"Castle of Glass" (stylized in

all caps In typography, text or font in all caps (short for "all capitals") contains capital letters without any lowercase letters. For example: All-caps text can be seen in legal documents, advertisements, newspaper headlines, and the titles on book co ...

) is a song written by American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

band

Linkin Park Linkin Park is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Agoura Hills, California, in 1996. The band's current lineup consists of vocalist/rhythm guitarist/keyboardist Mike Shinoda, lead guitarist Brad Delson, DJ/turntablist Joe Hahn, bass ...

for their fifth studio album, '' Living Things''.Linkin Park - Castle of Glass
''

'' The song was produced by co-lead vocalist

Mike Shinoda Michael Kenji Shinoda ( ; born February 11, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and graphic designer. He co-founded the rock band Linkin Park in 1996 and is the band's co-lead vocalist, as well as rhythm guitarist, ...

and

Rick Rubin Frederick Jay Rubin (, ; born March 10, 1963) is an American record producer. He is a co-founder of Def Jam Recordings, founder of American Recordings, and former co-president of Columbia Records. Rubin helped popularize hip hop by produci ...

. The song was released as a promotional single for Danger Close Games's 2012 release, '' Medal of Honor: Warfighter'', as with Linkin Park's previous contribution to the ''

Medal of Honor The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest Awards and decorations of the United States Armed Forces, military decoration and is awarded to recognize American United States Army, soldiers, United States Navy, sailors, Un ...

'' series, " The Catalyst". The single was released on February 2, 2013, in physical format and on March 22, 2013, it was released as a digital single on

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

. A Mike Shinoda remix is featured on Linkin Park's second remix album, '' Recharged''. The remix version is also featured in the video game ''

Need for Speed Rivals ''Need for Speed Rivals'' is a 2013 racing video game developed in collaboration between EA Gothenburg, Ghost Games and Criterion Games, and published by Electronic Arts. It is the twentieth installment in the ''Need for Speed'' series, and the ...

'' as part of the soundtrack.

Composition

"Castle of Glass" uses electronic elements from the band's previous studio album, '' A Thousand Suns''. ''

Loudwire ''Loudwire'' is an American online media magazine that covers news of hard rock and heavy metal artists. It is owned by media and entertainment business Townsquare Media. Since its launch in August 2011, ''Loudwire'' has secured exclusive i ...

'' noted in their ''Living Things'' review that the song features "very different electronic elements and unique sounding samples that the band have added to their musical palette." Yet is one of the most direct that the band has done, with a traditional song structure and a melody reminiscent of

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, ...

music.

Reception

"Castle of Glass" has received mixed reviews from critics. ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' wrote in their review of ''Living Things'', "A folk song with LP's muscle, "Castle of Glass" uses compelling songwriting, extended metaphors and a simple but radical (for Linkin Park) arrangement to offer one of the album's most intriguing tracks." A staff reviewer at Sputnikmusic wrote in their mixed review of ''Living Things'' that the song sounded too similar to " Powerless" and that the song "would have been better if it wasn’t inferior to the similar sounding final track." AltSounds described "Castle of Glass" in their album review as "a drawn-out filler track that keeps to a crawling pace, is strangely passive and doesn’t leave you feeling very inspired." The song was nominated for the "Best Song in a Game" award at the 2012

Spike Video Game Awards The Spike Video Game Awards (in short VGAs, known as the VGX for the final show) was an annual award show hosted by American television network Spike from 2003 that recognized the best computer and video games of the year. Produced by '' GameT ...

Music video

The music video for "Castle of Glass" was recorded on August 1, 2012, and it contains footage from the

first-person shooter A first-person shooter (FPS) is a video game genre, video game centered on gun fighting and other weapon-based combat seen from a First person (video games), first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action directly through t ...

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

'' Medal of Honor: Warfighter''. It was released on October 10, 2012. The music video shows a young boy being told that his father has been

killed in action Killed in action (KIA) is a casualty classification generally used by militaries to describe the deaths of their personnel at the hands of enemy or hostile forces at the moment of action. The United States Department of Defense, for example, ...

. He and his mother mourn the death as his father's

SEAL Seal may refer to any of the following: Common uses * Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly: ** Earless seal, also called "true seal" ** Fur seal ** Eared seal * Seal ( ...

s teammates and their families try to comfort them. The band is shown playing in a storm where shattered pieces of glass circle the band. The boy goes through his father's possessions, fast forwarding to him (played by

Marine Corps Marines (or naval infantry) are military personnel generally trained to operate on both land and sea, with a particular focus on amphibious warfare. Historically, the main tasks undertaken by marines have included raiding ashore (often in supp ...

veteran A veteran () is a person who has significant experience (and is usually adept and esteemed) and expertise in an job, occupation or Craft, field. A military veteran is a person who is no longer serving in the military, armed forces. A topic o ...

Scott Levy) becoming a SEAL, like his father before him. At the end of the video the man is seen telling a girl the heartbreaking news of her family member, as she too cries. The video hints at the boy and the woman being the family of Rabbit, who died in the previous game and the teammates being Mother and Preacher. True to the ''Medal of Honor'' philosophy, "Castle of Glass" highlights the emotional realities soldiers and their families face far from the battlefield. The video ends with a quote from

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...

: "All great things are simple, and many can be expressed in single words: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope." The music video for "Castle of Glass" is also dedicated to the movie '' The Messenger'' as Bennington's favorite movie. The band's part of the music video was filmed entirely in front of a

green screen Chroma key compositing, or chroma keying, is a visual-effects and post-production technique for compositing (layering) two or more images or video streams together based on colour hues ( chroma range). The technique has been used in many fie ...

, with the production being handled by Mothership and Digital Domain. Its post-production relied heavily on CGI animation and After-effects. Special effects have a prominent use in the music video, and also continues the motif of a world falling apart, as with the previous ''Living Things'' videos. One of these is an opening shot of Mike Shinoda, beginning with a shot from below, moving progressively upwards until the walls around him start to crumble. The music video also utilizes suspended animation techniques, which sees objects suspended in a fixed position in air, with a central subject being the one animate in this fixed point of time.

Personnel

Chester Bennington Chester Charles Bennington (March 20, 1976 – July 20, 2017) was an American singer who was the lead vocalist of the rock band Linkin Park. He was also the lead vocalist of Grey Daze, Dead by Sunrise, and Stone Temple Pilots at various po ...

– co-lead vocals *

– lead vocals,

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...

, strings,

horns Horns or The Horns may refer to: * Plural of Horn (anatomy) * Plural of Horn (instrument), a group of musical instruments all with a horn-shaped bells * The Horns (Colorado), a summit on Cheyenne Mountain * Horns (novel), ''Horns'' (novel), a dar ...

, piano *

Brad Delson Bradford Philip Delson (born December 1, 1977) is an American musician. He is the lead guitarist and one of the founding members of the rock band Linkin Park.

–

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked, its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

, backing vocals, sampler * Dave "Phoenix" Farrell –

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

, backing vocals *

Rob Bourdon Robert Gregory Bourdon (born January 20, 1979) is an American musician, best known as a co-founding member and the former drummer of the rock band Linkin Park. He remained in the band until their hiatus in 2017; when the band members began work ...

–

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

Joe Hahn Joseph Hahn (born March 15, 1977) is an American musician, DJ, director, and visual artist best known as the DJ and creative director of the rock band Linkin Park, doing the scratching, turntables, sampling, and programming for all eight of ...

–

synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

s, sampling, programming

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{authority control Linkin Park songs 2013 singles Song recordings produced by Rick Rubin Songs written by Mike Shinoda Warner Records singles Video game theme songs Medal of Honor (video game series) Rock ballads 2012 songs 2012 singles Folk rock songs Song recordings produced by Mike Shinoda 2010s ballads