Design the whole thing song by song if you like, and give examples of what the songs might be similar to.. My idea: First of all there'd be no screaming, maybe some slight scream-singing on a couple of the songs like Faint's chorus but nothing too heavy in terms of Chester's vocals, i'd like to hear rougher/shoutier singing from Mike on a song or two (No Roads Left) 1. Introduction (similar to Minutes To Midnight's intro but scaled back a lot in terms of heaviness, this would be a softer, more Floydian rock instrumental with the band all playing together, a little bit of electronics and ambiance thrown in.) 2. Papercut-esque song with the same sort of attitude to it but very modern/radio friendly, mainly to lighten the mood of the album early on. 3. When They Come For Me-esque song (Draws influence from Kanye West's Black Skinhead, experimental Chester vocals.) 4. Lying From You-esque song (Very focused on slower, more intelligent Mike rapping/singing with Chester on the choruses, very downbeat with a nu-metal flavour to it.) 5. Rock/folk/electronic song (Sounds like Castle Of Glass and Runaway fucking.) 6. Subtle rock ballad (Shadow Of The Day influenced, with minimal sound design like In Between) 7. Hi! Vltg3 or Nobody's Listening-esque song lots of Hahn scratching with a mid 90s feel to it in terms of lo-fi sound design. 8. Numb/Crawling type song which we haven't had in a while, very rock style with classic Hahn synth pad melody on the chorus and outro. 9. Experimental transition/instrumental along the same lines as Wisdom, Justice And Love. 10. Red Hot Chili Peppers influenced alternative/funk rock Chester vocals only, drum solo half-way through. 11. In Pieces-esque song (reggae/ska influenced with some ambient electro melodies, a bit of folk influence in there too) 12. IDM influenced Hahn/Shinoda instrumental (Think along the lines of Session or Tinfoil but with loads of melodies going on, composed like a usual LP song minus vocals obviously, lots of synth stuff going on.) 13. Ambient-electronic transitional song (a little like Jornada Del Muerto.) 14. Typical "epic" LP rock song (What I've Done/Powerless, with a guitar solo or two.) 15. Little Things Give You Away influenced long player with a long ambient outro in which the band sound like they're jamming together randomly while sticking to the rules of the song. The songs would all be around 3-4 minutes long at least. It might sound like something LP has already done, but the general vibe of the album would draw a lot of influence from bands such as Pink Floyd (Meddle, Wish You Were Here) Chili Peppers (Blood Sugar Sex Magik) traditional LP guitars would be dormant half the time and the drums would be more classic rock focused, with much less drum machines than Living Things or A Thousand Suns, but more than MTM. TL;DR: MTM part II with influence from Chili Peppers/Pink Floyd, compositions influenced by LP's whole career while trying out a couple of new genres. Yep i'm bored, did this mainly because it'll be a lot of fun to read others' ideas!
I would take the next logical step in the bands progression. Black Metal! [video=youtube;89EQfMWxDGU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89EQfMWxDGU[/video]
Go listen to Stabbing Westwards Darkest Days and Therapy?s Infernal Love albums. I'd have them be "heavily inspired" from that kind of rock. I don't care that it's not innovative.
My first order of business in Linkin Park would be the immediate firing of Brad Delson, so that we could have a guitarist who can actually knows how to play. We would then proceed do create the darkest, heaviest Progressive Death Metal imaginable, and conquer the entirety of the Metal Underground.