Shadow of the Day

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.

Like "Breaking the Habit", "Shadow of the Day" 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 chorus is based on the very common chord progression I–V–vi–IV (B, F♯, G♯m, E in the key of B major)—this chord progression is used e.g. in U2's "With or Without You" in the key of D major. On the verses, the chord progression is the less common vi–V–IV–IV (G♯m, F♯/A♯, E, E). 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. Mike Shinoda sings only the lines "Sometimes beginnings aren't so simple, sometimes goodbye's the only way" and the last three choruses "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.

The song was remastered for iTunes in 2013. It notably contains rearranged strings.

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. Later, Bennington would also play rhythm guitar on live performances of "Iridescent".

Music video

The music video was directed by Joe Hahn. It takes place during a large scale civil unrest in what appears to be the United States. 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 throws a bottle of alcohol on a car and the car takes fire. Chester then stands in front of the burning car, while looking 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:

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.

The video was placed at #37 of the year by VH1's Top 40 Videos of the Year.

iTunes

The "Shadow of the Day" music video is available on iTunes, along with a Behind the Scenes exclusive featurette. On October 23, 2007, iTunes made a video album which was entitled the Single of "Shadow of the Day". The video album included the music video (which can be purchased for $2.29) and the Behind the Scenes video (which is free when you purchase the full album).

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 also 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 six 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. 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 peaked at #9. "Shadow of the Day" was also a success on the Billboard Adult Top 40 chart, where it reached the top ten at #6, becoming the first Linkin Park song to do so on that chart. As of June 2014, the song has sold 1,977,000 copies in the US.

"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 fared poorly in the United Kingdom, where it peaked at #46, the band's lowest charting single there until "Leave Out All the Rest" peaked at #90.

Track listings

All tracks written by Linkin Park.