THE DEATH CARNIVAL
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Following the success of Hybrid Theory and Reanimation, Linkin Park spent a significant amount of time touring around the United States. The band members began to work on new material amidst its saturated schedule, spending a sliver of their free time in their tour bus' studio.[27] The band officially announced the production of a new studio album in December 2002, revealing its new work was inspired by the rocky region of Meteora in Greece, where numerous monasteries have been built on top of the rocks.[28] Meteora features a mixture of the band's previous nu metal and rapcore styles with newer innovative effects, including the induction of a shakuhachi (a Japanese flute made of bamboo) and other instruments.[16] Linkin Park's second album debuted on March 25, 2003 and instantly earned worldwide recognition,[16] going to #1 in the US and UK, and #2 in Australia.[17]
Meteora sold more than 800,000 copies during its first week, and it ranked as the best selling album on the Billboard charts at the time.[29] The album's singles, including "Somewhere I Belong", "Breaking the Habit", "Faint", and "Numb", received significant radio attention.[30] By October 2003, Meteora sold nearly three million copies.[31] The album's success allowed Linkin Park to form another Projekt Revolution, which featured other bands and artists including, Mudvayne, Blindside, and Xzibit.Additionally, Metallica invited Linkin Park to play at the Summer Sanitarium Tour 2003, which included well-known acts such as Limp Bizkit, Mudvayne and Deftones.The band released an album and DVD, entitled Live in Texas, which consisted of audio and video tracks of some of the band's performances in Texas during the tour.In early 2004, Linkin Park started a world tour titled the Meteora World Tour, supporting bands on the tour included Hoobastank, P.O.D. and Story of the Year.
Meteora earned the band multiple awards and honors. The band won the MTV awards for Best Rock Video for "Somewhere I Belong and the Viewer's Choice Award for "Breaking the Habit". Linkin Park also received significant recognition during the 2004 Radio Music Awards, winning the Artist of the Year and Song of the Year ("Numb") awards. Although Meteora was not nearly as successful as Hybrid Theory, it was the third best selling album in the United States during 2003.[18] The band spent the first few months of 2004 touring around the world, first with the third Projekt Revolution tour, and later several European concerts.
Reanimation helped the many underground hip-hop artists that it featured reach a larger audience, as well as changing the nature of the work so significantly (restructuring songs, adding or substantially changing verses, and adding several guest artists) that it could be considered an entirely new album. Reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlewine (of Allmusic) considered the album "a welcome step in the right direction," and he praised Reanimation for attempting to break new ground. Linkin Park have also stated that this album could be considered both a remix and studio album. Metacritic gave the album an average score of 60. However, the album reached a peak position of #2 on the Billboard 200 and stayed on the list for 33 straight weeks. It sold 270,000 copies in its debut week
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