Linkin Park have already begun working on material for a new album, according to frontman Mike Shinoda. Speaking to Absolutepunk, he said of their progress:
“Yeah, we’re already starting to throw ideas together. I’m always writing. It’s always an ongoing process for me, but we never know. Chester and I joke that we’ve already made the mistake of telling people what the next record is going to sound like. I remember on Minutes To Midnight, we wrote a couple really heavy songs. He went out and told people, “Oh, this album is going to be the heaviest record we’ve ever made.” Then it ended up that only two of those songs made the cut [laughs], and the rest of them did not. People were just like, “Wait, what the fuck? You told us this record was going to sound like…
We had a fan track that we called “Qwerty” that was super heavy. It actually sounded more like Hunting Party. We put that out as like, “Hey, just for fun. We’re not going to put this on the record. You can have this one.” So people thought that was what the album was going to sound like, and then they put on the album. “Hands Held High” is on there. “Leave Out All The Rest” is on there. “In Pieces,” and all these not heavy songs. A lot of them are heavy in emotion. “Leave Out All The Rest” is literally about dying, so emotionally that’s very heavy [laughs], but it was not the sound that we had said. I hesitate to ever tell people what the records are going to sound like because the only way to really understand it at the end of the day is to actually hear the album.”
When asked if they would be celebrating the coming 15th anniversary of “Hybrid Theory” in October, he said:
“…We haven’t done very many celebratory events for Hybrid Theory. We didn’t have a big 10-year thing, and we’re not planning any major 15-year thing. We’ll see what happens when 25 rolls around, if we’re capable of doing anything. In our minds, the idea of how our lives changed with that album, it’s very visceral. It’s very tangible. Obviously, every time we really stop to think about it, our group of guys is the kind of group that is vocal about our appreciation for the fans, and especially the people who helped us get that album out to the fans. We’ll see what happens, but we aren’t planning any major celebrations.”
