Linkin Park have spoken about their fifth studio album 'Living Things' and have said they believe the album takes them "back to their roots".
The album is due for release on June 25 in the UK and June 26 in the US. It is the follow-up to the band's 2010 fourth album 'A Thousand Suns' and has once again been produced by Rick Rubin. You can hear the album's lead-off single, 'Burn It Down', by scrolling down to the bottom of the page and clicking.
Speaking to NME about 'Living Things', co-frontman Mike Shinoda denied reports that the band were set to return to the nu-metal sound of their early records, but did say that the band were more in touch with their roots.
Asked if the record was more guitar-heavy than their recent albums, Shinoda replied: "That's actually been misinterpreted. What we've actually said is that the record gets back to our roots and it's captured a feeling that we haven't gone after in many years. I think that's gone misconstrued as a return to heavy guitars. There are guitars on the record of course though."
Then asked if this meant the album continued in the vein of their more experimental fourth album 'A Thousand Suns', Shinoda said: "I'll say it like this, with 'Minutes To Midnight' and even more so with 'A Thousand Suns', we were making an effort to get away from the sound of the first two records. The reason for that was that we felt if we made a third record that sounded that way, we'd be pigeonholed into doing that forever. Everybody just gravitated towards the stuff that sounded different and, as we got into 'A Thousand Suns', it got even more different."
The singer went on to say that the album does not signal the band "going back to their old ways", but that they were more open to incorporating elements of their early material in their new songs.
He added: "I think we got so interested in adding new tools to the toolbox that we forgot what was already in the toolbox. After making a few records which just focused on the different stuff, it became fresh again to go back and use the old tools. It's definitely not going back to our old ways, we've used all the tools in the toolbox."
Source. www.nme.com
