Linkin Park are sending their fans in a nostalgic whirlwind with the launch of a new cryptic website ahead of Meteora‘s 20th Anniversary.
2023 is proving to be a year packed full of surprises, and it is only January. In case you haven’t heard, there’s a mystery brewing in the Linkin Park camp. The band’s website has launched a cryptic countdown and easter eggs that will put you in a tizzy.
Their website is displayed in an old-school fashion, where you are invited to click and download a free copy of LiNkiNgPaRk-nUmB.exe; after you click the download, the whole website shifts, saying the file is corrupt (yes, they are really are taking us down the internet nostalgia route) and lands on a blue page with a countdown. The countdown is set for 8pm GMT on Wednesday 1st February.
— MikEsHinoDa.exe (@mikeshinoda) January 27, 2023
The website also has other tidbits that you can click on if you dare to adventure beyond the countdown. You will find images in the trash bin of their album Hybrid Theory, emails between band members with attachments of images and gifs, and YouTube videos from the band. It is quite the affair that contains two of their albums – Meteora and Hybrid Theory, and this has led to many speculations about what the band is hinting at.
One of the speculations is since Meteora is turning 20 this year, the band may be gearing up for an expanded release, much like they did with Hybrid Theory in 2020, where they celebrated the album’s anniversary in an expanded edition which included unreleased tracks.
On a twitch stream Mike Shinoda unveiled that the surviving members of Linkin Park are in contact with each other, where he stated: “The only Linkin Park news I have for you is that… Yeah, we talk every few weeks – I talk to the guys, or some of the guys”, but before you get too excited, he also added: “there’s no tours, there’s no music, there’s no albums in the pipeline. Okay, so let me just tell you that. So just keep in your minds that that is not happening.”
So with no new music and no tours being cleared up, we can all safely assume that this countdown is in relation to Meteora‘s 20th Anniversary, with a potential anniversary edition to be released. However, you can entertain yourself with their throwback-style website until the countdown hits 1st February.
Thinking about my parents computer pic.twitter.com/vw9eDm0Wb0
— SubDocta (@subdocta) January 27, 2023
