Linkin Park Look Ahead

Linkin Park is currently dominating Rock radio once again with "New Divide," their single from Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen. Mike Shinoda told MTV News that "early next year there's going to be another Linkin Park record too. We've been writing a lot and all the stuff we've been experiencing and stuff we've seen — that stuff is all going into the songs. Over the next year or so, you're going to get a lot of different LP music, and I think you're going to get a lot of takes on everything that's been going on."

Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington will also release his long-in-the-works side project, Dead By Sunrise, in September. Bennington says of the record, "There's a stylistic thing that's different. With Linkin Park, we have a signature sound — you know it when you hear us. [Dead By Sunrise] does not have that feel. It has a completely different feel. Trying to describe that difference is like trying to describe the difference between Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, you know? They're both rock, but they're different styles. I'm confident in saying this next record is going to be the most challenging... and complex and intriguing music that has come out of the Linkin Park camp. It's really dark. It's like post-apocalyptic Blade Runner meets LSD."

"I have to say, I'm really proud of Chester — he has his own style. You know how they say you can turn on Pink Floyd and The Wizard of Oz and they go together?" Shinoda told MTV. "You'll want to put this record on with Blade Runner and Tron." "Or Blade Runner and Tron and A Clockwork Orange, all at the same time," Bennington joked.

As for the next proper Linkin Park record, Bennington says, "With working on Minutes To Midnight, we really broke out of our shell — we really discovered that we can lose our minds in our music, and we're going to keep going with that for this new one. We're all creative in a lot of different ways. If you have more than one thing you're good at, or you have more than one style of doing one thing in particular, it helps keep the creativity fresh and new and keeps things rolling in a positive direction. If I was Bob Ross and I painted a forest scene every day, I'd get really good at painting a forest scene, but I don't know if I'd be very good at doing anything else."

Thanks for the report to FMQB.com.