Finally, Chester, Mike, Brad, Phoenix, Rob and Joe can tell you the real story behind Linkin Park and it doesn't get more up-close than the boys showing off their tattoos, pants and arses, all captured on a camcorder.  Well, it's mostly Chester larking about, while Mike giggles too much and drummer Rob (the youngest) tries to maintain some authority.

The video has been shot by the boys themselves to give it that personal touch and insight into the strength of the band to collectively write, produce and perform their unique blend of heavy alternative rock, hip-hop and electronic melodies.

All this is backed up by a healthy sense of humour as we see Chester, Phoenix and Brad sporting mullet wigs on their arrival of Ozzfest, their obsessions with mobile phones (Brad is the worst with a built-in speaker on his), checking out the red-light district area of Paris and Chester showing us exactly where a spider bit him.  

It's also reassuring to see how unglamorous Linkin Park are - I mean, even Chester has holes in his underwear.  And they have to eat out at fast-food joints.  Also featured are cameo appearances from Crazy Town and noticeably, Slipknot's Sid mixing and scratching at the decks with Joe - but cunningly his face is covered up by a floating graphic on the screen.

Spliced in-between the interviews and tour-bus footage are six music videos - 'Papercut', 'One Step Closer', 'Cure For The Itch' , 'Points Of Authority', 'Crawling' and 'In The End' - all fascinating to watch particularly the last two for their clever use of computer graphics.

The DVD comes with bonus footage of the making of 'In The End' and a live version of 'Crawling' from the Dragon Festival, with multi-angle facilities (which is definitely some fun to play around with) and of course, everything is in sharp digital quality.  In addition, there are audio tracks of 'My December', 'High Voltage' and a strange rendition of 'Crawling' by a Country & Western singer named Bryson Blugrass.  (It's really weird!)

Eager fans should snap this up.  Rarely is there a music video that features relevant and entertaining material and all from one of the best bands around.  The footage is sharply edited to the right duration and is comfortably sandwiched between the music videos, which are artistic visually in their own rights.

There is most certainly a theory behind Linkin Park and it's visibly featured on this video. It's fun, it's memorable and it rocks.  
(4/5)

Release Date: 21 January 2002

Frat Party At The Pankake Festival