Broman, you are the man for putting up the link on youtube for the previews in the comment section! chance of rain sounds amazing. And both Animals and Basil are awesome! It's good to hear some vocals once again.
I think this year's LPU CD might be a really good one. I already like that it's really succinct with just six tracks, and at least half of them are bound to become favourites among hardxcore fans, I'm predicting. These tracks sound like they'll be fun to listen to in and of themselves.
I don't know about the other bundles, but when you buy the digital copy there is a Download button on the order page after the order has been paid for.
IM SO HYPED!!!! Buying the merch bundle tomorrow, as well as every other Linkin Park CD, excluding LPU1-4, 6, and 12 since the CD's arent available anywhere anymore...except bootlegs. Yes...Im fucking crazy! I love the shirt this year; I've always wanted just a plain, simple shirt with the logo on it. The hard rock cafe one I have is almost a plain simple logo, but its got all these funky drawings inside it. And the LPU XIV shirt, while having fucking awesome artwork, is not the logo. FINALLY! THE GUITAR PICK THO ASDHKJSAHGDF AND THE BAND PHOTO YES EVEN MORE LP SHIT TO PLASTER ON MY WALLS!!!!
Chance of Rain gives me more modern She Couldn't vibes. I like it. And the entirety of Animals is incredible. Feels like a more sporadic Lost In The Echo.
I've heard all the songs, I like any of these songs much better then LPU14 as a whole. Basil is shorter then I've expected, sounds like a typical stuff from Mike. Animals sounds like something from The Raid soundtrack, no vocals in choruses, just rap parts in the verses. The 1998 beats have that Coal feeling. Nothing special, but they're cool. And Chance of Rain is amazing, great upbeat song with good lyrics and some good, experimental sounds. Can't wait to hear the rest.
I also like the move of releasing more songs over the course of a year, but I am kinda sad that those songs are basically scrapped off the physical disc. It's a bit sad for people buying the physical disk to have only one half of the songs on it and the rest only digitally. But still, it's very cool to get new music every two months. Edit: Anyone knowing something about shipping costs to Germany and customs?
I gotta say that ANIMALS is more dirty, energetic, and firecracker than most of the material on Living Things, too bad it wasn't completed. The song almost follows an industrial direction; tunes like this and Razors Out makes me wish the band would actually go that road for once.
Yeah, there are industrial flourishes throughout all of the band's work but it's taken in a more clearly electronic direction on "A Thousand Suns" and "Living Things" with songs like "Wretches", "Skin To Bone" and "Until It Breaks". "Animals" seems to be in that vein
Blame piracy. I'm not 100% saying that's the reason they're doing this, but when you put money into producing a CD for a fanclub that barely turns a profit (most money goes into the costs), and the whole entire CD leaks within an hour of being available, thus devaluing half the package...you can see why things have to be done this way. Releasing the rest of the CD every other month guarantees that the music stays exclusive to the fanclub, at least for a short while before each track 'leaks'.