Linkin Park have launched a mysterious countdown on their web site, alongside some old-school throwbacks.
Linkin Park’s official web site now invitations followers to “obtain a free copy of LiNkiNgPaRk-nUmB.exe” by means of an internet pop-up impressed by the Web aesthetic of the early 2000s. In case you decline, extra pop-ups seem.
When you comply with obtain the file, you’ll be taken to a display screen displaying a countdown, which is because of hit zero at 8pm GMT on Wednesday February 1.
The web site additionally shows a message that claims “DETECTED_MEMORY_CORRUPTION_LiNkiNgPaRk-nUmB.exe,” as soon as once more referencing Linkin Park’s 2003 hit ‘Numb’, which was lifted from second album ‘Meteora’. It additionally nods to a Simpsons meme that went viral within the late 2010s, poking enjoyable on the now-defunct torrenting platform Limewire (which within the early 2000s, was infamous for being riddled with viruses disguised as MP3 downloads).
Each the official Linkin Park Twitter account and vocalist Mike Shinoda have directed followers in direction of the web site.
—> https://t.co/ZO7koErTqN
— MikEsHinoDa.exe (@mikeshinoda) January 27, 2023
Some followers are speculating Linkin Park may very well be gearing as much as launch an expanded model of ‘Meteora’ in honour of the album’s twentieth anniversary. Again in 2020, the band reissued debut album ‘Hybrid Principle’ throughout a number of codecs. The anniversary version of that document featured unreleased tracks.
Final Could, Linkin Park unveiled a brand new, deluxe version of their 2007 album ‘Minutes To Midnight’.
The band have been on hiatus because the 2017 loss of life of frontman Chester Bennington, however final yr mentioned they deliberate to speak with their followers “a bit of extra usually” shifting ahead.
It comes after Shinoda advised followers that the band’s surving members had been nonetheless in common contact. “The one Linkin Park information I’ve for you is that… Yeah, we discuss each few weeks – I discuss to the blokes, or among the guys,” Shinoda mentioned on a Twitch stream final Spring. “And there’s no excursions, there’s no music, there’s no albums within the pipeline. Okay, so let me simply inform you that. So simply hold in your minds that that isn’t occurring.”
“I’m simply gonna say that a lot for now,” he continued. “I say that as a result of anytime the band says something or does something, everybody tries to start out up the hype practice, and we’re, like, ‘No, no, no, no. Don’t begin up the hype practice.’ You’re gonna disappoint your self. Don’t try this.”
Again in 2019, Shinoda shot down studies that Linkin Park had been actively on the lookout for a brand new frontman.
Final yr, Machine Gun Kelly paid tribute to late Linkin Park frontman and “nice human being” Chester Bennington throughout his live performance at OVO Enviornment Wembley in London. “The final time I noticed him was right here in Europe, so I encourage you, as a result of life is brief, to go stay this life,” he mentioned. “I do know it’s laborious, man. I do know this shit is fucking laborious. However nights like tonight make life price it.”