Linkin Park’s Castle of Glass and Medal Of Honor Warfighter news and videos

Electronic Arts today announced a collaboration between Medal of Honor Warfighter and Linkin Park. The band’s upcoming “Castle Of Glass” video will showcase dramatic themes and authentic action and Mike Shinoda has composed scores for game. Press release and Behind the Scenes Trailer below

LOS ANGELES, Aug 02, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Danger Close(TM) Games, a studio of Electronic Arts EA -2.65% , today announced a remarkable cross-collaboration between Medal of Honor(TM) Warfighter and worldwide #1 rock band Linkin Park. The band’s co-producer and co-lead vocalist Mike Shinoda has composed powerful, original in-game scores for Medal of Honor Warfighter that will add depth and emotion to an already intense gameplay experience. Additionally, Linkin Park has included the warrior-inspired song “CASTLE OF GLASS” on their new #1 album, LIVING THINGS. Consistent with the dramatic themes and authentic action within the game, the song “CASTLE OF GLASS” looks at the life of a soldier and the forthcoming video elaborates on the many sacrifices they and their families make. Debuting this October, the concept for Linkin Park’s “CASTLE OF GLASS” music video is the result of direct collaboration between members of Linkin Park and Danger Close Games. Produced by Digital Domain and Danger Close, the video will feature a unique mix of live action footage edited with gameplay recordings taken from Medal of Honor Warfighter.

“Linkin Park has always shown a great deal of respect and gratitude for our servicemen and women, many of whom are fans of their music,” said Greg Goodrich, Executive Producer of Medal of Honor. “Partnering with them for the Medal of Honor Warfighter soundtrack and the ‘CASTLE OF GLASS’ music video is a natural fit for us. We have shared values and respect for these heroes from many different nations – and their families – who serve on our behalf around the world.”

“Linkin Park’s involvement with the 2010 reboot of Medal of Honor was a hugely positive experience for all of us,” said Mike Shinoda. “The opportunity to take this creative collaboration several steps further was something that we knew we had to be a part of.” Full press release

MTV has a video of Mike and Chester talking about contributing their song “CASTLE OF GLASS” to the upcoming “Medal of Honor Warfighter” game

When Linkin Park were approached by Electronic Arts about contributing their song “CASTLE OF GLASS” to the upcoming “Medal of Honor Warfighter” game, they knew they’d be shooting a video … they just weren’t aware it’d be a video like this.

“Remember the video where the band was playing on Pamela Anderson, and she’s in a bikini and she ate the band?” LP’s Chester Bennington told MTV News, referencing, of course, Lit’s epochal “Miserable” clip. “That’s what we’re doing, only it’s going to be me, in boxer shorts. It’s going to be great.”

“And there are going to be soldiers running around on top of Chester,” Mike Shinoda added. “The guys from EA [came up with the idea] … we weren’t planning to go this direction with it; we were like ‘You know, let’s do a video with the band playing, and soldiers, and make it like the game,’ and they were like ‘No, we want to see Chester naked!’”

Of course, we suspect they’re only kidding about the nudity, because when MTV News was on the set of the “CASTLE” video shoot in Los Angeles, we didn’t see Bennington in his boxers (not even when we barged into his dressing room). But we did see plenty of green-screen-aided performance footage of Linkin Park, which will be cut into the clip and subsequently used in promotion with the hotly anticipated “Warfighter,” due in stores October 23.

And “CASTLE OF GLASS” is a fitting choice to be included in the game, which explores the personal side of war … namely, the lives of the soldiers fighting it, and the many sacrifices they and their families make. Because when Linkin Park spoke to MTV News back in June about the making of their LIVING THINGS album, they not only mentioned the song as being one of their favorites, but mentioned that its lyrics were partially inspired by the stories of soldiers returning from combat and trying to find their place in society.

“This album tends to be a little more of a personal record, compared to the last record, which I guess I would say was a little more political. And this song is an example of that; the lyrics can have multiple meanings, be it a soldier’s story [or] an individual at home, dealing with a personal relationship,” Shinoda said. “[And the video] is really mostly narrative; and it’s kind of the story of the families and the soldiers that this game is based on.”

Mike Shinoda and Phoenix also talked to Fuse about their experience writing music for the game.

Awesome news for hard-rock fans and video gamers: Linkin Park is contributing original music to the upcoming Medal of Honor: Warfighter game!

Fuse sat down with co-lead vocalist Mike Shinoda and bassist Dave “Phoenix” Farrell to hear about their experience crafting music for the sequel to Electronic Arts’ extremely popular 2010 game Medal of Honor (which boasted Linkin Park’s war-themed song “The Catalyst.”) But the new MOH game will feature more than just one track from the rap-rock outfit—they’re creating entirely new music to compliment the levels in this game.

“One of the things I’m personally excited about is that I’m getting a chance to personally score a couple levels in the game,” Shinoda says. “Our fans might be excited to hear some new stuff that is exclusive to this game.” (Uh, yeah they will!)

Shinoda also tells us about visiting Electronic Arts’ headquarters for the first time and uncovering a small armory within the building. “When we walked into the conference room to talk about our participation in the game, there was what I’d assume are real-life weapons all across the wall. I don’t know if they’re real or not, but they sure as hell look real,” Shinoda says, laughing.

The game’s executive producer Greg Goodman tells Fuse that Linkin Park’s involvement with the last Medal of Honor truly made an impression upon many soldiers’ lives.

“The war fighters we’re working with, a lot of them are very big fans of Linkin Park,” Goodman says. ” I’ve been told on many occasions that after [Medal of Honor], the song “The Catalyst” became almost an anthem for them. They’d carry it with them overseas and before going on operations they’d listen to it and get their minds right.”

As for the game itself, Linkin Park admit their Medal of Honor skills are no match for the well-practiced fans they play against on tour. “We’ll be out on the road this summer with Incubus here in the States, and that’s usually a time when we play games a little bit more often,” Shinoda says. “Hopefully if we play any fans, they set that up toward the end of the Honda Civic Tour so we get some practice before we play anybody.”

Bassist Farrell puts it more bluntly: “We usually get destroyed by some 15 or 20-year-old guy who just kills it.”

Watch the video above for the full story on Linkin Park scoring Medal of Honor: Warfighter.

Mike also talked about why he was “nervous” and “skeptical” about Linkin Park covering the Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage” on tour.

Linkin Park started performing the Beastie Boys’ immortal “Sabotage” onstage earlier this year in tribute to the late, great MCA, but Mike Shinoda tells Fuse he was actually very reticent to tackle the song and was just going along with co-lead vocalist Chester Bennington at first.

“Starting before our last tour we added a moment in our set—we wanted to do something as a tribute to the Beastie Boys—so we added ‘Sabotage.’ Chester brought the idea in and to be totally honest, I was a little skeptical,” Shinoda admits. “The Beastie Boys were early-on definitely one of the most important groups in my life. License To Ill in particular… I bought two records the first day I bought music, and that was one of them.

“That group was always so important to me and I didn’t want to mess up one of their songs. When we started rehearsing it, I was nervous and thinking, ‘I don’t know if this is a good idea,’ but I didn’t want to say anything. And I was lucky I didn’t because the guys just made it work. Chester believed in it… and we’ve been playing it ever since. I think we’ll be playing it on this summer tour coming up.” [Speaking of which, we chatted with Linkin Park's Chester Bennington and Incubus' Brandon Boyd back in April about the Honda Civic Tour this summer they're co-headlining.]