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I'd imagine he's probably using some kind of sawtooth wave shape to get that really distorted tone, he also manipulates some of the filter controls while he's playing to give it that sweeping sound.

Okay...this has the potential to be a more epic broadcast than Rock Am Ring '04. There are a lot of factors that could negate that (audio/video quality of the broadcast, quality of the performance itself, choice of songs, whether or not Warner decides to block the broadcast like they have done so many times in the past), but just based on the size and energy of South American crowds at rock shows (I heard a report that the festival is expecting about 100,000 people a day), this could really end up being something that blows everybody away. I think the biggest letdown of the first Brazil show in 2004 was the lack of any real high quality recordings of it, this should easily make up for it.

Yep. Mike actually uses it on New Divide, you can see him holding one hand up to it at various points in the Myspace video.

Why do people keep commenting on the quality of the "rapping" in a song that has no rapping in it?

I think this will end up being a step in the right direction for WMG as a whole. To put it bluntly, Tom Whalley is a dinosaur of the music business. Yeah, he's only been president of the company for 9 years or so, but he's probably pushing 70 years old at this point, and he's been with the company since the 1970s. If you look at the "big four" labels, WMG has by far had the most issues with licensing their music to third party companies like Youtube, the Rock Band/Guitar Hero games, etc. over the past few years. That's probably because of Tom's outdated business models and the fact that he wouldn't accept that the music business isn't what it was 10 years ago. He knew how to run the company, but his way of going about it was severely outdated. Having a younger guy like Rob Cavallo in charge who is greatly involved with modern acts and understands the way things work these days is probably going to result in a much more up-to-date business model for the company, and hopefully help get a lot of the licensing issues plaguing WMG worked out.

If you listen to the full recording of the Kevin and Bean Breakfast With Linkin Park performance, at one point during the Q&A, Mike starts talking through the microphone with the vocal effects for The Requiem to show how they can make him sound like a little girl. Even though he's just talking, you can tell that it sounds nothing like the studio version, in fact, it sounds pretty terrible. My guess is that they tried doing it live during rehearsals, and they weren't happy with how it sounded so they decided to have him lip-sync, at least until they come up with a better solution. For what it's worth, the "ooh" parts before the robot girl stuff sound different than the studio version though, so it could actually be live for all I know. I don't hear "as" in there like some people are hearing either though, sounds just like the album version to me.

What I've Done is 1,385,748,574 times better of a closer than Breaking the Habit. Hell, the Reanimation version of High Voltage would make a better closer than Breaking the Habit. Breaking the Habit is the second worst choice of a closing song I've ever heard from any band in my life, the first being Green Day's insistence on closing every show with Good Riddance. At least What I've Done has some energy...Breaking the Habit always has and always will be suited for mid-show status. It doesn't have the immediate impact to work at the beginning, and it doesn't have the energy to close. The Japan 2006 setlist was thankfully just a bout of random experimentation, the likes of which we'll hopefully never have to endure again. 9 times out of 10, any song that works as an opener will also work as a closer. One Step Closer works great in both roles. A Place for My Head was a great opener early on in their career and was almost always the second to last song of their sets for several years after that. Faint is a great closer and also worked wonderfully in the 2nd slot from time to time, it'd make a great opener if they chose to use it as one. Bleed it Out would probably make a good opener too if they gave it a bit of an extended intro (2007 VMAs are a good indication of that). Tonight reminds me EXACTLY of how pissed off people were at the concept of Faint closing after the Berlin show in April of 2007. That turned out to be arguably a better closing song than One Step Closer. I'm sure most of you will love it as a closer after a few months go by. Hating everything and then changing your mind and deciding you love it is pretty much a prerequisite to being part of the Linkin Park fanbase, after all. I do agree with this statement though.

Pretty sure it wasn't edited down, they would've had to do that in a hurry and the transitions where they cut parts out sounded like they were rehearsed that way. Plus Mike said ahead of time they'd be playing a shortened version.

Mike sounded "weird" at the beginning because he had a bunch of effects on his vocals, just like he does on the album version. Easy to tell when they switched them off for the "lift me up/let me go" ending. Chester really didn't sound any worse than he has live for the better part of the last 3 and a half years, I can live with that. Hell, he sounded better than he did in the LPTV episode where they were recording vocals for the song in Mike's home studio. I think other than the song being shortened and Mike messing up the lyrics at the end (he sang the "burn inside the fires of a thousand suns" verse instead of the "broken people living under loaded gun" one), that sounded good. The mix could've been better, but a lot of rock bands struggle with that on live televised performances. Also, I think Rob had a microphone too, I saw one behind him in one of the shots but it was after he started drumming, and he had quit using it by then. For someone who does as much music production as you do, I would've thought you'd be able to tell what Auto-Tune sounds like. It seems to me that most people these days think any kind of vocal manipulation effects = Auto-Tune. I've heard a vocoder called Auto-Tune. I've heard a ring modulator called Auto-Tune. I've heard a flanger called Auto-Tune. I've heard a phase shifter called Auto-Tune. I've heard chorus called Auto-Tune. I've heard a harmonizer called Auto-Tune. I've heard just about every kind of general pitch correction and/or modulation effect under the sun called Auto-Tune. It's really starting to piss me off that people think anything that doesn't sound like a totally raw, untouched vocal track has to be using Auto-Tune. It's a horrible disservice to all the other vocal effects out there, the majority of which are far more versatile, particularly for use in live situations. The gang vocals were sung by the whole band. Definitely not a backing track, they were a lot more pitchy than they are on the studio version, which is understandable since the other 4 guys really aren't vocalists by trade.

The only kind of Making Of documentaries that are worth watching to me are ones that go song by song and show how each one was created, perhaps with interspersed bits about the general recording process. This isn't anything like that, therefore I don't like it. How can you make an in-depth documentary about an album that's 17 minutes shorter than the album itself? This was pretty much 30 minutes of "gotta get the record done, gotta get the record done, OH SHIT REALLY GOTTA GET THE RECORD DONE!" ...and then it ends. I'm not any more educated about what went into making the music on this album than I was half an hour ago, all they really showed me with this documentary is a bit of insight into the kind of pressure they're under when making an album (which I already understood in the first place)...with a bunch of digital distortion/blurring effects thrown in to make the video hard to watch and the dialogue hard to understand. The Making Of documentary for the self-titled Avenged Sevenfold album, now THAT's a good documentary. I'm not even a big fan of that band and I love watching it. The title doesn't explicitly state that it's a "making of," but I believe they said that's what it was several times in the press releases and whatnot. In particular, I remember Mike saying something to the effect of "it's the best making of we've ever done."

It'd be sometime between 8:30 AM and 1:00 PM Eastern.

It's being aired on KROQ 106.7 in the Los Angeles area, as clearly mentioned in the first post...KROQ also has a web stream you can listen to (not sure if it's US-only or what). There is no video of the event, it's a radio broadcast. All of this information is coming from one person on LPU, she's the only person who attended the show that's mentioned anything about it online that I've seen. I'd rather not bombard her with 9 million questions, she's already provided plenty of information. Notes about intros and whatnot will be answered when the show airs anyway.

She actually said the new songs sound even better live, which is something I'm inclined to be skeptical about, but it's good to hear positive things. She also said Mike seemed to handle his vocal parts pretty well and that he "seems to have gotten a lot better" at singing. Mike's parts on Iridescent really aren't difficult at all though, he doesn't go anywhere near as high as he does on No Roads Left on that one, unless you count some of the gang vocal parts at the end. But the entire band does those, so I would think if Brad, Phoenix, etc. can hit those notes, they shouldn't be a problem for Mike.

Yep, that's the one. Thanks.

Also, I'm pretty sure this setlist should give people an idea of what to expect at the VMAs performance, since they said they'll be doing more than one song. They'll probably play The Catalyst first, followed by the other 4, and maybe throw in One Step Closer at the end or something to cap it off.

Yeah, I see where you're coming from there. But look at it this way, this isn't airing until the same day as the NYC show, so unless the rip pops up really early before you leave (with the east coast/west coast time difference, I doubt it), you're probably going to hear those songs live before you hear any live recordings of them. I bet they play more than just those 3 at NYC anyway. Mike mentioned playing Wretches and Kings live at one of the recent Q&A sessions, and he also mentioned The Requiem in the LPU chat earlier. I'm sure they'll air all 5, it's on release day so there's no reason to block anything from airing, and they aired the whole thing in '07. They even aired the Q&A session if I recall correctly. I'll try to record it too in case something happens, it's on way earlier than I'm normally up though (5:30-10:00 AM Pacific time, so it'd be 7:30-noon here). A couple other notes from lpemogrl43's posts on LPU: The contest winners didn't actually get to eat breakfast, contrary to the name of the contest, haha. The entire band did gang vocals on Iridescent and The Catalyst, and Brad played both keyboards and drums (?!) at various points, I'm assuming during When They Come For Me as he has guitar parts during most of Iridescent and The Catalyst is a pretty straightforward song for them to pull of live with their usual instrumentation.

Yes, how dare they perform for anyone who can't be in New York City on the 14th.

As previously announced, winners of KROQ 106.7's Breakfast With Linkin Park contest got to see an extremely private performance by the band yesterday (September 7th) and participate in a Q&A session. The setlist was as follows: 01. What I've Done 02. Waiting For the End 03. Numb 04. Iridescent 05. The Catalyst The performance will be broadcast on KROQ's Kevin and Bean show on Tuesday, September 14th. Thanks to lpemogrl43 from the LPU! EDIT: find the show page here EDIT 2: The performance took place at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles.

Mike was in the LPU chat earlier today and confirmed that they'll be playing a shortened version of The Catalyst, as MTV won't let them use the full version due to so-called "time constraints." Told ya so.

METEORA Foreword First known performance: 2/23/2003 Last known performance: 8/24/2008 Don't Stay First known performance: 2/23/2003 Last known performance: 8/24/2008 Somewhere I Belong First known performance: 2/23/2003 Last known performance: 8/22/2009 Lying From You First known performance: 2/23/2003 Last known performance: 8/22/2009 Hit The Floor First known performance: 2/23/2003 Last known performance: 4/26/2003 Easier To Run First known performance: 2/23/2003 Last known performance: 4/26/2003 Faint First known performance: 2/23/2003 Last known performance: 8/22/2009 Figure.09 First known performance: 7/4/2003 Last known performance: 9/11/2004 Breaking The Habit First known performance: 11/15/2003 Last known performance: 8/22/2009 From The Inside First known performance: 2/23/2003 Last known performance: 8/22/2009 Nobody's Listening First known performance: 4/9/2003 Last known performance: 3/15/2004 Session First known performance: 2/23/2003 Last known performance: 8/22/2009 Numb First known performance: 7/4/2003 Last known performance: 8/22/2009

Riders on the Storm just isn't the type of song that's suited for that kind of stuff at all. Had Chester sung Whole Lotta Love, that'd be a whole different story. Speaking of Whole Lotta Love, I was quite disappointed in that one. They played it WAY too fast, and Chris Cornell even got some of the lyrics wrong. That's pretty embarrassing for a song of that caliber.

I don't think the musical style and Chester's voice are directly linked, other than the way Chester goes about singing certain parts. I think the most telling evidence of this is the Dead By Sunrise album - there are a lot of higher-pitched parts on that record that about 6 or 7 years ago, there's no question Chester would've sung with his classic HT/Meteora era raspy tone. He hasn't lost the ability to sing that way, but I think he's a lot more careful about picking and choosing when to do it these days.

Yeah, for sure. But the other songs could always be used for other purposes though...

K, here's my much-requested review. The Requiem: Fading in with some kind of flanger/tremolo effect, is that a really distant guitar? I also hear Chester yelling way in the background. Some eerie piano and scratching...the "ooh ohh" harmonies are really eerie too. They did an awesome job manipulating Mike's voice to make it sound like a woman, the noise that builds up underneath it is awesome too. Rating: 9/10 The Radiance: Honestly I think this should've been on the same track as The Requiem, it doesn't serve much purpose on its own. The speech by Oppenheimer fits nicely, and the beat underneath it really gets me pumped up. Rating: 6/10 (only because it doesn't need to be its own track) Burning in the Skies: The opening piano reminds me a bit of What I've Done, but it doesn't last long, once the beat and the guitar (GASP, guitar!) comes in. Nice use of time signature changes, the verses are in 6/4 and the choruses are in 4/4...the transition from Mike to Chester is seamless, really nice. Nice harmonies in the second verse, I also like how the bass is prominent in this song. The guitar solo is a nice surprise the first time you hear it, it really takes the energy of the song up a lot. The buildup to the last chorus is great, and the guitars they add to it manage to make it seem heavier even without much distortion. Not sure how I feel about Mike being tacked onto the end of the song, but otherwise I think this is a great track with huge single potential. Rating: 9/10 Empty Spaces: Not much to say, it serves as a nice bridge between Burning in the Skies and When They Come For Me, and I like how they used a bit of "megaphone Brad" here. Rating: 3/10 (I can't really give an 18-second interlude much more credit than that, regardless of how well it works in context) When They Come For Me: As a side note, I love how there is literally no break whatsoever between the first 5 tracks on this album. Definitely an "experience" as they've been saying all along. Anyway, I love how the distorted synths and at the start of this song are syncopated to the point that it's hard to even get a grip on the rhythm for a while. The tribal drums are SICK, definitely the dopest beat on the album. Can't wait to see Rob play this live. The reference to Points of Authority and Jay-Z in the first verse are pretty witty. The line "I'm not a robot, I'm not a monkey/I will not dance even if the beat's funky" really seemed silly when I read it out of context, but it works nicely in the song. The Middle Eastern/Indian-flavored vocals on the chorus are awesome! The arpeggiated synths after the second chorus definitely give me a Muse vibe. A bit more "megaphone Brad," followed by one of the most awesome moments on the album, the abrupt fakeout ending that jumps back in with Chester's wailing vocals, it made me jump the first time I listened to this song. Awesome. Rating: 9/10 Robot Boy: The vocal harmonies on this track are amazing and I like the beat that comes in with the first verse, but I don't think this song really gets going until the synth solo kicks in about 2/3rds of the way through the song. I don't think it's "terrible" like a lot of people seem to be saying, but there's a certain degree of monotony through the first part of this track that isn't found in most other parts of the album. Once the synth solo does kick in, this song instantly goes into epic territory. I honestly don't care all that much for Chester's ad-libbed vocals over the ending of the song, I know one review said he was over-singing on The Messenger, but I would say the ending vocals on this song are a better example of that. I like the little staccato part (synth or guitar? I can't tell) at the end. I know this track was one of the earliest demos they worked on, and as far as I know, the only one from that batch that ended up making the album. Perhaps that's why it feels a little detached. Rating: 7/10 Jornada del Muerto: My favorite interlude on the CD...have we determined yet what the vocals in this are? Last I knew, the consensus seemed to be that they're Japanese. The synth solo on this is awesome! I think I hear some guitar buried under all those keyboards too. Rating: 8/10 Waiting for the End: I love the beat on this song, the synth sequence that kicks it off has that "science fiction emergency siren" vibe to it. I know some people don't care for Mike's delivery on this, but I think it's pretty cool. The dense harmonies sound great. The really stripped-back instrumental when Chester comes in is a nice touch too...more nice harmonies after the first chorus, there's even some suspended intervals in there that sound really cool. Another song with a nice prominent bass part. Yet another song with an epic synth solo, that's three in a row! Not that I mind, haha. Chester hits some AMAZING notes at the end of this song, that long sustained "holding on to what I haven't...GOOOOOOOOOOT," holy fuck that's incredible. This song is going to blow up once it's released as a single, I guarantee it. Rating: 9/10 Blackout: As much as I was pumped about Chester's screaming, I have to say this is one of my least favorite tracks on the CD. The vocal delivery and the instrumental just don't mesh well in my opinion. Maybe that was the idea, but I think either one would sound better on its own. The breakdown is pretty dope from an instrumental standpoint, but I generally don't care for chopped-up vocals, and this is no exception. Whenever I hear something like that, it gives me the impression that they tried to come up with more lyrics for that part and couldn't, so rather than repeating the chorus, they decided to "remix" it. Mike's part at the end really saves this song in my opinion, some of my favorite lyrics on the album there. When Chester joins him, it gets pretty epic. Not sure how I feel about the weird effects on the vocals at the very end though. Rating: 5/10 Wretches and Kings: Mario Savio's delivery on his speech makes me want to...well..."fight the power," haha. I'm sure that's why Mike decided to reference that song here. Love the beat on this track, not quite as good as When They Come For Me in terms of the hip-hop heavy tracks though. I'm really not sure what's up with Chester on this track, he normally has excellent diction but I never would've gotten the lyrics to the chorus right if Mike hadn't posted them. I love the way Chester's singing, I just don't care for the way he delivers the lyrics. I think my favorite part of this song is the ascending synth that plays an A in 4 octaves during the second chorus and the end of the song. I really don't care for the "front to back/side to side" part at the end, it gets repetitive and feels like filler. The re-use of the Mario Savio speech after it is cool though. I can imagine how hard it was to sync that up with music. Joe's scratching at the end is dope too, is it just me, or is he scratching a sample of the crowd's applause after the Mario Savio speech? Rating: 7/10 Wisdom, Justice, and Love: This is probably one of the saddest-sounding moments on the record. I love the morphing robot voice on the Martin Luther King speech, and the piano/choir underneath it. The only thing I don't like, unfortunately, is something that totally ruins this track and severely hampers the momentum of the album: repeating "cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love" no fewer than SIX times is seriously way too much. Not sure what they were thinking there. Rating: 4/10 (cut a couple repeats off the last line, and it'd instantly go up to about a 6 or 7) Iridescent: This is my favorite track on the album. Again, seamless transitions between Mike and Chester's singing parts. The little guitar interlude after the first chorus is nice, a bit U2-like, but still moves the song along nicely. Another nice guitar interlude after the second chorus...and then wow, the unison choir-like vocals are incredible. I can already visualize an entire arena of people singing this. This song could easily be destined to become an anthem if they ever release it as a single. Rob's got some nice drum parts at the end of this track too, and hey, some guitars! Not sure what happened to the guitar solo, I guess they decided not to use it, but I don't think it hampers the song at all. Rating: 10/10 Fallout: Ooh, vocoder (a lot of people seem to confuse vocoder with Auto-Tune and vice versa...this is an example of the former. T-Pain is an example of the latter. There's a big difference, kids). I love this kind of concept album stuff, re-using themes at various points. The way this song goes into The Catalyst reminds me a lot of how the keyboard interlude after Shadow of the Day goes into What I've Done. Second favorite interlude, behind Jornada del Muerto. Rating: 7.5/10 The Catalyst: Hearing this song in the context of the album really gives it new meaning. Definitely meant to be the climax of the album. I really hope they get the whole band singing those gang vocals live, it'd sound awesome. I've already given a substantial review of this song, so not a whole lot to add...love the synth solo and the way the entire mood of the song changes when it hits the "lift me up/let me go" part. I can definitely visualize explosions and all kinds of devastation going on during the ending of this song, probably why they used it in the Medal of Honor trailer. Rob's drums at the end of this one are great too, I end up air drumming to this song more often than not when I listen to it. Rating: 8/10 (up from a 7/10 on my original review) The Messenger: Wow. This is hands-down the greatest vocal performance of Chester's career. I never thought I'd hear anything of this caliber out of him, maybe out of 2004 Chester, but not 2010 Chester. The one review that pointed out he was singing "without Auto-Tune" and "way over-sings it" had me thinking I'd be cringing at off-key notes left and right, but he really nails it. I love the understated instrumentation on this song, as far as I can tell, it's just acoustic guitar, piano, and whatever that keyboard instrument Mike was playing in the Meeting of A Thousand Suns preview video is (the one that has a bellows-type thing on it that he has to squeeze while playing, I forget what it's called but it sounds like a synthesizer crossed with an accordion). This would be my favorite song on the album if Iridescent wasn't so damn anthemic. Rating: 9.5/10 Overall, this is my favorite of Linkin Park's 4 main studio albums (and in competition with Reanimation for my favorite Linkin Park release period). They somehow managed to create a concept album where everything fits in context, yet there are a bunch of potential hit singles on it as well. With guitar being my primary instrument, part of me wishes there was a bit more of it on this album, but then again, I can't imagine these songs working with different instrumentation anyway. Definitely an album that requires a lot of digesting, there are tons of sonic layers to pick apart. I'm sure that'll go a long way in helping this album's longevity...not that it really needs much help in that department to begin with. Final rating: 9/10

Iridescent...just BARELY over The Messenger.