Linkin Park‘s Mike Shinoda unveiled a new three-track EP, Post Traumatic. The project marks the musician’s first new music since the death of his Linkin Park bandmate, Chester Bennington. Post Traumatic is available to stream and purchase, though Shinoda also recorded music videos to accompany each track.
“The past six months have been a rollercoaster,” Shinoda said in a statement. “Amidst the chaos, I’ve started to feel an intense gratitude – for your tributes and messages of support, for the career you have allowed me to have, and for the simple opportunity to create. Today, I’m sharing three songs I wrote and produced, with visuals that I filmed, painted, and edited myself. At its core, grief is a personal, intimate experience. As such, this is not Linkin Park, nor is it Fort Minor – it’s just me. Art has always been the place I go when I need to sort through the complexity and confusion of the road ahead. I don’t know where this path goes, but I’m grateful I get to share it with you.”
The EP opens with “Place to Start,” a hazy, R&B-tinged track with synths that quicken alongside Shinoda’s vocals, as he croons, “I don’t to know the end, all I want is a place to start.” The track ends with several voice mails from friends expressing their condolences over Bennington’s death.
“Over Again” finds Shinoda directly addressing Bennington’s death, the emotional challenge of performing at Linkin Park’s tribute concert for the late singer and his anxiety over figuring out what comes next. “And every step I took I looked and wasn’t any closer,” he raps over thumping drums, “Cause sometimes when you say goodbye, yeah, you say it/ Over and over and over and over.”
Post Traumatic closes with “Watching As I Fall,” another hard-hitting song packed with thundering percussion and jagged synth swells. “Maybe I should be more grateful,” Shinoda belts, “That I had to watch it all come undone/ Holding so tight to the edge is painful/ But can’t ignore it I know.”
Bennington died from suicide last July. In October, Linkin Park reunited for an all-star tribute to the singer, and in December they released a live record, One More Light Live, which features performances from the group’s 2017 shows before Bennington’s death.
