Band : Linkin Park
Album title : Road To Revolution – Live At Milton Keynes
Record label : Warner
Distributor : Warner
Release date : 21/11/2008
Release : CD + DVD (in digipak)

Having reviewed this American Alternative Metal’s third regular 2007 studio album Minutes To Midnight (review posted 10/06/2007), I have to say on retrospect that I was somewhat negligent in giving you all the info I could, so…Linkin Park followed up their 2000 debut with the 2002 remixes album Re-Animation; a new ‘regular’ studio album came with 2003’s Meteora, which was followed not only by the live recorded Live In Texas that same year, but also by 2004’s Collision Course, on which the band, again, brought older songs in different versions.

Rhythm guitarist and backing singer Mike Shinoda announced the arrival of the new live album (with on it recordings from their 29 June 2008 performance at Milton Keynes’ National Bowl) on October 6th of last year. Originally the band had planned to get the concert aired through MTV, but somehow that plan fell through, so the fans could expect the release of a digipak CD/DVD…and were invited to chose from 5 possibilities to give the album it’s title. Eventually, it became a combination…with a difference! The concert (eventually aired in ediited version on Japanese tv-channel Wowow on Oct. 28) was part of the first European Projekt Revolution tour, which also included the bands Enter Shikari, InnerPartySystem, N*E*R*D, Pendulum, The Bravery, and Jay-Z.

Due to the length of the concert (the guys did two encores) versus the limited duration of a CD, the tracks “Papercut”, “Somewhere I Belong”, “Wake 2.0”, and “Points Of Authority” are not included on the CD. Weirdly enough, the band chose to leave the instrumental “Wake 2.0” on the DVD as it occurred in the set, but put the three other songs in a separate menu, which unlocks only when the credits have past. Not surprisingly (because the band wàs looking to update their sound somewhat), the bulk of the set-list that evening contains songs off the band’s latest album (the only songs not played off Minutes To Midnight were “Valentine’s Day”, “In Between” and “In Pieces”), and of those “Hands Held High” was brought in an a-capella version! But of course the band couldn’t nót play some of the hits off their debut (concert opener “One Step Closer”, the each other following “Crawling”, “In The End”, and a piano version of “Pushing Me Away”, plus “Papercut” and “Points Of Authority” in the separate section) and sophomore album (“From The Inside”, “”Lying From You”, “Numb”, “Breaking The Habit”, and the second encore tracks “Numb/ Encore” and “Jigga What/ Faint”…in their versions from the Collision Course albbum, and therefore performed with rapper Jay-Z added to the line-up on stage).

The album having been out there for about two months now, it shouldn’t be surprising to find that it hit charts in all countries it was released (even Belgium!). After all, the band IS hugely popular, as proven more than clearly by the frantically enthousiastic audience at the open air fest that day in Milton Keynes. Filmed with multi-angle camera vision and top-grade sound quality, this CD/DVD package is a must-have for anyone who’ve seen the band that day, or on any other show of that tour. Live CD, DVD, so don’t expect a rating from me…but let me tell you that this release belongs into my year-lists of 2008!

Tony.