Road to Revolution Live at Milton Keynes [PA] [Digipak]

Performer: Linkin Park
Artist: Jay-Z
Engineer: Mike Cox
Producer: Emer Patten
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: Audio Mixers: Ken "Pooch" VanBruten; Dylan Ely. Audio Remasterer: Brian "Big Bass" Gardener. Captured in front of a massive crowd in England during their Projekt Revolution tour, the music on Linkin Park's ROAD TO REVOLUTION finds the platinum-selling nu-metal survivors in peak form. At 18 tracks, many of the band's most popular songs are present, including two mash-ups featuring Jay-Z, and the sound quality is superb. Despite the sometimes complex nature of Linkin Park's music, they pull off every song with aplomb, proving that they are hardly a studio construction. At over 80 minutes (and with an accompanying live DVD), the set is a fairly complete picture of the band's career up to this point. It begins with a moody, slow-burn version of "From the Inside," building up with Mike Shinoda's rapping until singer Chester Bennington catches hold of the chorus. Like most of their material, it mixes metal angst, hip-hop's staccato rhythms, and Depeche Mode-like atmosphere and drama. Other hits, like "Numb" and "In the End," are given stirring performances. By the time Jay-Z shows up for "Numb/Encore," the mood is a celebratory one, a victory lap for a band that outgrew and outlasted a trend. Like nearly every other live release of the new millennium, Road to Revolution: Live at Milton Keynes is a CD/DVD extravaganza, capturing the entire concert twice, once as a CD, once as a DVD for optimal home viewing. In this case, the concert is Linkin Park's June 29, 2008 show at the Milton Keynes National Bowl, where the band was joined by Jay-Z for two songs on the encore ("Jigga What/Faint," "Numb/Encore"), while rapper Mike Shinoda's side project Fort Minor pop up for "The Rising Tide." This is the third Linkin Park live set -- they arrive like clockwork after every tour -- so it's no surprise that there are no surprises outside of the Jay-Z cameo and perhaps just how big and slick the whole thing sounds; it was mastered to be showcased on surround sound in a home theater. It's big but not ballsy, an appropriate sound for an immaculate performance from Linkin Park -- one that may not exactly replicate the details of their studio versions but certainly doesn't find them coloring outside of the lines. It's something that will surely please fans, the ones that have the other two Linkin Park live sets, but it's not a bracing testament to the band's on-stage prowess. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Kerrang (Magazine) (p.48) - "ROAD TO REVOLUTION is the next best thing to reliving a night which has rightfully earned legendary status."

Californian sextet Linkin Park simultaneously took inspiration from and expanded upon the hybrid of heavy rock, hip-hop, and electronics that made such bands as Korn and Limp Bizkit so successful at the tail end of the 1990s. The band's 2000 debut HYBRID THEORY racked up both album sales and Grammy nominations, and won a widespread audience for Linkin Park's combination of hard rock guitar, turntablism, and rap, while neatly avoiding disparaging comparisons to the aforementioned rap-rock outfits. In 2004 they took their status as rap-rock kingpins to its logical summit and collaborated with Jay-Z for the album COLLISION COURSE, which debuted at number one. They have been scoring awards and soaring up the charts with consistency ever since, while still allowing room for growth and experimentation as a band.

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