damn, should i be happy or sad???? 

It does have lyrics and vocals, it's just replaced with a 'serious' rap from Mike instead of the Wizard Song lyrics. No Chester however.

8 hours ago, gorast said:

All the cool shit in this review and we're here talking about The Wizard Song AGAIN, lmao.

Because The Wizard Song is the shit. Don't hate on The Wizard Song bro.

8 hours ago, YRQRM0 said:

It sounds like Massive is a "full" song then? That's awesome. I thought we'd only get the 3, it's crazy to me that there's more. 

 

Seems ambiguous as to whether Resolution is also a full song, but if it was one of the 15 that made it to NRG, I guess so? 6 new full songs is awesome if so 

 

Also, I can't believe how much this fandom likes the wizard song lmao. It would be cool to listen to like once, but I'm much happier to hear that it has actual serious lyrics and that's what we're getting

 

Resolution isn't a full song in the sense of it being "finished". It has two verses by Mike, but no bridge or chorus vocals.

8 hours ago, NJPLP said:

I wonder if “Resolution” will have the exact same instrumental as “The Wizard Song” (or a similar one to “The Wizard Song”). 🤔

 

 

There are some parts of the instrumental that we didn't hear in the original Wizard Song clip, but the entirety of the instrumental that we DID hear is indeed in Resolution. This is legitimately the same beat.

1 hour ago, xeroboi said:

We ain't heard them all 

Jury is out on that one. When I first listened to Massive I thought it was both Chester and Mike singing. I'm now almost convinced it's entirely Mike. 

[xeroboi]

9 minutes ago, LPAAltwireDerek said:

It does have lyrics and vocals, it's just replaced with a 'serious' rap from Mike instead of the Wizard Song lyrics. No Chester however.

Because The Wizard Song is the shit. Don't hate on The Wizard Song bro.

Resolution isn't a full song in the sense of it being "finished". It has two verses by Mike, but no bridge or chorus vocals.

There are some parts of the instrumental that we didn't hear in the original Wizard Song clip, but the entirety of the instrumental that we DID hear is indeed in Resolution. This is legitimately the same beat.

Jury is out on that one. When I first listened to Massive I thought it was both Chester and Mike singing. I'm now almost convinced it's entirely Mike. 

Is plaster 2 the same one on the making of dvd 

Edited April 2, 2023 by xeroboi
Spelled something wrong

[LPAAltwireDerek]

1 minute ago, xeroboi said:

Is plaster 2 the same one on the making of dvd 

 

 

Nope! Completely different. Sadly, the "I can't stand to fake this" demo is still out there. I was hoping this would be it. I've been waiting for that demo for over 20 years, haha. This, the "just drag it out" version of A6, and the "thoughts that take away my pride" version of Lost are still hiding. 

[Soeffingnaive92]

1 minute ago, LPAAltwireDerek said:

 

 

Nope! Completely different. Sadly, the "I can't stand to fake this" demo is still out there. I was hoping this would be it. I've been waiting for that demo for over 20 years, haha. This, the "just drag it out" version of A6, and the "thoughts that take away my pride" version of Lost are still hiding. 

They are saving something for other anniversaries I guess. Like, I think we are getting smaller celebrations but still something. Like, A.06 with Chester vocals and the other Figure 09, I think saving something for like 2033 could be cool.