Linkin Park releases ‘In the End’ demo and it is bittersweet

Dimapur, Oct. 2 (EMN): In celebration of the 20^th anniversary of their debut album, American Rock band Linkin Park is issuing a special-edition reissue of Hybrid Theory including a newly released demo version of their smash hit “In the End”.

 The band dropped the demo version of the song on their YouTube channel on Thursday, Oct. 1 and it brought bittersweet memories. It has been 3 years since lead vocalist Chester Bennington took his own life and to hear Chester’s raw vocals in the song evokes powerful emotions especially for a fan that has been following them since 2000 when Hybrid Theory first came out.

The demo version sounds completely different than the studio version that we are used to. For starters, it has extra bass lines and Shinoda’s iconic verses are gone and replaced with completely different lyrics. Chester’s iconic line “It starts with one…” remains the same though. It should definitely be a bit of a head trip for someone who is familiar with their work.

Here are the lyrics to the demo version:

It starts with one…

One, then multiplies ’til you can taste the sun
And burned by the sky you try to take it from
But if it falls, there’s no place to run
Crumbling down, it’s so unreal
They’re dealing you in to determine your end
And sending you back again, to places you’ve been
And bending your will ’til it breaks you, within
And still, they fill their eyes
With the twilight through the skylight
And the highlights on a frame of steel
See the brightness of your likeness
As I write this on a pad with the way I feel
Hear the screaming in my dreaming
As it’s seeming that you’ve played your part
Like you’re heartless, take apart this
In the darkness, but I know that

I’ve tried so hard I tried so hard and got so far
But in the end, it doesn’t even matter
I had to fall to lose it all
But in the end, it doesn’t even matter

I’ve looked down the line
And what’s there is not what ought to be
Held back by the battles they fought for me
Calling me to be part of their property
And now, I see that I get no chance
I get no break
Fakes and snakes quickly lead to mistakes
And as the tightrope within slowly starts to thin
I can only hope that they close their eyes
To the twilight through the skylight
And the highlights on a frame of steel
See the brightness of your likeness
As I write this on a pad to the way I feel
Hear the screaming in my dreaming
As it’s seeming that you’ve played your part
Like you’re heartless, take apart this
In the darkness, but I know that I tried so hard

I tried so hard and got so far
But in the end, it doesn’t even matter
I had to fall to lose it all
But in the end, it doesn’t even matter

I’ve put my trust in you, pushed as far as I can go
For all this, there’s only one thing you should know
I’ve put my trust in you, pushed as far as I can go
For all this, there’s only one thing you should know
I’ve put my trust in you, pushed as far as I can go
For all this, there’s only one thing you should know

I tried so hard and got so far
But in the end, it doesn’t even matter
I had to fall to lose it all
But in the end, it doesn’t even matter

In the End (Demo) – Linkin Park

Hybrid Theory was released on Oct. 24, 2000, through Warner Bros. Records and the album was an instant hit propelling Linkin Park into mainstream popularity. The album peaked at Number 2 on the Billboard 200 in 2002 and has since sold 27 million copies worldwide making it the best-selling debut album of the 21^st century.