The Hunting Party

The Hunting Party is American rock band Linkin Park's sixth studio album, released on June 17, 2014 through Warner Bros. Records. Five singles were released from the record: "Guilty All The Same", "Until It's Gone", "Wastelands", "Rebellion", and "Final Masquerade". The album sees the band recording heavier rock music than what they had done on their more recent releases like A Thousand Suns and Living Things, which opted for a more electronic based sound. The album debuted at #3 on the US Billboard 200 charts, making it the first studio album released by Linkin Park to not debut at #1 on that chart since Hybrid Theory

Background

The Hunting Party is the band's sixth studio album. The band's sound returned to a heavier state after being dominated by electronics in previous efforts. Between the time they recorded Living Things and this album, the band collaborated with EDM artist Steve Aoki to record "A Light That Never Comes" and began work on a track later released under the title "Darker Than Blood" on Steve Aoki's 2015 album, Neon Future II. Mike Shinoda also helped Austin Carlile writing "Feels Like Forever" for the Of Mice & Men album Restoring Force.

The album name comes from the big picture of wanting. The band was originally going with the title "Carnivores", but instead they looked at the big picture: carnivores is a state of mind that is not about making a decision; carnivores are carnivores. Being a carnivore, you attack because you need to. A hunting party is an intentional gathering to kill. Chester claimed that, "With 'Carnivores' you don't have to explain, 'The Hunting Party' you kinda have to explain." The aesthetic of the name was a large part of how they decided on the cover. Joe's direction of the art helped set the dynamic of the name, as well.

Writing and Recording

Writing for The Hunting Party began in May 2013, right around the time the band was preparing the Living Things remix album, Recharged. This is the first album since Meteora to not feature Rick Rubin as producer, and the first album in which Mike Shinoda is credited with being the producer (as well as Brad Delson). The band also experienced a change of setting whilst recording this album, moving operations to Larabee Sound Studios in Los Angeles, California instead of long-time recording space NRG Studios, also in Los Angeles. The band also worked in EastWest Studios, in Hollywood, California, mainly recording percussion and drums there.

In the earliest stages of recording, the band was writing pop rock music, akin to "Burn It Down" and "New Divide". Somewhere in the process, Mike had a change of heart. He wanted to make something heavier. He has commented on the weak impact of the current rock scene and wanted to reinvigorate the genre, bringing back the 1990s influence to the radio. He played a random riff on guitar to spark the diverging of the sound of the album, and that riff eventually became "Guilty All The Same". This song and "Mark The Graves" were the first two songs written for the album. The writing process for The Hunting Party was also drastically different than the previous albums'. The band would play and record the entire song at once rather than recording small bits individually to get a live energy into the performance.

The Hunting Party sees the band take a heavy rock influence from the 1990s rock scene. It is almost a complete 180-degree turn from their previous effort, Living Things, in that the electronics are stripped from the forefront and replaced with heavy guitars and driving drums. Many songs on the album feature guitar solos, which Brad would typically shy away from. In an interview with MusicRadar, Brad spoke about the abundance of guitar solos, and how they found their way onto The Hunting Party: "There’s a lot of guitar solos on the album! And this is from someone who was quoted early on as saying I hated them. Not that I hated them as a listener; I just don’t want to play any; I shirked guitar solos. Early on, I felt as though the songs we were making aesthetically didn’t want them. This new batch of songs, to me, always want solos. I feel like every song has one." Rob Bourdon also pushed himself on this album, performing some of his most impressive drum work on this album. Mike spoke about how hard Rob pushed himself in an interview with Q Magazine: "Rob was killing himself. He played 10 hours a day for seven days straight and blew his back. He had to see a chiropractor." According to Mike, Rob was putting in ten hours of a day for a week at one point for the album.

The album is also the first to feature major collaborators: "All For Nothing" featured Page Hamilton from Helmet, "Guilty All The Same" featured hip-hop legend Rakim, "Rebellion" featured System Of A Down guitarist Daron Malakian, and "Drawbar" featured Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello. It began like this: "Mike had written this chorus and sang it, and his voice had this tone, and it was unlike anything I'd heard from him before. And I was like, "Dude this is crazy, this sounds like a Helmet song! It's cool!" And we were like, "Dude, why don't we see if we can get like Page in here?" You know? And if that's why the song says it's feeling like it should be, then why don't we just go straight to the source," as Chester stated in an interview with 3News. Ethan Mates, long-time Linkin Park mixer, gave Mike contact information for Rakim, as Mates had worked with him before. Rakim drove from New York City to Los Angeles (due to a fear of flying), playing shows along the way, to collaborate with Linkin Park.

Composition

The Hunting Party sees the band returning to heavier, more guitar-oriented music after the heavily electronic outings of A Thousand Suns and Living Things. They were inspired by bands from the 1990s rock and punk scene and wanted to bring that kind of music back to radio, as revealed by Mike Shinoda. The band also got the opportunity to work with some legendary figures in the rock and hip-hop scene, like Tom Morello and Rakim. Working with someone like Morello was a drastic departure from Linkin Park's typical method of writing songs. Morello introduced a more jam-oriented style of writing that was relatively foreign to the group.

Guitarist Brad Delson, too, stepped out of his comfort zone a bit on The Hunting Party, recording more guitar solos than ever before for the album. Despite his prior aversion to recording more flashy guitar playing, Delson ultimately decided the songs for The Hunting Party needed guitar solos in them, whereas the band's older material did not quite warrant more advanced guitar playing.

Releases

Digital

• The Hunting Party [Explicit] // {cat. 093624936602}
• The Hunting Party [Clean] // {cat. 093624936992}
• The Hunting Party (Xbox Deluxe Edition) // {-16tr- + With You live, LITE live, Numb live, BID live}
• The Hunting Party: Acapellas + Instrumentals // {cat. 093624934332}

Track Listing

Standard Edition

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1	Keys To The Kingdom	Bennington Chester Charles, Bourdon Robert G, Delson Bradford Philip, Farrell David Michael, Hahn Joseph, Shinoda Michael Kenji	3:38
2	All For Nothing (feat. Page Hamilton)	Bennington, Bourdon, Delson, Farrell, Hahn, Shinoda	3:33
3	Guilty All The Same (feat. Rakim)	Bennington, Bourdon, Delson, Farrell, Griffin William, Hahn, Shinoda	5:55
4	The Summoning	Bennington, Bourdon, Delson, Farrell, Hahn, Shinoda	1:00
5	War	Bennington, Bourdon, Delson, Farrell, Hahn, Shinoda	2:11
6	Wastelands	Bennington, Bourdon, Delson, Farrell, Hahn, Shinoda	3:15
7	Until It's Gone	Bennington, Bourdon, Delson, Farrell, Hahn, Shinoda	3:53
8	Rebellion (feat. Daron Malakian)	Bennington, Bourdon, Delson, Farrell, Hahn, Malakian Daron V, Shinoda	3:44
9	Mark The Graves	Bennington, Bourdon, Delson, Farrell, Hahn, Shinoda	5:05
10	Drawbar (feat. Tom Morello)	Bennington, Bourdon, Delson, Farrell, Hahn, Shinoda	2:46
11	Final Masquerade	Bennington, Bourdon, Delson, Farrell, Hahn, Haynie Emile, Shinoda	3:37
12	A Line In The Sand	Bennington, Bourdon, Delson, Farrell, Hahn, Shinoda	6:35

Xbox Music Bonus Tracks

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
13	With You (Live in LA 9.8.12)	Bennington, Bourdon, Delson, Hahn, King John Robert, Shinoda	3:42
14	Lost In The Echo (Live in LA 9.8.12)	Bennington, Bourdon, Delson, Farrell, Hahn, Shinoda	3:57
15	Numb (Live in LA 9.8.12)	Bennington, Bourdon, Delson, Farrell, Hahn, Shinoda	3:17
16	Burn It Down (Live in LA 9.8.12)	Bennington, Bourdon, Delson, Farrell, Hahn, Shinoda	3:57

Pre-Order Bonus Tracks

See Hybrid Theory - Live At Download Festival 2014

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1	Papercut (Live at Download Festival 2014)	Bennington, Bourdon, Delson, Hahn, Shinoda	3:13
2	One Step Closer (Live at Download Festival 2014)	Bennington, Bourdon, Delson, Hahn, Shinoda	3:13
3	With You (Live at Download Festival 2014)	Bennington, Bourdon, Delson, Hahn, King John Robert, Shinoda	3:34
4	Points Of Authority (Live at Download Festival 2014)	Bennington, Bourdon, Delson, Hahn, Shinoda	5:00
5	Crawling (Live at Download Festival 2014)	Bennington, Bourdon, Delson, Hahn, Shinoda	3:29
6	Runaway (Live at Download Festival 2014)	Bennington, Bourdon, Delson, Hahn, Shinoda, Wakefield Mark	3:16
7	By Myself (Live at Download Festival 2014)	Bennington, Bourdon, Delson, Hahn, Shinoda	3:24
8	In The End (Live at Download Festival 2014)	Bennington, Bourdon, Delson, Hahn, Shinoda	3:40
9	A Place For My Head (Live at Download Festival 2014)	Bennington, Bourdon, Delson, Farrell David Michael, Hahn, Shinoda, Wakefield	3:44
10	Forgotten (Live at Download Festival 2014)	Bennington, Bourdon, Delson, Hahn, Shinoda, Wakefield Mark	3:26
11	Cure For The Itch (Live at Download Festival 2014)	Bennington, Bourdon, Delson, Hahn, Shinoda	2:50
12	Pushing Me Away (Live at Download Festival 2014)	Bennington, Bourdon, Delson, Hahn, Shinoda	3:29

Bonus DVD: Live In Monterrey

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1	A Place For My Head	Bennington, Bourdon, Delson, Farrell David Michael, Hahn, Shinoda, Wakefield	5:20
2	New Divide	Bennington, Bourdon, Delson, Farrell, Hahn, Shinoda	4:40
3	Somewhere I Belong	Bennington, Bourdon, Delson, Farrell, Hahn, Shinoda	4:16
4	Points Of Authority	Bennington, Bourdon, Delson, Hahn, Shinoda	3:21
5	Lies Greed Misery	Bennington, Bourdon, Delson, Farrell, Hahn, Shinoda	2:28
6	Lost In The Echo	Bennington, Bourdon, Delson, Farrell, Hahn, Shinoda	3:55
7	What I've Done	Bennington, Bourdon, Delson, Farrell, Hahn, Shinoda	3:37
8	Burn It Down	Bennington, Bourdon, Delson, Farrell, Hahn, Shinoda	3:54
9	In The End	Bennington, Bourdon, Delson, Farrell, Hahn, Shinoda	3:29
10	Bleed It Out	Bennington, Bourdon, Delson, Farrell, Hahn, Shinoda	4:51
11	One Step Closer	Bennington, Bourdon, Delson, Hahn, Shinoda	4:10

Personnel

Linkin Park is

• Chester Bennington
• Rob Bourdon
• Brad Delson
• Phoenix
• Joe Hahn
• Mike Shinoda

Production

• Produced by Mike Shinoda and Brad Delson
• "Wastelands" co-produced by Rob Cavallo
• "Final Masquerade" co-produced by Emile Haynie
• Lyrics & Vocals by Mike Shionda and Chester Bennington
• "Rebellion" co-written by Daron Malakian
• "Guilty All The Same" co-written by William Griffin
• Background Vocals by Brad Delson, Joe Hahn, Rob Bourdon, and Phoenix
• Additional Lyrics by Brad Delson
• Engineering by Ethan Mates and Mike Shinoda
• Digital editing by Josh Newell
• Assistant Engineer: Alejandro Baima
• Additional Assistant Engineers: Brendan Dekora and Jennifer Langdon
• Studio Electro Tech: Warren Willis
• Studio Drum Tech: Jerry Johnson
• Album Production Coordination: Ryan DeMarti
• Recorded at Larrabee Sound Studios, North Hollywood, CA
• Additional Recording at EastWest Studios and Glenwood Place Studios
• Mixed by Andy Wallace
• Pro Tools Engineered by Paul Suarez
• Assisted by Del Bowers
• Mastered by Emily Lazar at The Lodge
• Assisted by Rich Morales

Additional Musicians

• Additional Vocals and Guitar on "All For Nothing" by Page Hamilton
• Additional Vocals on "Guilty All The Same" by Rakim
• Additional Guitar on "Rebellion" by Daron Malakian
• Additional Guitar on "Drawbar" by Tom Morello

Management

• Worldwide Representation: The Collective
• Management Team: Michael Green, Jordan Berliant, Trish Evangelista, Kavi Halemane, Mark Gorlick, and Ran DeMarti
• Booking Agents: Dennis Arfa and Michael Arfin of Artist Group International
• Europe Booking Agent: Scott Thomas of X-Ray Touring
• Legal for Linkin Park: David Lande, David Byrnes, Mitch Tenzer, and Alicia Sydney for Zifren Brittenham LLP
• Business Affairs for Warner Bros. Records: Charles Hamilton
• Business Managers: Johnathan Schwartz and Michael Oppenheim of Gudvi, Sussman and Oppenheim
• Publicity: Kymm Britton
• UK Publicity: Kas Mercer of Mercenary Publicity
• Machine Shop/LPU: Jessica Sklar, Lorenzo Errico, Kiel Berry, and Lulit Soloman

• A&R: Rob Cavallo
• A&R Coordination: Jonna Terrasi and Ran DeMarti
• Marketing Director: Peter Standish

Artwork

• Creative Direction: Mike Shinoda, Joe Hahn, Rickey Kim, and Brandon Parvini
• Art Direction: Annie Nguyen
• Original Artwork: James Jean
• Computer Graphics: Brandon Parvini
• Photography: Brandon Cox

Live Performance

Songs Played Live

• "Guilty All The Same"
• "Wastelands"
• "Until It's Gone"
• "Rebellion"
• "Final Masquerade"
• "A Line In The Sand"

Tours

• The Hunting Party European Summer Tour
• Carnivores Tour
• The Hunting Party Fall European Tour 2014
• The Hunting Party North American Tour
• The Hunting Party North American Summer Shows
• The Hunting Party Chinese Tour
• The Hunting Party European Tour 2015

Promotion

On February 3, 2014, Mike Shinoda posted an update on his blog, revealing the band was deep in the process of writing and recording the album that would become The Hunting Party, mentioning the band's experimentation and openness to free form jamming. A month later, on March 3, Linkin Park uploaded a 22 second teaser of the opening guitar riff of "Guilty All The Same" that showed a notepad with "The Hunting Party 6.14" written on it. That same day, "Guilty All The Same" was added to the BMI repertoire. The next day, Linkin Park announced the Carnivores Tour in August and September with 30 Seconds to Mars and AFI. On March 5, the song "Guilty All The Same" was released through Shazam as The Hunting Party's first single. The lyric video for the track was uploaded to Linkin Park's YouTube channel a few days later, on March 7. The official music video for "Guilty All The Same", a collaboration with Microsoft and their game, Project Spark, was released at the end of the month, on March 25.

On April 7, Mike Shinoda hosted a listening party at MSR Studios in New York City, where the album title, The Hunting Party, and five song names were revealed, "Keys To The Kingdom", "All For Nothing", "The Wastelands", "Until It's Gone", and "Rebellion". Over the next month, song reviews of the five songs were released by a few music outlets, including Rolling Stone, Loudwire, and Altwire. On May 5, "Until It's Gone" was debuted on Zane Lowe's radio show, who had also debuted the songs "Lies Greed Misery" and "The Catalyst". The song's lyric video was released at the same time. A day later, Linkin Park launched official pre-orders for The Hunting Party on their website. An additional DVD performance of the band's live show in Monterrey, Mexico was offered for international orders.

On May 28, a teaser of "Wastelands" was uploaded to Linkin Park's YouTube channel to help promote UFC 174. The song was intended to be debuted by Ian Camfield on XFM radio, but Mike threw out CDs of the song at their Rock In Rio performance a few days ahead of the premiere. Its lyric video was released the same day as the intended release date. Only two days later, "Rebellion" was released and a lyric video was uploaded to Linkin Park's YouTube channel. That week, listening sessions for LP Underground members were announced around the world, including Mexico, New York, Germany, and Russia. On June 8, "Final Masquerade" was released through a stream on MTV. The song's lyric video was released a day later. That same day, fans could stream The Hunting Party in full through iTunes.

The official music video for "Until It's Gone" was released on June 12. A video for "Wastelands", done with the UFC, was released on June 25, featuring clips of a UFC match and Linkin Park's performance of Wastelands at Rock In Rio. A month later, on July 29, the music video for "Final Masquerade", directed by Mark Pellington, was released. The video version of the song included an extended intro and outro. On August 12, Linkin Park released the a cappellas and instrumentals of The Hunting Party, just as they did with their previous album, Living Things. Another video for "Wastelands", done in collaboration with IAVA, was released to IAVA's YouTube channel on September 5.

Reception

Critical Reception

The Hunting Party received generally positive reviews upon its release. On the review aggregation site, Metacritic, the album received a 65, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic gave the album three and a half stars, stating "Reconnecting with the past is a standard move for a heavy band 15 years into its career, but The Hunting Party is effectively aggressive, partially due to how far into the ether Linkin Park strayed on Living Things and, especially, A Thousand Suns." In a review for Loudwire, Chad Childer praised the record's closing run of tracks, claiming "While Linkin Park unveiled several songs ahead of its release, those listening to The Hunting Party for first time will find the disc at its most triumphant during its final stretch, as tracks like "Rebellion", "Mark The Graves", "Final Masquerade" and "A Line In The Sand" provide a powerful finish to a rock-solid effort." He also mentioned the guest appearances of Daron Malakian and Page Hamilton on "Rebellion" and "All For Nothing", respectively, as highlights. Dab Epstein, writing for Revolver, gave the album four stars, and said " The Hunting Party is inspiring proof that bands don't have to get softer as they grow older--but can, in fact, do the very opposite."

In a more critical review, Dominick Suzanne-Mayer from Consequence of Sound claimed the album is nothing more than "the sound of a band with long-term tenure trying to find its place in modern rock, but its experiments seem more like an attempt to fling every trend from the past decade at the wall to see what might constitute a new direction" and cited "Rebellion" as "the most K-Mart version of a SOAD song possible." NME's David Renshaw gave the album a 6 out of 10, citing Tom Morello's performance on "Drawbar" as a disappointment and calling "War" and "Wastelands" examples of "a tumult of expensive-sounding noise", but he praised Malakian's work on "Rebellion".

Chart Performance

The Hunting Party sold 110,000 copies in the United States during its first week, placing it at #3 on the Billboard 200 charts, behind Lana Del Rey's Ultraviolence and Sam Smith's In The Lonely Hour. This makes it the first studio album since Hybrid Theory to not earn the #1 spot on the chart. It did, however, peak at #1 on the US rock, alternative, and hard rock charts, as well as in 7 other countries, including Germany.

Charts	Peak Position
Australian Albums (ARIA)	3
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)	2
Belgian Albums (Ultrapop)	7
Canadian Albums (Billboard)	3
Czech Albums (ČNS IFPI)	1
Danish Albums (Hitlisten)	4
Dutch Albums (MegaCharts)	8
Finnish Albums (Suomen Virallinen Lista)	4
French Albums (SNEP)	3
German Albums (Offical Top 100)	1
Hungarian Albums (MAHASZ)	1
Indian Albums (IMI)	1
Italian Albums (FIMI)	4
Mexican Albums (AMPROFON)	4
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)	2
Norwegian Albums (VG-Lista)	11
Polish Albums (ZPAV)	3
Portuguese Albums (AFP)	1
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)	27
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)	1
UK Albums (OCC)	2
US Billboard 200	3
US Rock Albums (Billboard)	1
US Alternative Albums (Billboard)	1
US Top Hard Rock Albums (Billboard)	1

Awards

The Hunting Party was nominated for "2014 Best Rock Album of the Year" by Loudwire, but wound up barely losing to Islander's album, Violence & Destruction. Despite that, though, the album did wind up placing higher on Loudwire's "20 Best Rock Albums of 2014" list, with The Hunting Party placing 19th. "Rebellion" was also nominated for "2014 Best Rock Song of the Year", but also lost.

The album placed on a few end of the year lists from other publications as well. Revolver ranked the album the fourth best album of 2014, significantly higher than it ranked the album part-way through the year, where it was ranked number 20. Kerrang also placed the album on their end-of-year list, placing number 36 on their "Top 50 Rock Albums of 2014" list.

Gallery

• 

  Standard cover

• 

  BestBuy CD + DVD

• 

  Artwork with band name and title

• 

  Deluxe edition art book

• 

  Vinyl

• 

  The Hunting Party: Acapellas + Instrumentals digital album

• 

  Pre-order bonus album through Linkin Park's website

• 

  The Hunting Party exclusive poster bundle (numbered)

• 

  Poster bundle envelope

• 

  Mask lithograph

• 

  Stag lithograph

• 

  Nest lithograph

• 

  Japanese edition bookmark/sticker

• 

  Poster

• 

  2014 European tour poster

• 

  2015 North American tour poster

• 

  2015 Chinese tour poster

Trivia

• The closing track of The Hunting Party, "A Line In The Sand", is the band's longest song to date, taking the title from Minutes To Midnight's "The Little Things Give You Away".
• The Hunting Party contains the most guitar solos of any Linkin Park album, with a total of 9 solos.
• The Hunting Party marks the first time guest vocals have been used by Linkin Park on a studio album, with Rakim appearing on "Guilty All The Same" and Page Hamilton appearing on "All For Nothing".
• The bonus DVD for The Hunting Party, Live In Monterrey, marks the first time a live DVD has been released alongside an album without any songs from that album being performed.
• The Hunting Party is the first studio album completely self-produced by the band.

External Links

Music Videos

• "Guilty All The Same": LPTV
• "Until It's Gone": LPTV | Linkin Park Facebook
• "Wastelands" (UFC Version): LPTV | Linkin Park Facebook
• "Wastelands" (IAVA Version): IAVAVids
• "Final Masquerade": LPTV | MTV | Linkin Park Facebook

Lyric Videos

• "Guilty All The Same": LPTV
• "Until It's Gone": LPTV | Austin Saya | Linkin Park Facebook
• "Wastelands": LPTV | Linkin Park Facebook
• "Rebellion": LPTV | Linkin Park Facebook
• "Final Masquerade": LPTV | Linkin Park Facebook

Live Videos

• "Until It's Gone" (Live In Milan 2014): LPTV | FanFootage
• "Until It's Gone" (KROQ Red Bull Sound Space 2014): KROQ
• "Final Masquerade" (Guitar Center Sessions 2014): Guitar Center
• "Until It's Gone" (Guitar Center Sessions 2014): Guitar Center

LPTV

• Preview
• Carnivores Tour with 30 Seconds To Mars and Special Guest: AFI
• Behind The Scenes of "Guilty All The Same" (feat. Rakim)
• The Hunting Party 6.17.14
• LPTV: The Hunting Part Photo Shoot
• The Hunting Party: 6.17.14 - Extended Trailer
• Chester and Mike Discuss "The Hunting Party" - Part 1
• Chester and Mike Discuss "The Hunting Party" - Part 2
• LPTV: Chester Breaks His Ankle On The Hunting Party Tour
• LPTV: True Chainz (All For Nothing feat. Page Hamilton of Helmet)
• LPTV: Drawbar (feat. Tom Morello)
• The Hunting Party China Tour 2015
• LPTV: A Line In The Sand
• LPTV: Summer Festivals and The Storm

LPU-TV

• Origin of The Hunting Party / Carnivores
• The Hunting Party First Look
• Thanksgiving Lyrics
• Odyssey Drums
• True Chainz Chester Vocals
• True Chainz Gang Vocals
• Give Me Back What's Mine

Interviews

• Inside Track: Linkin Park's The Hunting Party
• Linkin Park On Their New Song "Guilty All The Same"
• Scuzz Meets Linkin Park
• Linkin Park - Interview with 101WKQX - PIQNIQ 2014
• Mike Shinoda ● LINKIN PARK ✘ MONTREALITY ➥ Interview
• Dave Farrell and Linkin Park Return to Their Roots | Bassplayer
• Linkin Park Return to Heavy Roots on New Album - | Rolling Stone India
• Interview: Linkin Park Talk the Importance of Underground Music, Improving Their Live Show, and What Has Kept the Band from Breaking Up | Revolvermag
• Linkin Park Discuss The Hunting Party and Upcoming Carnivores Tour - AltWire