Xero and Pre Release (1997- Early 1999)
In 1997, LA band Xero released a self titled demo tape, shortly after in 1998, lead vocalist Mark Wakefield left Xero. In 2019, Bassist Dave "Phoenix" Farrel said, "We went through a period where we kinda didn't know what to do with the band, like, the singer we had been playing with was transitioning out and we didn't know if we wanted to continue; if we did, if we wanna continue with just with five guys or how that would even look or work out. And, you know, we tried a bunch of different guys that were LA-based, whatever, and nothing was really working, nothing we're excited about. When we heard Chester stuff he had done, we're just like 'ok, this guy can sing, we need to get him out here quick and see what the deal is.' We got him out and then 'ok, if the band is gonna work then this is gonna work. Otherwise, that's the end of Linkin Park as it is, kind of thing."
When vocalist Chester Bennington joined Xero they changed the band's name in favor of Hybrid Theory in 1999. However the name only lasted for a little over a year when the band rebranded as Linkin Park (A deliberate misspelling of Santa Monica's Lincoln Park) to avoid confusion with the British electronic group Hybrid.
