“From the Inside” is from Linkin Park’s second album “Meteora”. It’s my favourite track on that album, too. It was released as its fourth single in 2004, physically in Australia and the USA whilst it was download only in the UK. It’s a track of the band’s that isn’t really overplayed so I never feel as if I can ever really get tired of it, say like “What I’ve Done” or “In the End” or something. This is an actual track I can really get into when that siren-like keyboard melody begins.
“From the Inside” adapts that quiet verse/loud chorus dynamic that is typically used in grunge music. Chester Bennington softly sings alternating with Mike Shinoda’s raps in the verses, before Bennington lets loose and the trademark Meteora wall of guitars enter for the chorus. Bennington screams a lot during the bridge too, which excites any Linkin Park fan.
Not much else I can say about it. It’s a very heavy tune about being betrayed and not knowing who you can trust anymore, with a waltz time signature. Cool stuff.
As the epic “Easier to Run” on “Meteora” fades out to silence “Faint”‘s one note ‘violin’ fades in from out of nowhere, the dramatic ‘strings’ introduction begins and just when you thought you would be able to take a breather, this track starts.
We all know “Faint”. It’s one of those standard Linkin Park songs that everyone knows the words to. Mike Shinoda raps in the verses, Chester Bennington doesn’t sing as much in this. This is his shouting/yelling/screaming song of “Meteora”. He does it again in “From the Inside”, but this is the track where all of that takes place.
It’s fast. It’s loud. Pretty much takes your breath away the first time you hear it. It probably wouldn’t be wrong to say that Bennington could barely breathe after recording the vocal for this.
To tell you straight, I can’t remember the first time I heard it. I have no nostalgia or sentimentality linked with this track whatsoever. It actually might have been on the speakers in a shop somewhere when I was forced to go out with my family when I was younger. I have never really cared about what it means too. It’s not my favourite on the album either. But it’s damn good. And it’s from their best album. Yes, I said that.
Hmmmm…… It’s now 2014. So from what I remember the first time I actually listened to a Linkin Park song was when the “Breaking the Habit” video was showing on the television. Well, either that or the one for “Numb”. Crazy. I’ve known Linkin Park for about ten years now. But they’ve never been my favourite band. I can get into their songs though. Especially their songs. Not the most recent ones though, I’m a bit off with those. I’m more the “Hybrid Theory”-“Minutes to Midnight” Linkin Park guy. I’m actually not that big of a fan of “Minutes” either. The singles off it are great though. Nah. My favourite album of theirs is the one in the middle of those two, “Meteora“.
Yeah man, “Meteora” is the only Linkin Park album that I could sit down and listen to all the way through. It gets a bit of shit for sounding a bit too much like its predecessor. I can’t add much to that. Never listened to “Hybrid” in full. Nu-metal is a genre where you can’t really change much too. You have the rap-rock style which is done very well on “Meteora”. The same can’t be said for a lot of nu-metal albums out there. All the songs segue into each other too, and I like that shit.
“Easier to Run” is a track on “Meteora”. The sixth one, I believe. It’s about finding easier to run away from your problems rather than facing them head on, because of the fear of facing more pain. Quite sad, yes.
I’ve always liked how this song sounds. There’s something very epic and atmospheric about it. The quiet and meek tone established by Chester’s vocal and the light guitar plucks during the verses which then builds tension when Mike comes in with his part and the strings enter before caving into the loud guitars that take over during the chorus. Very cool.
It’s all very slow too. But not in bad way. It just makes you appreciate it more, you know? And it makes a good contrast to the following track, whose one note string opening appears in the last few seconds of this one. Just as the dust settles, there’s something running at you that you can see from a distance. Then “Faint” takes over. Good transition.
I don’t like Linkin Park very much mow. They’ve done a Coldplay, which means they’ve changed their sound so much I don’t even know who they are anymore. “Mylo Xyloto” is pretty shitty. I’m more of a “Parachutes” man. This is very much like Linkin Park. I think the only newer song I liked was “Waiting for the End”, but I haven’t bothered with their newest albums. “Meteora” is my favourite album, which will probably polarize a lot of you readers.
“Meteora” gets a lot of crap for apparently sounding the same as “Hybrid Theory”, but I haven’t listened to that album. The singles are good enough. Meteora on the other hand, you’ve got the song seguing into each other and Chester and Mike get an equal contribution on everything. “Breaking the Habit” is the exception. That is Chester’s song. For sure. Mike doesn’t rap on it, there’s no distorted guitars. Just a lot of keyboards and synth-strings. It’s very emotional.
The “Breaking the Habit” video is the first of Linkin Park’s that I can actually remember watching on the TV when it was released. It freaked me out. There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s just that when I was seven, my uncle got me this “Animatrix” DVD which is supposed to link in with “The Matrix” film series. It is also rated fifteen by the way. That DVD was so confusing and fucked up – I think I can remember a person’s head being squashed or something – and the animation for “Breaking the Habit” reminded me of it. So I didn’t want to watch the music video for a while. I got over it though.
The Music in My Ears 