Shadow of the Day

"Shadow of the Day" is a song by American rock band Linkin Park. The song was released as the third single from their third album, Minutes to Midnight, on October 16, 2007. The first public performance for the song was at the Projekt Revolution tour in Auburn, Washington on July 25, 2007.

Song structure and background information

The band experimented with several different versions of the keyboard loop, before deciding on the one used in the final version. Lead singer Chester Bennington explained that they used over 60 different beats for this song until they found the suitable one. They also used different types of instruments like banjos at first, just experimenting on different styles until they came up with something that could fit the track.^[1]

Like some of their other songs such as "Breaking the Habit" and "Faint", this song uses samples of live string ensemble recordings, played by Mike Shinoda on keyboard live. The samples come in before the second verse starts. Distorted guitar elements are only played after the second chorus. The lead is an 8-bar phrase which is later raised an octave. The song is written in the key of B Major, the first major key the band has ever used. The end of the album version of the song, which is an instrumental piece, crossfades into the start of "What I've Done". It is the second-longest track on the album and features only backing vocals from Mike Shinoda which can be more noticed during the refrains at the end of the song. Mike Shinoda sings only the lines "And the shadow of the day will embrace the world in grey and the sun will set for you" with a different voice tone but with the same note of Chester's part.

During the Projekt Revolution tour, Chester Bennington was playing the guitar while also singing the lyrics at the end of the song. These occasions are very rare for the band, since Brad Delson is the lead guitarist, and Mike Shinoda usually plays the second guitar part. However, this is not the first song on which Bennington plays guitar, since "It's Goin' Down" was also performed with Bennington playing the guitar during the Linkin Park song's "Iridescent" and "No Roads Left" and Fort Minor live performances.

The song and U2's "With or Without You" share the extremely common I - V - vi - IV chord progression (B, F♯, G♯m, E in the key of B major), although "With or Without You" is in the key of D Major and uses this progression for the entire length of the song, whereas "Shadow of the Day" uses it only on the chorus - on the verses, the chord progression is the less common vi - V - IV - IV (G♯m, F♯/A♯, E, E).

Music video

The music video was directed by Joe Hahn.^[2] It takes place during a large scale civil unrest in what appears to be the United States.^[3] The video was shot in Los Angeles at 20th Century Fox. The action was set up by stunt coordinator Steven Ho.

The music video was released to the internet on October 15, 2007. The video shows Chester Bennington waking up. His alarm clock reads 11:55, the then Doomsday Clock time, referencing the album title Minutes to Midnight and the song which is the 5th song on the album. The video is over four minutes long, meaning that the time at the end would be 11:59 PM, or one minute to midnight. Chester then watches the news, washes up, gets dressed, and goes outside. The video takes place in a war-torn world, where mass chaos is ensuing on the streets of the city. There is a lot of violence going on with many police and gunshots. Plumes of smoke can be seen in the sky. Soldiers and riot police can be seen forcefully detaining civilians. Near the end of the video, a car is set on fire and bursts into flames as several people taking place in the riot throw molotov cocktails at police resulting in the Police Riot Control and SWAT teams opening fire and advancing while the mob of people retreat. A man suddenly throw a bottle of alcohol on a car and the car takes fire, explaining the title of the song "Shadow Of The Day" Chester then stands in front of the burning car, while looking hopelessly at the carnage that surrounds him. He then turns towards the flames, and the video fades to black. The electronic/synth outro of the song is excluded on the video to make it a more appropriate finish. If listened to carefully towards the middle of the video, the mob is shouting 'we want freedom'.

This is the only video so far with only Chester appearing, as Brad, Rob, Mike, Joe and Phoenix are absent in it. Because of this the video features no performance footage other than Chester's singing. The video isn't completely dubbed by the song, meaning sound effects taking place in the video can be heard.

There are also three different edits of the video, presumably due to censorship:

• A director's cut which is available at Joe Hahn's section of the Linkin Park website. In this version there are several scenes not in other versions. Chester is seen carrying a bag which he drops on the ground around 3:18 into the song. A few seconds later it goes back to Chester's house and zooms in on a table containing lots of wires and other electronics. There are also several blueprints and video monitors for security cameras displaying a certain building. After about 30 seconds there is a giant explosion destroying the building that the video monitors were displaying. This alludes that Chester had built a bomb and it was in the bag that he was carrying. He then had planned to bomb that building during the riot.
• An alternate ending to the video, which shows Chester begin to walk away from the flames. The police open fire, and the video ends with a shot of Chester's bag falling to the ground. What actually happens to Chester is not revealed, but it can be assumed that either he was shot and killed or he threw his bag away and joined the riot. The alternate ending is only shown on MTV Europe music channels.
• MTV Overdrive contains a version which scenes with gunfire and bottle smashing are cut and replaced with different riot scenes.^[4]

The song was also featured in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The video won Best Rock Video at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards and was also nominated for Best Direction in a Video.

Track listings

CD 1

All songs written and composed by Linkin Park. 

CD 2

All songs written and composed by Linkin Park. 

7" Picture disc format

All songs written and composed by Linkin Park. 

Chart performance

The song charted before its release on the U.S. Modern Rock Tracks chart. It debuted on the U.S. Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart at #18, which is equivalent to #118. Two weeks later it debuted on the Hot 100 at #89, and finally peaked at #15, becoming the band's second top twenty hit on the chart from Minutes to Midnight. It has also so far reached #2 on the Modern Rock Chart (held off the top spot by Foo Fighters hit "Long Road to Ruin"), and #6 on the Mainstream Rock Chart. The week "Shadow of the Day" jumped to the top twenty of the Modern Rock Chart, it made Linkin Park one of only five acts to simultaneously have three songs in the top twenty of the chart, since "Bleed It Out" was at #2, and "What I've Done" was at #13. U2, R.E.M., Foo Fighters, Kings of Leon, and Muse are the other five bands to accomplish this feat.^[5] On the Pop Songs chart, the song has become one of Linkin Park's only top ten hits along with "Numb" and "In The End", where it has peaked at #9. "Shadow of the Day" has also become a success on the Billboard Adult Top 40 chart, where it has reached the top ten at #6, becoming the first Linkin Park song to do so on that chart.

"Shadow of the Day" has also been highly successful in many other parts of the world. It has reached the top twenty in over 15 countries, including in Australia (at #15), Canada (at #12), France (at #20), Germany (at #12), New Zealand (at #13), Portugal (at #18), Sweden (at #20), and Switzerland (at #11) among others. However the song has fared poorly in the UK, where it has so far peaked at #46, the band's lowest charting single to date there. It is also the first Linkin Park single played on adult contemporary radio stations, as WLTW in New York City had played it.

Year-end charts

References

External links

• Shadow of the Day lyrics submitted by Bennington