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From album
Hybrid Theory
Linkin Park · 2000 · Track 4
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The story behind
The song Plaster began as a draft for what would later become One Step Closer, but in the process it evolved into the scream that defined Linkin Park’s sound. It wasn’t just another track in the Hybrid Theory sessions: it was Chester Bennington’s burst of frustration turned into sharp riffs and a bridge that ends with a piercing wail. The lyrics, originally bearing that working title, captured the push-and-pull with producer Don Gilmore, who demanded constant tweaks to polish every detail before it went live. That creative tension shaped one of modern rock’s most recognizable songs, where anger blends with a relentless rhythm.
Recorded at NRG Studios in Los Angeles in 2000, Plaster (later retitled) became the first single from Hybrid Theory, an album that aimed to sound like no other. The video, directed by Gregory Dark and shot sixty-three feet underground in the abandoned Hollywood Subway tunnels, amplified its dark vibe: teenagers follow a hooded figure into a room where the band performs amid monks executing martial arts moves. The climax arrives when Bennington sings the bridge upside down as the visual chaos peaks. In 2018, Metal Hammer ranked it among the thirteen best nu-metal videos, while Billboard and Kerrang placed it as the band’s fourth-best song. At two minutes and thirty-five seconds, One Step Closer didn’t just shatter radio records—it proved that sometimes discontent is the best creative fuel.