Mike Shinoda Drops Emotional Surprise EP 'Post Traumatic' and Homemade Music Videos | Revolver

Mike Shinoda Drops Emotional Surprise EP 'Post Traumatic' and Homemade Music Videos

Linkin Park member wrestles with grief on first release since Chester Bennington's death
mike shinoda 2017 GETTY, Rich Fury/Getty Images for iHeartMedia
photograph by Rich Fury/Getty Images for iHeartMedia

Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda has unveiled Post Traumatic, an emotional new three-track surprise release. The EP, available now through major streaming outlets, marks the musician's first output since the death of Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington. It arrives accompanied by three music videos, one for each track, which Shinoda filmed, painted and edited on his own. Find them below. Shinoda's new EP follows One More Light Live, Linkin Park's live album chronicling their final shows with Bennington prior to his death last July.

Shinoda also revealed today, in response to a fan's question on Twitter, that he and the other surviving members of Linkin Park plan on keeping the band going. "I have every intention on continuing with LP, and the guys feel the same," he wrote. "We have a lot of rebuilding to do, and questions to answer, so it'll take time."

As the title suggests, Post Traumatic finds Shinoda grappling with grief, addressing his bandmate's passing repeatedly and directly. "Can I put the past behind me?" he ponders on the opening track, "Place to Start." "Do I even have a decision?/Feeling like I'm living in a story already written/Am I part of a vision made by somebody else?" The synth-driven cut concludes on a particularly heartbreaking note, with audio of some of the voicemails the musician received from friends in the wake of Bennington's death. 

The next song, "Over Again," details Shinoda's anxieties leading up to "One More Light," Linkin Park's tribute concert in honor of Bennington held last October. "Supposed to go to the bowl, get on stage, dim the lights/With our friends and our family, in his name, celebrate/There's no way that I'll be ready to get back up on that stage," he raps, an industrial beat flickering eerily in the background.

Post Traumatic closes with "Watching As I Fall," another gut-wrenching reflection on loss — more specifically, the uncomfortable outpouring of attention that comes along with it. "They're watching as I fall, they're staring as I go/I gave until my soul hurt, and never told them so," goes the chorus, "They're watching as I fall, to somewhere down below/But maybe I'm just falling, to get somewhere they won't."

Shinoda offered more details on Post Traumatic in a short statement accompanying its release. "The past six months have been a rollercoaster," he wrote. "Amidst the chaos, I've started to feel an intense gratitude — for your tributes and messages of support, for the career you have allowed me to have, and for the simple opportunity to create. Today, I'm sharing three songs I wrote and produced, with visuals that I filmed, painted, and edited myself. At its core, grief is a personal, intimate experience. As such, this is not Linkin Park, nor is it Fort Minor — it's just me. Art has always been the place I go when I need to sort through the complexity and confusion of the road ahead. I don't know where this path goes, but I'm grateful I get to share it with you."