Then without a second of breathing time, the crunchy chorus returns for one last effort.īut most importantly for me, what sets Given Up apart from Linkin Park's nu-metal past, is the fact that the song is just teeming with a newfound confidence. And then there's the bridge.įeaturing gut-wrenching howls from Bennington alongside a relentless chainsaw guitar riff, the bridge builds momentum until the unruly 17 seconds where Bennington releases it all in one scream for the ages. Bennington's vocals feel like they contain the perfect balance of aggression and emotion. The intimate yet savage verses that rely on bass and angst alone to create an unruly tensions before that chugging guitar comes roaring back for a massive chorus.
![linkin park given up live 17 sec scream linkin park given up live 17 sec scream](https://media.giphy.com/media/NdeUsoFhCnGY8/giphy.gif)
Looking at Given Up now, I absolutely love the carnage. I also vividly remember being completely taken aback by the swearing in the song, so much so that it completely turned me off from the song at first. Given Up just felt so raw and in your face. From listening to What I've Done when it was released as a single I knew there was a more alternative change in sound for the band, but I never expected this to be the result. I still remember my first time listening to Given Up on Minutes To Midnight's release day way back in 2007. The fact that he immediately nails the chorus right after it makes that all the more impressive! Most notably, as part of the lead-up to the album release, Linkin Park was filmed playing in their rehearsal space at Third Encore for "AOL Sessions", and the performance of "Given Up" recorded there is a rare instance of Chester delivering the full, uninterrupted scream at the end of the bridge. "Given Up" translated well on-stage right from the start and was played for fans prior to "Minutes To Midnight"'s release along with "No More Sorrow" and "What I've Done" to give people a taste of the album. Footage from these shows, focusing on the "Given Up" video filming, appears towards the end of this LPTV episode. The video was directed by Linkin Park's videographer Mark Fiore, and obviously aimed to capture the song's live energy. Frames from past Linkin Park videos and other miscellanea were spliced in alongside this live footage for no discernible reason. The song's video consists mainly of live footage shot at two UK shows at the tail-end of a European tour leg that same month, footage which was heavily saturated in post-production to give it an aged, lo-fi look, and cut with frantic pacing. "Given Up" was released as the fourth single from "Minutes To Midnight" in February of 2008. And, of course, footage of Chester making effective use of a pop filter while recording his vocals. This also gives us a glimpse into a time in the band's history where Shinoda could like an idea but would abandon it if the rest of the band didn't agree with him and voted against it:Ĭlick to expand."Making of Minutes To Midnight" shows us that the working title for the song was "21 Stitches", and there is footage of Delson recording the jingling keys and guitar parts. In a track-by-track run-through of the album for Kerrang!, Shinoda and Delson explained that "Given Up" was born from the ashes of a demo called "Fire In The City", and also that the lyrics in the song are "not happy". Subsequent albums contained what some would call a healthy sprinkle of expletives (except for "Living Things"), in stark contrast to "Hybrid Theory" and "Meteora" which were conspicuously devoid of them.
![linkin park given up live 17 sec scream linkin park given up live 17 sec scream](https://www.ocregister.com/wp-content/uploads/migration/nbt/nbt2yi-b88191155z.120140912134208000g5250492.10.jpg)
This song's first chorus also marked the very first instance of uncensored profanity appearing on an official Linkin Park full-length studio album and marked a turning point in the band's music in this regard. Unfortunately, it's not easy for Chester to pull off over and over again so, quite soon after they began playing it live, he stopped trying instead, he pauses to take a breath midway through the scream.
![linkin park given up live 17 sec scream linkin park given up live 17 sec scream](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/0d/b2/b9/0db2b9f209fa1e63e958cfaab14535d0.jpg)
The track's biggest highlight is definitely the bridge, where Chester delivers the longest sustained scream ever performed on a Linkin Park recording at the time, atop one of the heaviest riffs ever heard on a Linkin Park song. It truly showcases how "Minutes To Midnight" is "definitely Linkin Park" but totally different to the songs on their first two albums just the same. In this way, it was a standard Linkin Park album opener for its day but, in allowing this comparison to "One Step Closer" and "Don't Stay", it's easy to see how different "Given Up" is sonically to the band's earlier work. It's a fierce, punk/industrial-influenced number that starts out with handclaps and jingling keys before launching into Delson's chugging guitar riffs and Chester's straight-to-the-point lyrics about. "Given Up" has the raw-sounding guitars and drums in common with "Wake" but, other than that, it feels completely different.