| "Keys To The Kingdom" | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Song by Linkin Park | |
| from the album The Hunting Party | |
| Working title: | Coffee |
| Recorded: | 2013 - 2014 |
| Length: | 3:38 |
| Time signature: | 4/4 |
| Tempo: | 184 |
| Key: | E Minor |
| Writer: | Linkin Park |
| Producer: | Brad Delson, Mike Shinoda |
| Label: | Warner Bros. |
| The Hunting Party tracklist | |
| |
"Keys To The Kingdom" is the first track on Linkin Park's sixth studio album The Hunting Party. According to Mike Shinoda, it is one of the most underrated songs in Linkin Park's catalog.[1]
Background
"Keys To The Kingdom" starts off The Hunting Party with Chester's heavily effected screaming and weird electronics before giving way to Rob Bourdon's heavy drumming and Brad Delson's riffing. The drastic changes were an intentional decision, as revealed by Mike Shinoda in an interview with Rolling Stone, as he wanted the song to "just kind of fuck you up".[2] Shinoda later revealed on Twitter that the song's drastic sonic changes made it a prime candidate to open the album,[3] and that Chester Bennington's vocals in the chorus were "stream-of-consciousness", as in Bennington didn't write anything down. He simply sang what came to mind.[4]
Rob Bourdon said tracking went fairly quickly for "Keys To The Kingdom" and explained what they aim for as a band is to make something that sounds so unique that it's hard for someone with a trained ear to be able to tell exactly what the source is or if it's live or sampled. "There are a couple spots in that song where we did some sampling. We sampled my live drums and chopped them up in Pro Tools on the grid. There are some other sampled sounds added to the live snare so that it punches through even more. They’re all created from the snare drum used in the song."[5]
Initially, the interlude at the end of the song featured a little kid screaming "The cold never bothered me anyway!" a line from "Let It Go", a song in Disney's incredibly popular animated film, Frozen. However, the reference was cut after they couldn't clear the line being used.[6]
Remix
On December 24, 2014, several members from the Linkin Park Association community teamed up to release a remix album of The Hunting Party titled Viscera. The album was later released to the LP Underground on June 18, 2015 after the band received the full rights to distribute the album. The remix of "Keys To The Kingdom" was done by Confetti Parade and MKH. The instrumental version of the remix was released February 28, 2015.
Versions
Note: Only the date of the very first release of each version is listed.
Studio
| Title | Album | Length | Recorded | Released | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keys To The Kingdom | The Hunting Party | 3:38 | 2013-2014 | June 13, 2014 | |
| Keys To The Kingdom | The Hunting Party (Clean) | 3:38 | 2013-2014 | June 13, 2014 | |
| Keys To The Kingdom (Instrumental) | The Hunting Party: Acapellas + Instrumentals | 3:28 | 2013-2014 | August 12, 2014 |
|
| Keys To The Kingdom (Acapella) | The Hunting Party: Acapellas + Instrumentals | 3:38 | 2013-2014 | August 12, 2014 |
|
Remix
| Title | Album | Length | Recorded | Released | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keys To The Kingdom: Confetti Parade | Viscera | 3:28 | 2014 | December 24, 2014 |
|
| Keys To The Kingdom: Confetti Parade (Instrumental) | Viscera (Instrumentals) | 3:28 | 2014 | February 28, 2015 |
|
Live
Linkin Park
At the Rock am Ring 2014 interview with Chester, Phoenix mentioned wanting to play "Keys To The Kingdom" live. He said, "Already, the three songs we are doing live right now are great. And Mike and I were actually just talking about this the other day, going, "Next tour, which songs would we like to play?" And we were just going through and naming like, every track on the record, like, "I want to play "Rebellion" live, I want to play "Keys To The Kingdom" live, I want to play "A Line In The Sand" live", listing off things that we really want to play live." Chester added that they wanted to make a record with more songs that would be fun to play live, and said every track on The Hunting Party would be fun to play.[7]
"Keys To The Kingdom" was included in the list of songs submitted by the band to the Chinese government in preparation of their 2015 Chinese tour, meaning they were at least considering playing it,[8] but the song still ended up not being played.
On a Twitch stream in April 2020, Mike said that Linkin Park didn't end up rehearsing "Keys To The Kingdom" to play live before adding that he thought it was a dope song and he loved it. He said the problem was that the rest of the band only wanted to play a certain amount of time on stage, like a set that was around 100 minutes. Mike wanted to play a big longer. Linkin Park didn't get around to rehearsing on the road or making the songs fit into the live setlist with the amount of time they had agreed upon for the set, so this is why a lot of songs ended up being left out of setlists.[9] At a Q&A in celebration of the 20th anniversary of Meteora, Phoenix said that he always wanted to open a show with "Keys To The Kingdom", but it never ended up happening.[10]
"Keys To The Kingdom" finally got its moment in the set at the Los Angeles stop of the From Zero World Tour, where it was played as the second song in the encore. Before playing the song, Mike talked about Papercuts, the band's greatest hits album that had come out earlier that year, and brought up the fan outcry at no songs from The Hunting Party being included in the collection before cueing Emily to start the song. Once "Heavy Is The Crown" was debuted in Hamburg, it replaced "Keys To The Kingdom" in the encore while the latter was added to the "rotation spot" in Set B, rotating with "Lost In The Echo" and "A Place For My Head".
Mike Shinoda
At the Manila, Philippines show on Mike's solo tour in September 2019, he rapped the second verse of the song over the extended bridge of "Sorry For Now" as part of a challenge given to him to represent every Linkin Park album in the set. This was the only time any part of a song from The Hunting Party was performed during the Post Traumatic tour. Mike said on Instagram after the show, "I had to print the lyrics because a bunch of these were pretty deep cuts. I've never done "Keys to the Kingdom" live, and "Step Up" is like 20 years old or something."
Personnel
Linkin Park is
- Chester Bennington
- Rob Bourdon
- Brad Delson
- Phoenix
- Joe Hahn
- Mike Shinoda
Production
- Produced by Mike Shinoda and Brad Delson
- Lyrics & Vocals by Mike Shionda and Chester Bennington
- 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
Lyrics
NO CONTROL / NO SURPRISE
TOSSED THE KEYS TO THE KINGDOM
DOWN THAT HOLE IN MY EYE
I'M MY OWN / CASUALTY
I FUCK UP EVERYTHING I SEE
FIGHTING IN FUTILITY
We start the final war
Tell me what's worth fighting for
When we know there's nothing more
We take the hand or fist
Just to sell ourselves for this
The path we least resist
NO CONTROL / NO SURPRISE
TOSSED THE KEYS TO THE KINGDOM
DOWN THAT HOLE IN MY EYE
I'M MY OWN / CASUALTY
I FUCK UP EVERYTHING I SEE
FIGHTING IN FUTILITY
Uh, I give you what you came for / this is not the same though
Got a different method but I still can bring the pain so
Y'all locked in that same flow / I got that insane flow
High as y'all can get you're never really in my range though
Yes I'm half anglo / half fried panko
All prime-time rhymer / I'mma let the bass bang low
All you fucking lames go / aiming at my name, know
Careful what you shoot because you might hit what you aim for
Careful what you shoot because you might hit what you aim for
NO CONTROL / NO SURPRISE
TOSSED THE KEYS TO THE KINGDOM
DOWN THAT HOLE IN MY EYE
I'M MY OWN / CASUALTY
I FUCK UP EVERYTHING I SEE
FIGHTING IN FUTILITY
Oh, woah, oh [x4]
NO CONTROL / NO SURPRISE (Oh, woah, oh)
TOSSED THE KEYS TO THE KINGDOM (Oh, woah, oh)
DOWN THAT HOLE IN MY EYE (Oh, woah, oh)
I'M MY OWN / CASUALTY (Oh, woah, oh [x2])
I'M MY OWN
CASUALTY
Kid: I'm not allowed to say certain things! AUGHHHHH!
Mike: Try and do...try and do the other thing, real quick.
Gallery
-
List of songs considered for the Chinese Tour 2015
-
Mike's Instagram story after rapping "Keys to the Kingdom" live in Manila in 2019
External Links
References
- ↑ Linkin Park Live on X: "We have answers about #TheHuntingParty! Paging Brad Delson 📣 https://t.co/2ZcnpGT26F" / X, February 25, 2024
- ↑ Rolling Stone, April 2014
- ↑ Twitter, June 2014
- ↑ Twitter, June 2014
- ↑ Linkin Park's Rob Bourdon - Modern Drummer Magazine, September 2014
- ↑ Chideo, August 2014
- ↑ YouTube: DASDING - Linkin Park im Rock am Ring Interview: "Wir werden dir in die Fresse hauen!", June 14, 2014
- ↑ Keys To The Kingdom to receive live debut? - Newswire - Linkin Park Live, July 06, 2015
- ↑ Mike Q&A Summary April 8th, 2020 - Newswire - Linkin Park Live, April 09, 2020
- ↑ Linkin Park - Global Fan Q&A Livestream | YouTube