Linkin Park have released a previously unreleased track featuring the voice of Chester Bennington from their upcoming album, Paper cutouts.
Bennington died by suicide at the age of 41 on July 20, 2017.
The new track, titled “Friendly Fire,” was first released on Friday and comes ahead of his upcoming career greatest hits album, which drops on April 12.
“Friendly Fire” is a previously unreleased track from the band’s 2017 album. Another light.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(999x0:1001x2)/linkin-park-singles-collection-album-022324-1-cfd3a5a1b2004e4ebad44e8dd7bf725a.jpg)
Linkin Park.
James Minchin
The life of Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington in photos
The band first recorded a song for their seventh album, and shot a corresponding music video. The music video for “Friendly Fire” was also released on Friday and features never-before-seen studio and live footage.
Directed and edited by longtime collaborator Mark Fiore, the track sums up the style of the seven-year-old album.
Lead guitarist Brad Delson said the song has “always been one of our favorite songs from Another light sessions.”
“Something about it just didn’t feel right, so as we got closer to the finish line, we decided to put it aside for later,” continued Delson, 46. “When we started looking for an unreleased song to include on our greatest hits collection, it was I’m blown away by the power of the song, the power of the storytelling, the power of the vocals, the soundscape, and I actually thought it was closer than maybe we thought at the time.”
Mike Shinoda, the band’s co-founder, added that it was a “joy” to compile the tracklist for Paper cutouts. “Each song on this collection is both a unique moment in our timeline and an evolving story that is as much ours as yours,” said the 47-year-old musician. “From our first release, ‘One Step Closer’ to the brand-new ‘Friendly Fire,’ this playlist covers all of our chapters to date.”
The life of Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington in photos
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(999x0:1001x2)/Chester-Bennington-Linkin-Park-022324-1-9543da14223d4ef6b5b21513f1d445f4.jpg)
Mike Shinoda, Chester Bennington, Rob Bourdon and Dave Farrell of Linkin Park perform on stage on May 22, 2017 in Burbank, California.
Scott Dudelson/WireImage
The upcoming album has a total of 20 tracks, including: “Crawling,” “Faint,” “Numb/Encore,” “Papercut,” “Breaking The Habit,” “In The End,” “Bleed It Out,” “Somewhere I Belong, ” “Waiting For The End,” “Castle Of Glass,” “One More Light,” “Burn It Down,” “What I’ve Done,” “QWERTY,” “One Step Closer,” “New Divide ,” “ Leave Out All the Rest”, “Lost”, “Numb” and “Friendly Fire”.
The band has largely been on hiatus since the Linkin Park & Friends: Celebrate Life in Honor of Chester Bennington concert in October 2017. However, in February 2023, for the 20th anniversary of the band’s 2003 album. Meteorsthe band unveiled a previously unreleased track, “Lost,” featuring Bennington’s vocals.
Fans can pre-order or save the upcoming album before its release on April 12th.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(999x0:1001x2)/Chester-Bennington-Linkin-Park-022324-3-3635b7d705cc4c99baf7e91f8c34858a.jpg)
. From left to right are Joe Hahn, Chester Bennington, David ‘Phoenix’ Farrell, Mike Shinoda, Rob Bourdon and Brad Delson in 2001.
Mick Hutson/Redferns
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Line by dialing 988, texting “988” to the crisis line at 741-741 or go to 988lifeline.org.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education