Draven Bennington releases first music as RVRND and announces debut EP

Draven Bennington has released his first music under the name RVRND, and announced his debut EP for release in August.

F w/ Me is the first release from Draven, son of late Linkin Park singer Chester, and deals with "a deep approach to how we behave toward the adversity of the natural world and speaks on the truths, tribulations, and everyday dealings in life". Representing the more hip-hop end of his palette, he worked on it with nu-metal super-producer Jay Baumgartner (LP, Papa Roach, Limp Bizkit) and it's been released in tandem with new MTV show Family Legacies, available to view on Disney+. A full EP is set to follow in August.

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Linkin Park recently spoke to Kerrang! about the special 20th anniversary edition of their second album, Meteora. Included in the package are unheard tracks from the sessions, published for the first time.

“We worked our way down from 20-something tracks to around 15,” explained Mike Shinoda of how some tracks made the cut and why they're only being released now. “We had a song called Numb and thought Lost was similar enough that we drew the line. We intended to put [Lost] out at a later date, but as we got into the process of making [third album] Minutes To Midnight, we were trying to reinvent the band, so to go backwards and use anything that sounded like Meteora wasn’t something we would have done.”

On re-examining the record and Chester Bennington's parts two decades on, Brad Delson told us,

“I think you can hear that total commitment to wanting to create great art. That’s what resonates with people, whether English is their first language or they don’t speak a word of English; the emotion doesn’t lie and it’s there in spades on [Meteora].

“It’s staggering to hear him again. I love the dynamic dichotomy of his voice – how delicate it is in the verse, and how strong it is in the chorus.”