One Step Closer is a song by Linkin Park, released on August 25, 2000, through Warner Bros. as the debut single and second track of their debut album, Hybrid Theory.
A remixed version of the song entitled “1Stp Klosr”, featuring Korn frontman Jonathan Davis, was featured on Linkin Park‘s remix album, Reanimation. In 2021, Linkin Park released a new remix of the song by electronic duo 100 gecs.
The song was mashed up with another song by the band from Hybrid Theory, “Points of Authority”, and a collaboration of the song “99 Problems” from The Black Album by Jay-Z on the EP Collision Course.
As of July 2024, the music video for One Step Closer has over 186 million views on YouTube. Joe Hahn of Linkin Park and director Gregory Dark came up with the concept for the video. The original version of the video was supposedly meant to be live footage of the band with fans (similar to their music video for “Faint”).
Directed by Dark and shot in Los Angeles, sixty-three feet underground in the abandoned Hollywood Subway underneath Bunker Hill, the video begins with a group of teenage friends hanging out around a dark alley.
Two of them (the male is played by local LA artist Tony “TonyMech” Acosta) follow a strange man wearing a black hooded robe into a door which leads them to a dark, misty room where the band is playing.
Monk-like men are performing martial arts moves throughout the video. Midway through the song, they knock over a crate, startling the monk-like men, and then flee the tunnel. Eventually, the strange man appears at the end of the video. While Bennington screams the song’s bridge, he is also upside-down as if gravity is inverted for him.
Stand-in bassist Scott Koziol can be seen playing with the band. Mike Shinoda sings some of the lines, although he does not sing on the record.
One Step Closer is the only Linkin Park music video to be filmed with SD cameras, which can be seen in 480p and is available in the US exclusively on the Warner Bros. Records YouTube channel.
Tracklist:
- One Step Closer (Linkin Park)
- My December (Mike Shinoda)
- High Voltage (Shinoda, Joe Hahn, Brad Delson)
- One Step Closer (Video)
Linkin Park
Chester Bennington: vocals
Mike Shinoda: keyboards, backing vocals, programming, samples, artwork and production
Brad Delson: guitars
Joe Hahn: turntables, samples, synthesizers, artwork
Rob Bourdon: drums, percussion
Additional personnel
Scott Koziol: bass
Production
Don Gilmore: producer, engineering
Steve Sisco: engineering
John Ewing Jr.: additional engineering, Pro Tools
Matt Griffin: engineering assistance
Andy Wallace: mixing
Brian Gardner: audio mastering, digital editing
Jeff Blue: executive producer
Artwork
Frank Maddocks: graphic design
James Minchin III: photography
Chester Bennington (March 20, 1976 – July 20, 2017)
