Chester Bennington will also be heard on the upcoming Linkin Park song “Friendly Fire”.
Linkin Park will release a new song with Chester Bennington. Seven years after his death, the singer will be heard again on one of the band’s releases.
Linkin Park: recordings from 2017
The song “Friendly Fire” was created during the work on the last Linkin Park album ONE MORE LIGHT (2017), but was never released. The band now plans to change that. The musicians have already shared an excerpt with synthpop influences on social media and explained the story of how it came about. The teaser appears to be the chorus. You can hear the lines: “We’re falling apart for no reason / We’re pulling the trigger in a useless war / If we go back and go into the black / What are we fighting for? What are we fighting? / It’s just friendly fire.” It is not yet known when exactly the song will be released.
Mike Shinoda spoke about “Friendly Fire” back in 2020
The second Linkin Park singer Mike Shinoda already announced in 2020 that there was still a song with Bennington. “We mixed more songs than are on the finished album,” “Alternative Press” quotes a Twitch stream from the musician. “We also mixed a few other songs to see if any of them were chosen. Or we could use it for a B-side, and that was ‘Friendly Fire.'” Shinoda also shared that the song was created in collaboration with songwriter and producer Jon Green, who was also involved in ONE MORE LIGHT. “I still love the song,” Shinoda concluded. Then he continued: “Is it out already? Did we release ‘Friendly Fire’ at any point? No, right?” When fans asked when they would hear the material, he later replied: “You’ll have to wait for years – just FYI.”
More “new” songs with Chester Bennington
It’s not the first time since his death that songs with Chester Bennington have been released. His former band Gray Daze released the two albums AMENDS and THE PHOENIX in 2020 and 2022, for which they used old vocal recordings of Bennington. In 2023, Linkin Park also shared previously unreleased songs with their late singer – “Lost” and “Fighting Myself” from the era of METEORA (2003). “She Couldn’t” was released in 2020, which the band originally wrote for their debut HYBRID THEORY (1999).
Otherwise, Linkin Park have kept a low profile since their singer’s death. The remaining musicians stated several times that no further music was planned. “I always tell people that if there’s news, I’ll share it,” said Mike Shinoda. “I’m not a fan of greatest hits releases or remasterings, so if we ever reissue a Linkin Park album it should be a big deal. If we can’t achieve that quality, we won’t do it. If it’s not great, we shouldn’t do it.”