SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: LINKIN PARK – METEORA (20th ANNIVERSARY EDITION)

Linkin Park
Meteora (20th Anniversary Edition)
Warner Records

Few albums deserve a mark of perfection when it comes to production, writing, and instrumental world-building. For Linkin Park, the album that comes to mind is Meteora. When the album first dropped in March of 2003, it was a sight to behold for those who were there to witness the profound effect that such an album had on listeners’ ears and hearts everywhere. Coming after their debut album Hybrid Theory, Linkin Park demonstrated a unique futuristic energy and kaleidoscopic style to the genre that not only changed the game to the alternative genre but would also take over the mainstream music industry.

Beneath the nostalgic cover of graffiti artist Boris Tellegen, metallic guitars, DJ Joseph “Joe” Hahn’s immersive atmospherics, lead vocalist Mike Shinoda’s innovative rap lyricism, and one of the most talented multi-range vocalists to ever step forth in the rock industry, Chester Bennington, lies a profoundly emotional record that conveys instrumental and lyrical greatness. Linkin Park wanted to create music that transcended gravity. Meteora accomplishes this flawlessly throughout. Twenty years later, Meteora is still defining what exceptional music in this genre is, and the 20th Anniversary Edition makes it clear why one album completely transformed an entire genre and a group of musicians’ lives.

A three-CD collection with the original record, live performances, demos, and three unveiled tracks from the band at the time, Songs such as “Papercut,” “Figure.09,” and “P5hng Me A*Wy,” “Crawling,” “A Place For My Head,” have never sounded so good for live performances on the collection. The band has gone to great lengths to make an eclipsing rerelease. While many bands remaster, rerelease the album, and call it a day, Linkin Park extends the metaphor of getting up close and personal with one’s psychological turmoil in the form of a musician’s journey from a polished record, live performances, archived demos, to previously uncovered tracks fans can enjoy together.

Previously uncovered tracks “Lost” and “Fighting Myself,” are featured on this beautiful collection, along with “More The Victim,” which fans will finally experience. Mike Shinoda personally mixed and mastered the final product for each of these songs, giving each its own distinctive experience while preserving its age of relevance of the time it was made, adding a discordant approach to an already famous sound the band had mastered on the first album. Unique gems like “Fighting Myself” truly stand out for this dualistic approach, feeling as if it would have fit on Meteora perfectly.

Meteora (20th Anniversary Edition) is a gorgeous treasure that depicts the unexampled vastness and sense of accomplishment the band achieved that left a lasting mark on the industry many years after its completion. While the world felt Chester’s loss and still does with each passing song that rings within our ears on this album, the anniversary edition provides a sense of solace to us all. Through this, fans hold a large piece of the band’s history. Linkin Park has given fans a new way to appreciate Meteora through heartfelt time and effort in creating such a massive collection, which has far exceeded what it means to deliver a fan’s promise of a re-release.

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