WAR “WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR” Channeling the inspiration of The Hunting Party’s fury, and releasing the built-up tension found in The Summoning, War comes fifth in the track list of the aggressive album. Never a band to back down from a challenge, Linkin Park passionately embraces the punk music genre, with a fast-paced, razor-edged, almost parody-anti-establishment song that barely crosses the two-minute mark. There’s a brief sound of guitar amp fuzz before the onslaught begins with a blistering wall of power chords. Bourdon counts in the band with classic “1-2-3-4” tapping of the drumsticks while Bennington harshly cries an opening, punk-influenced greeting. What follows is pure unadulterated instrumental aggression as War erupts over a sea of crushing guitars and relentless drum work. The first verse is equally aggressive as Bennington barks out a gritty message of the desolation of war while the instruments fire in the background. The verse ends in absolute silence for an entire 8 beats until Bennington belts out “war” in a frenzied scream. The furious 'chorus' lasts less than five seconds before breaking into the next verse. This time, Bennington’s vocals turn even harsher, his classic rasp prevailing above all. The second chorus nearly triples in length as the vocalist refrains “war” and “destroyer” twice, with the final “destroyer” bursting into a shredding scream. If Keys To The Kingdom’s guitar solo was Delson flexing his fingers, then War elevates the guitarist to his highest ascension, as he weaves a blistering, lightning fast solo. Picking several notes per second, Delson churns a malevolent melody that strikes without remorse, and would sound right at home with any metal act in the industry. All of this while Bourdon mercilessly blasts the drums in turn. The final chorus encapsulates the raging storm, finishing with a wretched, guttural scream from Bennington. Lyrically, there’s not much to explain for War. The song is a literal anti-war message from start to finish. Since release, the lyrics have been highly criticized, not for their words, but for their simplicity. Linkin Park has been known for hiding the inner messages of songs under layers of metaphors, whereas War’s statement is blunt, focused, and bordering on cliché. Of course, there could be an argument for the song being a war between Linkin Park’s album vision and the current rock/pop scene, but this seems rather farfetched in comparison. RostaSliwka’s remix of War on LPA’s Viscera album once again completely redefines the song. Gone is the blazing-fast, aggressive tempo that harkened to punk. Instead is a slow-burning, piano-driven, electro anthem that surely takes more than a bit of inspiration from A Thousand Suns’ Blackout. Featuring an atmospheric buildup, an absence of guitars, and a dreamy breakdown, the result is a captivating remix that sounds more appropriate for a raving club setting rather than a punk stadium. Despite its short length and absurdly aggressive energy, War remains to be played live onstage. Upon The Hunting Party’s release, the fans figured War was designed specifically for a live environment, and yet Linkin Park never played it for the album’s touring cycle. Excitement peaked in early 2015 when the band posted an Instagram rehearsal image with Delson holding a guitar that looked to be tuned for War, and even playing what looked to be a chord featured in the song, yet the performance never came to fruition. STUDIO SECRETS An early take of the intro had Bennington shouting “1-2-1-2 FUCK YOU” According to a meet and greet, this is the only song on the album featuring Bennington on guitar
I like War. A friend of mine who is hugely into punk rock says its the only good track LP did. Btw. the song says "1-2-1-2-THANK YOU" not 3-4..but thats just a side mention
War is a cool song in it's own right, though far from my favorite on the album. When I first heard it, Chester sounded super different than any way I've heard him before. The only thing it felt comparable to me was the band's cover of "wish" from back in the day. I feel like they went super hard on the kind of "garage" sound with this track. I think it's cool that they tried that out, and I'm glad that the rest of the album has a little bit more of a refined sound than this. I can't help but wonder what the track would have been like with "Victimized" production though.... I do like the sample at the end of the track a lot more than the kind of vocal samples anywhere else on the album. Is anyone sure what it's saying? I think it just kind of feels like chaos, which fits the song well imo. Reminds me of Muse's Animals ending.
I've been very busy this summer and only now got a chance to skim through a few of these posts, and read the "Guilty" one fully. This is really exceptionally written and I'm so glad this thread will really be a fucking great source of info when it's done. Mad props to you, Atticus.
Can we also mention this ? War is a great heavy punk rocker BLAM WHAAAAAA EXPLOSION RATATATATA song and is in the same vein as VICTIMIZED. I haven't been paying attention to the lyrics since the song's main focus is not lyrics, however these are a little simplisitic but not meaningless and I think aren't representative of the band's true skills in terms of writing complex yet meaningful lyrics.
War is a pretty fun song imo. Like Bleed It Out. I like the agressive style from the start to the end. Also if the lyrics arent not that worth to be mentioned, i love the way Chester sings and screams ere. So fucking Punk (well, so punk a LP song can be ) Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar, Destroyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer The solo fits also pretty good to this punkish style, i think its all in all a pretty damn good track.
It's interesting in that it's Linkin Park attempting to do a full on punk rock song, which is something I never thought I'd see them do. It's not the best punk song, nor is it a favorite of mine on this album, but it's cool to have. Lyrically it sucks, but whatever. I didn't exactly expect a song called "War" on a hard rock album influenced by the 90s to have super insightful lyrics, nor does it need them. They deliver their message, and that's enough for me. I don't really care for the solo though. Not because it sounds bad, but because it's so drowned out in effects that I have no fucking clue what is happening. Might have been the intention, but just not my cup of tea. This should have been played live. No reason for it not to have been, except for the solo, I guess. I thought they'd cut Runaway and do the album transition of War -> Wastelands. But nope, they decided they'd rather play a song that the lead singer of the band hates than a short, fast, aggressive song from the new album they're meant to be touring in support of.
I actually I do like the little clip from AFN to GATS, mainly because I enjoy hearing the little conversation of "heavy shit" and then GATS just hits you in the face. EDIT: Shit didn't realize I was replying to an older post But War. Yeah no 9 times out of 10 i give this song a skip. This is no Victimized where eventually I began to enjoy this song. This song is just so meh and does nothing for me at all. The lyrics are horrible, I don't dig the vocals, and maybe I can dig the guitars and drums a little but that's all.
Shit I missed The Summoning Re: The Summoning, I'd just like to add that I really appreciate that it's there in the track listing. Aside from ATS, LP's albums are so predictable in structure, and THP is the only one to shake it up even a little bit, with two instrumentals, three longer songs, etc. While I feel that they've written better interludes, I think that it does the job it sets out to do well and makes the album just that little bit more interesting. On to War. Damn, I thought this song was liked more than it seems to be. I guess it is a relatively polarising song. For me, War delivers exactly what the band promised. It's short, heavy, intense, and to the point, and it's without a doubt the most "#Visceral" song on the album. Most of the time, I prefer it when the band utilise more interesting arrangements, but this is an exception. Linkin Park have never sounded this raw (except for on The Messenger, I guess), and while I wouldn't want a whole album like this, its short run time justifies its existence. It's intense, in your face, and doesn't outstay it's welcome. For me, it's the perfect contrast to GATS, which is why I feel the two work so well together. While both heavy tracks, the former is long, calculated, and mid-tempo, while the latter is short, spontaneous, and lightning fast. Having War on the album is a huge benefit IMO, as it adds a lot of diversity by being the only song of its kind the band have ever written. It's not usually my kind of genre, but as a once off, two minute track, for me it does everything I could possibly want it to do, and more.
Okay, I lost it when you were describing the solo for War. You went all-out in the descriptors department. War is great for what it is. It's a relentless punk song that doesn't slow down until the end. It captures a punk attitude very well, composed simply to bang and yell and be all-around intense. Is it necessarily complex and layered...no. But that's not a bad thing! The rawness is really nice, especially with a band that has spent so much time being so meticulous about their music.
I was expecting LP to do a polite and engineered version of punk, so it stunned me that the entire song was really violent and trashy throwback punk. It's actually a mixture of metal and punk but there is no compromise or clean up of the track. I was just taken back by how spontaneous and free the song felt. Usually I feel too much restraint and refinement in LP's music.
I don't care for this song (mostly because I don't like punk) but I do like this song existing. It's short, sweet and an experiment for LP and, to me, it works for what it sets to accomplish. Lyrically? It's not horrible. LP has wrote worse and more generic lyrics in their career so I'm not complaining. It's a cool track. Nothing more to me.
The fuck should I say about this song? Definitely favorite! Greatly executed (yeah, including the solo, even if Brad can't play it live). There is this one guy on Youtube who did guitar cover for the whole album, each songs, back to back, start to finish. And his solo for this song is the closest that I can find to the original. And if I remember correctly, he got the tab from @Astat. And.. Nuff said.
Like people have said, the message and metaphors of the song are pretty overused, but overall the song actually does what it sets out to do - kick the listener in the face with #visceral-punk-aggression. The solo is the icing on the cake for me, even through I am 100% certain that Brad couldn't recreate it even if he tried. Also: Am I the only one who thinks this is one of Chester's best vocal performances on the album? His raspy voice and outbreaks of screams sound great. I actually wish he sounded more like this throughout the rest of the record.
I like that Chester does the verses aggressively, that's something I don't think we get on LP songs often