Linkin Park: is there a new song coming out?
THE Linkin Park have released a new audio teaser. It’s a 30-second clip of an unreleased song called “Friendly Fire”.
The teaser is found on the final slide of a 10-image Instagram carousel post and says it’s “new, unreleased from the sessions.”One More Light” of 2017″ (Read review). The number “04” appears at the end of the snippet.
They also posted only the teaser itself on X (formerly Twitter), identifying it as “20 ‘Friendly Fire'” and including the hashtag #FriendlyFireLP.
“Friendly Fire” features vocals from the late Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington. As early as 2020, “Friendly Fire” was rumored to be finished and mixed, although it was not originally included on “One More Light”.
Having been following Linkin Park’s social media for some time, we had the feeling that something had happened in the last few days when the band started posting images of their previous releases on Instagram and sheets with the song lyrics outlined in a vibrant shade of green.
Yesterday’s post follows the same aesthetic, placing the teaser at the end. However, it’s currently unclear what else the teaser and graphics might be pointing to. Is a new release in the works?
Images on Spotify now contain the same green hue. And even some of their music videos on YouTube show a green dot on the thumbnails, as fans on Reddit pointed out. The band’s profile pictures on the web are also framed in green.
Although the surviving members of Linkin Park do not perform together publicly on stage from the Bennington tribute concert in October 2017 following his death in July, the band hasn’t exactly been dormant. Hspent 2023 celebrating their second album,”Meteor” of 2003, with an anniversary reissue and unreleased songs such as “Lost“.In 2020, the band released a 20th anniversary edition of their watershed 2000 debut, “Hybrid Theory”. Bonus content includes previously released B-sides and live tracks, as well as previously unreleased demos and other material arriving for the first time on the reissue.
However, Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park stated in 2022 that the band, although the surviving members remain in contact, was not working on new music, album or tour. “The only Linkin Park news I have for you is that…yeah, we talk to each other every few weeks,” he said to fans. “There’s no tour, there’s no music, there’s no album in the works. Let me tell you. Just keep in mind that this is not happening. For now I’ll just say this.” Shinoda added: “Every time the band says something or does something, everyone tries to start the hype train. And we’re like, ‘No, no, no, no. Don’t start the hype train. You’ll be disappointed.”
In 2020, speaking about “Friendly Fire”, Shinoda said: “For “One More Light” we mixed more songs than on the finished album just to see if one could make the cut or if we would use it for a side B. And one of them was ‘Friendly Fire.'”