Linkin Park Hopes To Release New Studio Album By Year's End

LOS ANGELS (KPOQ Radio Website) - Linkin Park told Los Angeles radio station KROQ Thursday (Aug. 1) morning that it hopes to have a new studio album out by the end of the year. The group also said it's narrowed down the new batch of songs to about 20 to choose from for the album.

The band had been working on new songs for the past 10 months while also working on the just-released remix album, Reanimation, which came out Tuesday (July 30). The new album will be produced once again by Don Gilmore, who also manned the knobs for Linkin Park's successful 2000 debut, Hybrid Theory -- home to such hits as "One Step Closer," "Crawling," and "In the End."

When asked if the new songs will be more in the vein of the remixed tracks on Reanimation, singer Chester Bennington told KROQ, "[The] remix [album] opened a can of creativity for us," but added that the band is not "ready to make an 'art' record." He did say that the group plans to experiment more with strings on the next album. Bassist Phoenix performed the violin and cello parts on some of the songs on Reanimation.

Reanimation, meanwhile, features contributions from the X-Ecutioners, Staind's Aaron Lewis, Korn's Jonathan Davis, Orgy's Jay Gordon, Aceyalone, Alchemist, Kutmasta Kurt, Pharoahe Monch, the Roots' Black Thought, Jurassic 5's Chali 2NA, and others.