I have no idea whats with all the hate towards this song. Its an amazing song, the reasoning behind it is even more amazing.
After a couple listen, and knowing about its purpose (or meaning). I think I love it. Right after When They Come For Me and Iridescent.
For the record, I do not dislike "The Messenger" but it's easily my least favorite proper track on ATS. Chester's verbal overdose sounds remarkably authentic compared to the majority of their other songs which are heavily layered and overdubbed, and authenticity is generally considered a respectable characteristic especially in the music industry so more power to him.
It's one of my favs from the album although I do think it is completely out of place. After such an electronic and layered album such a stripped down track just feels off. I am happy it's on there though.
Judging from the footage on Meeting of A Thousand Suns, they tracked the majority of this song live - Mike, Brad, and Chester tracked the piano, guitar, and vocals together, then they went back and overdubbed some gang vocals by the whole band on the "oh oh" part at the end (which is mixed really low on the final product, but it's still there), and I'm assuming Mike added the harmonium part at that point as well. I think it's pretty cool that there's now a Linkin Park song that you could literally record on an 8-track and not even run out of room.