Minutes to Midnight

Minutes to Midnight is Linkin Park's upcoming third studio album, scheduled for release on May 14, 2007 worldwide, with the exception of North America where it will be released on May 15. The title is a reference to the Doomsday Clock, where "minutes to midnight" is a measure of the proximity of the world to nuclear destruction.

Background information

This album was produced by Mike Shinoda and Rick Rubin.

The first single, "What I've Done", is to be released April 2nd 2007.

The album was delayed many times, first scheduled for summer 2006, then fall 2006, then early 2007, and now May 15, 2007. "When songs are pouring out you don't ever want to stop that. We already have over 100 roughs for songs," said Mike Shinoda, "We've narrowed it down since but we're not ready to commit to those yet."

The song from the early demo sessions, "Qwerty", which was rumored to be on Minutes to Midnight, has appeared on the Linkin Park Underground v6.0 CD on December 5, 2006 in both live and studio demo versions. It has been confirmed that "Qwerty" and the other songs on the LPU CD will not appear on the new album.

On December 12th, Phoenix was interviewed by the Linkin Park Association where he cleared up some things about the new album.

"This was a year-and-a-half long process of really hard work and experimentation in the studio that yielded about 150 rough songs," guitarist Brad Delson tells Billboard.com. The band recorded 17 tracks and is now whittling down which ones will make the final cut. "Not only is this album incredibly diverse, but the depth of the material is really strong,” Delson says.

Music style

Mike Shinoda recently said this a Linkin Park Underground Chat, when asked about the genre of the new album, "I just think the styles we're mixing right now are all over the place. We have really been pushing things outside the box. But even like my Fort Minor album--it's a hip hop album, but a lot of the stuff isn't conventional. The LP album won't sound like FM, but it has its own unique sound that still sounds like LP--just different."

In a recent interview with MTV.com, Chester explained that the nu metal sound from their previous albums is completely gone. He also explained that the new album is a mix of Metal, hard rock, and hip-hop beats.

In the December issue of Blender magazine, Chester talked a little bit about the sound of the upcoming album, "Rick has brought more of a stripped down, classic-rock and hip-hop kind of feel. We're using vintage guitars and drums carved out of wood and skin for a more tribal sound. It's definitely not nu-metal."

No official track listing is confirmed yet, although the track names "Bleed It Out", "The Little Things Give You Away", "What I've Done" and "When My Time Comes/Leave Out All The Rest" have been talked about in interviews with the band.

New LPTV episodes are to be released on the band's website showing previous tour footage and a behind scenes look at the recording of Minutes to Midnight.

Verizon Wireless has a clip of "What I've Done" on their ringtones page.

Confirmed Tracks

* "Bleed It Out" (Originally known as Accident)
* "The Little Things Give You Away"
* "What I've Done" (The first single from Minutes to Midnight)
* "When My Times Comes"/"Leave Out All The Rest" (Final title has not been decided)