Linkin Park drops unreleased song Friendly Fire featuring late frontman Chester Bennington’s vocals… ahead of upcoming greatest hits album

Nearly seven years after disbanding in the wake of the sudden death of singer Chester Bennington, Linkin Park has dropped a new song.

Actually, the previously unreleased track, Friendly Fire, was written during the One More Light (2017) sessions, which was their seventh and final studio album, but it was held off the record.

It is now serving as the lead single for their new greatest hits album, titled Papercuts – Singles Collection 2000-2023, that’s set to drop on April 12.

As part of the promotion the band also released a music video for Friendly Fire that features never-before-seen studio and live footage.

Lead guitarist Brad Delson revealed that the track ‘was always one of our favorite songs from the One More Light sessions,’ but they just could’t get it right by the end of recording for the album, according to People.

The late singer Chester Bennington is featured on lead vocals of the previously unheard song Friendly Fire that dropped on Friday, ahead of Linkin Park’s greatest hits album Papercuts; he is seen in 2017

‘Something about it wasn’t quite right so as close as it got to the finish line, we chose to set it aside for later,’ Delson, 46, added.

The guys in the band hadn’t thought about the song for years, but it resurfaced when they began choosing the tracks for the greatest hits compilation.

‘When we started looking for an unreleased track to include on our greatest hits collection, I was blown away by the power of the song, the power of the storytelling, the power of the vocal, the sonic landscape and I actually thought that it was closer than maybe we had realized at the time,’ the guitarist explained.

The band’s rapper, guitarist and co-founder, Mike Shinoda, confessed that the time the guys spent together assembling the tracklist for Papercuts was a ‘joy.’

‘Each song in this collection is both a singular moment on our timeline and an evolving story that is as much ours as it is yours,’ the musician and producer, 47, said. 

‘From our first release, One Step Closer to the brand-new Friendly Fire, this tracklist spans all our chapters so far.’

Formed in 1996, Linkin Park rose to international fame with the huge success of their debut studio album, Hybrid Theory (2000), which went on to sell more than 32 million copies worldwide over the years.

The debut featured the strength of the four hit singles One Step Closer, In The End, Crawling and Papercut.

Bennington was 41 when he died by suicide in July 2017; he’s seen two weeks before his death

The previously unreleased song Friendly Fire is the lead single off the band’s upcoming greatest hits album Papercuts – Singles Collection 2000-2023 that drops April 12

With the vocal interplay of Bennington (vocals) and Shinoda (rapper) teaming up together on some of the songs, the band also features Brad Delson (guitar), Rob Bourdon (drums), Joe Hahn (DJ & visual artist) and Dave Farrell (bass).

Linkin Park would also garner more mainstream success with the release of their follow-up album Meteora (2003), which went on to sell more than 16 million copies.

They went on to maintain their staying power throughout the years, despite taking hiatuses to work on side projects, with all five of their remaining albums that were released, including One More Light (2017), which dropped two months before Bennington’s death by suicide on July 20, 2017.

In all, Linkin Park has sold more than 100 million albums worldwide.

Bennington, a Phoenix, Arizona native, was 41-years-old at the time of his passing.

He left behind his wife of about 11 years, Talinda Bentley Bennington, and six children.

Linkin Park enjoyed huge success with their debut studio album Hybrid Theory (2000)

Part of Linkin Park’s success was due to the vocal interplay between Bennington singing and Shinoda rapping in front of the band; the duo are seen at The O2 Arena on July 3, 2017 in London, England, which was just 17 days before Bennington was found dead by suicide 

The band has mostly been on hiatus since the Linkin Park and Friends: Celebrate Life in Honor of Chester Bennington tribute concert in October 2017.

The band did release another previously unreleased song Lost, featuring Bennington, for thee 20th anniversary of the Meteora album in February 2023.

The upcoming Papercuts album features 20 tracks: Crawling, Faint, Numb/Encore, Papercut, Breaking The Habit, In The End, Bleed It Out, Somewhere I Belong, Waiting For The End, Castle Of Glass, One More Light, Burn It Down, What I’ve Done, QWERTY, One Step Closer, New Divide, Leave Out All the Rest, Lost, Numb and Friendly Fire.

Fans can pre-order or pre-save Papercuts – Singles Collection 2000-2023 album before the April 12 release.