Released: May 1, 1999

Songwriter: Mr. Hahn Brad Delson Rob Bourdon Mike Shinoda Chester Bennington

Producer: Mike Shinoda Mudrock

[Verse 1: Chester Bennington]
Where should I start? Disjointed heart
I've got no commitment to my own flesh and blood
Left all alone, far from my home
No one to hear me, to heal my ill heart

[Chorus: Chester Bennington]
I keep it locked up, inside

[Verse 2: Chester Bennington]
I cannot express to the point I've regressed
If anger's a gift, then I guess I've been blessed

[Chorus: Chester Bennington]
I keep it locked up, inside
Keep my distance from your lies

[Interlude: Chester Bennington]
It's too late to love me, now
You have never shown me
It's too late to love me, now
You don't even know me

[Bridge: Mike Shinoda & Chester Bennington]
Breaking a part of my heart to find release
Taking you out of my blood to bring me peace
Breaking a part of my heart to find release
Taking you out of my blood to bring me peace
Breaking a part of my heart to find release (Break!)
Taking you out of my blood to bring me peace (Me!)
Breaking a part of my heart to find release (Down!)
Taking you out of my blood to bring me peace

[Chorus: Chester Bennington]
Keep it locked up, inside
Keep my distance from your lies

[Bridge: Mike Shinoda & Chester Bennington]
Breaking a part of my heart to find release (Break!)
Taking you out of my blood to bring me peace (Me!)
Breaking a part of my heart to find release (Down!)
Taking you out of my blood to bring me peace
Breaking a part of my heart to find release
Taking you out of my blood to bring me peace
Breaking a part of my heart to find release
Taking you out of my blood to bring me peace
Keep my distance
Keep my distance
Keep my distance
Keep my distance

[Outro: Mike Shinoda]
Spit drips from the jaw of the witless witness
Cryptic colloquialisms shift your mid rift
Dog paddle through a bog of shadows and smog
With my thought catalog, analogue rap battle log
Keep my distance and fear resistance
Hurt by persistence, the twisted web of tangled lies
Strangles my hope to waste and numbs the taste
And I'm forced to face these hate crimes
Against the state of being
Feeling the weightlessness press me to the ceiling
Reeling around rooms, riding a bubble of sound
Tuned to the frequency making your chest shake
With every boom
Involuntary muscle contraction
Ignoring your neck's breaking, musical gas fume euphoria
The sound pounds to make the dead flush
To hand you a head rush with read rhymes and said stuff

Linkin Park

Hybrid Theory isn’t just the title of Linkin Park’s chart-topping debut album, but a career mission statement.

From day one, the same six players (lead vocalist Chester Bennington, drummer/percussionist Rob Bourdon, guitarist Brad Delson, bassist Dave ‘Phoenix’ Farrell, DJ/Programmer Joe Hahn, and keyboardist, guitarist, and co-lead vocals Mike Shinoda) built the band by fusing all their favorite styles of music into one unmistakable signature sound. With each album, Linkin Park defiantly challenges themselves and their fans by blasting into new musical territory. After setting the template for rock that incorporated hip-hop influences with Hybrid Theory and Meteora, they shifted gears completely and defied expectations with the polychromatic Minutes to Midnight, and again with the esoteric A Thousand Suns, before melding a piece of them all into 2012’s LIVING THINGS. With their 2014 release and heaviest offering in years, The Hunting Party, Linkin Park manage to capture their ever-innovative spirit with a hunger seldom seen in bands on their seventh album. One More Light (2017) is an interesting personal album, filled with a lot of emotion.

Unfortunately, on July 20, 2017, Chester unexpectedly died by suicide, shocking and saddening both fans and his own band members alike.