100 Gecs Turn Linkin Park’s ‘One Step Closer’ Into Wild Genre Collage

100 Gecs have dropped a wild reimagining of Linkin Park’s classic, “One Step Closer,” marking the first in a series of remakes to further celebrate the 20th anniversary of the band’s 2000 debut, Hybrid Theory.

The track starts off pretty faithful to the original, with 100 Gecs recasting the intro with a bit more EDM wobble. But by the first chorus, the song explodes into a surreal yet cohesive collage of genres — one that, of course, would make Linkin Park proud — with both Laura Les and Dylan Brady adding their vocals to the song.

100 Gecs’ version of “One Step Closer” also arrives with a video in which either Brady or Les dons a wizard robe and Thanos mask and builds a house of cards with a little help from a glue gun. There are also a few magic tricks.

“Part of the spirit of Reanimation was to take the Hybrid Theory songs that people knew so well and let innovative artists flip them in ways nobody expected,” Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda said in a statement. “I think 100 Gecs did exactly that.”


Per a release, more remakes of Hybrid Theory tracks are expected to arrive soon, although a list of participating artists was not released. Back in October, Linkin Park dropped an expansive 20th-anniversary edition of Hybrid Theory featuring a mix of rarities and previously unreleased tracks.