The unfading Linkin Park are ready to sell another 5 million records and the initial vehicle this time around is "What I've Done," available streaming from the band's MySpace. The fivesome's next album, the follow-up to 2003's "Meteora," is called "Minutes to Midnight" and bows May 15.
Linkin Park are getting ready to reveal to the world their next studio album, due in May (Warner Bros.) and produced by legendary producer Rick Rubin. Billboard reports that the band are mixing the as-yet-untitled album now, with the as-yet-unnamed first single due sometime next month. As for the sound of the new material:
"These are really beautiful songs," producer Rick Rubin told Billboard in December of Linkin Park's first album in four years, which was delayed by a now-settled dispute with Warner Bros. "They've outdone themselves." Rubin steered the band toward recordings by Pink Floyd, Elton John, King Crimson and Emerson, Lake & Palmer as reference points for different emotions.Mike Shinoda has previously said that the Moog synthesizer is collecting dust in the studio.
In a statement, dual frontman Chester Bennington has described the album as "dark and spooky, poppy and very melodic... We're straying away from a lot of the predictable sounds we've had in the past. But there's no question in your mind when you hear it that it's Linkin Park".It's always intriguing to see how bands evolve, despite the inevitable shit storm it creates within the 'traditional' fan community. Only time can tell what will happen with this more mature Linkin Park, but with Rubin on the knobs and the artistic gusto of Shinoda, Bennington, and DJ Hahn, it's hard to imagine the band falling flat.
On working with Rubin, Bennington said: "Rick has brought more of a stripped down, classic-rock and hip-hop kind of feel. We're using vintage guitars and drums made out of wood and skin for a more tribal sound. It's definitely not nu-metal."
