Waiting for the End

"Waiting for the End" is a song by American rock band Linkin Park, released on October 1, 2010. It is the second single from their fourth studio album, A Thousand Suns, which was released on September 14, 2010. A music video for the single, directed by Joe Hahn, was released on October 8, 2010 on MTV.

It received mostly positive reviews from professional critics and was a huge success.

"Waiting for the End", along with five other songs from A Thousand Suns, is featured in the "Linkin Park Track Pack" as downloadable content for the rhythm video game Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock. The track pack was released on October 19, 2010. It was also released as one of six Linkin Park songs released in a pack for Rock Band 3 on January 11, 2011, though it was the only track from A Thousand Suns to be included in that pack.

"Waiting for the End" was announced as the album's second single at the time of the album's release.

The track features minimal distorted guitar and differs from many previous Linkin Park singles. The song features reggae-style verses by Mike Shinoda followed by both chorus and verses sung by Chester Bennington. The breakdown of the song uses remixed portions of Bennington's vocals. This song was featured in CSI on CBS on October 14, 2010.

Michael Menachem of Billboard gave the song a positive review, saying " 'Waiting for the End' offers the grandness of 'Numb' and 'Faint', but producer Rick Rubin's polyrhythmic framework and the group's moralistic lyrics set it apart from Linkin Park's past hits." MTV's James Montgomery praised the song, describing it as "one part soaring, big-boned ballad, one part rattling, slightly Ragga dancehall toast, and zero parts anything LP have previously attempted." Tim Grierson of About.com listed the song as the fifteenth best rock song of 2010, saying that "Balancing rapped and sung vocals, the hopeful, resilient track builds to a beautifully rousing finale."

"Waiting for the End" debuted at number 96 on the US Billboard Hot 100 upon the release of the album. After falling off and re-entering the chart more than once, it has reached number 42, remaining 23 weeks on the chart. It has also obtained number 2 on the Rock Songs chart. After spending 15 weeks on the Alternative Songs chart, it replaced "Tighten Up" by The Black Keys at number 1, giving the band their tenth number 1 song on the chart. As of May 2011, it has been certified Gold in the US, selling over 500,000 copies.

Chester Bennington said this about the success of the single in an interview with MTV on February 7, 2011:

"It took two years for us to make that record, and it took that whole process for us to really digest the new music, so we knew that it was going to take people time to really let it settle... And 'Waiting for the End' is a perfect example of that ... it's taken it a while for it to elevate up the charts, and it went to No. 1 at the Alternative charts, and then kinda went back, and then went back to #1. ... People are getting it now. And I think, especially for our fans in the States, it was important for it to marinate for a little while before we came back and started playing these shows." (wiki)