The band, which was a huge success with their first two albums, the pioneers of nu-metal, Hybrid Theory (2000) and Meteora (2003), decided to leave the format they had in 2007 with Minutes To Midnight. And the fourth studio album, the Californian sextet made more like a leap, going into the unknown.
"The truth is that we always want to talk about is the sound, or sounds different, but we just hope people listen," said the composer and vocalist Mike Shinoda. "Words will never describe exactly how the album is."
"If people noticed the changes between the Meteora and Minutes To Midnight, and now they expect a lot of changes again, so I still doubt that anyone is able to describe exactly how this album sounds," he added. "I'll be that good job of avoiding that can describe it?"
"This album is definitely something people are not waiting," said lead singer Chester Bennington. "I hate to say this because when you read this, they will expect the unexpected. Glad that words can not describe a song, though, this is a good thing. Glad to not be able to say how this album sounds that this is impossible. That means what we did and what we have in our latest music and not follow a style. It's exciting for me. We are not the country style, we are not rock style, there are no style, but we're Linkin Park. "
A Thousand Suns has far fewer influences from rock and metal than the previous albums. Instead, Mike Shinoda wanted to explore things more conceptual and a more electronic territory. The songs are more involved for jam sessions than structured compositions and the composer thinks it gives the album a different emphasis.
"The band's tastes have changed," he warns. "The whole world is older here and this album we took a nice time. Several things happened in the meantime and these things have influenced us in the studio.
"What makes it exciting to do, is the ability to do things we never had before and try new creative processes," adds bassist Dave 'Phoenix' Farrell. "For me, this is the reason I want to make music and want to do something creative. [We] do not want to show anything and redo things we've done."
With that, Linkin Park allowed their new music emerge naturally rather than remain in the comfort of the expectations that fans had. Trying to change the creative process, but the most important thing of all this is that people see is a coherent album, rather than just a collection of songs.
"Our intention is to follow the same path from beginning to the very last song," Mike said. "This journey is a unique experience, listening to from beginning to end."
"We want things to change, that things are different," adds Chester. "We want to go to a psychedelic place where you can feel and see the sounds. We want to be a sensual place musically. We want to combine all this into a story that you will feel, so go on that journey."
The band is aware that fans of the first two albums may not appreciate A Thousand Suns, however, they are happy, more than worried, and will surprise people.
"Some will not like and others will," said Mike. "But we feel good at predicting what some people may think."
"I think they have a satisfying surprise," added Chester. "We have no idea how the album is sounding. I'm happy to have made these songs that we all work together."
