Living Things

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Lore & Background

Recording started in March 2011 and ended in April 2012. In June 2011, lead singer Chester Bennington told Kerrang! that the band had been working on new material for two months, saying "The music is great and we're well ahead of where we're expecting to be." Rick Rubin noted that for so early in the project, they were much further along than on the last two albums. Bennington explained that Rubin "gives us spaces to just be ourselves" and called the team-up of Shinoda and Rubin "our golden ticket." In July 2011, Bennington told Rolling Stone that Linkin Park aimed to produce a new album every eighteen months. Shinoda told Complex that they spent a year making the album, saying "It doesn't lose any of the creativity of the newer stuff and it brings in the energy of the older stuff." The band underwent 360-degree body scans for numerous lyric videos and artwork. The album's art was released on April 16, 2012, along with the first single "Burn It Down."

In Their Own Story

In an interview with Kerrang! in March 2012, Bennington stated the band had returned to more "familiar" territory, saying "we've incorporated a lot of guitar work with big choruses and the heavier electronic stuff to give it that really big wall of sound feeling without getting too metal." He also said the new album's lyrics would be personal and avoid being political, adding "We've been writing a lot about relationships." Shinoda told NME that the album "gets back to our roots and it's captured a feeling that we haven't gone after in many years." He stated the album is more "rap-centric" compared to their previous two albums. The band had numerous influences: Shinoda told Rolling Stone that "Castle of Glass", "Skin to Bone" and "Roads Untraveled" contained folk music influenced by Bob Dylan, while "Victimized" was influenced by punk rock bands such as Pennywise and Dirty Rotten Imbeciles. The album explores alternative rock, electronic rock and rap rock.

Reader's Guide

The lead single "Burn It Down" was sent to radio and released to digital music retailers on April 16, 2012. Living Things debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with sales of 223,000 copies in the United States in its opening week. The second single "Lost in the Echo" was released on October 5, 2012. The third single "Powerless" was released on October 31, 2012. The fourth and final single "Castle of Glass" was released in its physical format on February 1, 2013. The album was certified Platinum by the RIAA in August 2017. The band toured with Incubus and Mutemath on the 2012 Honda Civic Tour. Their concert at the Admiralspalast Theatre in Berlin, Germany was recorded and shown in theaters on June 25, 2012 for one night only. The band performed a private concert at the 2012 X Games in Los Angeles. On July 23, 2012, Linkin Park announced they would be touring South Africa for the first time, performing in Johannesburg and Cape Town in November 2012.

Did You Know?

• Living Things was the band's last album to be produced by Rick Rubin and recorded at NRG Recording Studios.
• The band underwent 360-degree body scans for numerous lyric videos and artwork for the album.
• The working title for the track 'Victimized' was 'Battle Axe', according to bassist Dave 'Phoenix' Farrell.
• Guitarist Brad Delson has vocals on the tenth track 'Until It Breaks', which was his idea.
• The band teamed up with the Lotus F1 team to create a musical racing iPad app titled Linkin Park GP, where players drive a Lotus E20 and create a remix of 'Burn It Down'.