LINKIN PARK Gives Away Free Download Of 'Hybrid Theory'

LINKIN PARK has made its debut album, 2000's "Hybrid Theory", available for free download via Google Play. The offer, which is available to U.S. customers only, ends on March 18.

Says LINKIN PARK in a statement: "Our first album, 'Hybrid Theory', was made with all the love, passion, and naïveté that an artist can give to their first recordings. We are humbled and grateful that it has been embraced so widely, and we still find it hard to believe it became the biggest-selling rock album of the century. As a thank you to our fans, we've partnered with Google Play to give you 'Hybrid Theory' for free."

"Hybrid Theory" — the band's original name before it was changed to LINKIN PARK for legal reasons — was issued in October 2000 and was a breakout success for the group, which had formed in 1996 and had played the Los Angeles club scene for several years.

The album yielded four massive hit singles — "One Step Closer", "Crawling", "Papercut" and "In The End" — while going on to sell more than 10 million copies in the U.S. alone.

LINKIN PARK singer Chester Bennington and co-frontman Mike Shinoda told The Pulse Of Radio a while back about some of the challenges of making their debut album.

"We walked into every song with a fresh, you know, outlook on it and we focused equal amounts of energy on every song," Bennington said. "And that at times was quite interesting, and also difficult at the same time. So we really learned how to push ourselves to new levels, and that was an accomplishment."

"Our biggest obstacle was putting something together that we felt was strong from beginning to end and doing our best to give each song its proper attention," Shinoda added.