Linkin Park's Shinoda responds to 'we kept metal alive' remark

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By ( Metal Hammer ) published

Linkin' Park's Mike Shinoda insists co-singer Chester Bennington's comments about their band's role in the metal industry were "taken out of context"

Mike Shinoda and Chester Bennington, Rock On The Range 2015
Mike Shinoda and Chester Bennington (Image credit: Getty)

Linkin’ Park’s Mike Shinoda has hit back after claiming his bandmate Chester Bennington’s “we kept metal alive” comment was misconstrued by the media.

The vocalist and guitarist leapt to the singer’s defence, explaining that the band “made the case” for successful metal in an industry commercially saturated by pop music after they launched their 2000 debut album, Hybrid Theory.

Shinoda says: “Bunch of rock outlets taking Chester‘s ‘kept metal alive’ quote out of context today. So dumb. It’s click-bait, don’t fall for it.

“He basically said that pop music was ruling the world, and we made a case for commercially viable heavy music – no big deal. Maybe not the best choice of words, but the sentiment wasn’t as outrageous as today’s rock news would have you think.”

The full feature on Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory is in issue 286 of Metal Hammer, which includes the 100 greatest albums of the 21st century. It’s out now in print and via TeamRock+.

The band are currently working on their seventh album, the follow-up to 2014’s The Hunting Party.

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Christina O'Neill

Former TeamRock news desk member Christina joined our team in late 2015, and although her time working on online rock news was fairly brief, she made a huge impact by contributing close to 1500 stories. Christina also interviewed artists including Deftones frontman Chino Moreno and worked at the Download festival. In late 2016, Christina left rock journalism to pursue a career in current affairs. In 2021, she was named Local Weekly Feature Writer of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards.