I think anything will be good, I just don´t want the album to be rushed, but OML tour can take long, so 2020 seems to be the best option for release year, although I would like to have new LP in 2019, more than 2 years is torture I hope they can write songs while they are on tour, which is very difficult, but that way they´d only have to record them when they came back from the tour (even recording would take long).
industrial metal maybe a Tool-esque would be cool. Or Violins fused in with heavy guitar riffs from Hahn, mike screaming and chester rapping! And BBB on the turntables
I don't have any reason to back it up or anything, but my gut tells me they're going to do a sort of pseudo-Fort Minor thing on the next record that's very rap-centric with a lot of guests. Good Goodbye is such an outlier on this record I really think it's something they'll explore further, kind of like they did with Breaking the Habit serving as a source of inspiration after it was so different from everything else on Meteora.
Not sure if this has been posted or not, but during that Facebook Live Chat video with Mike for the upcoming U.S. Tour, Mike said that he found it weird that people think the band won't make rock music anymore in the future, just because they made One More Light. Is that a hint that the band will be returning to a rock sound next, or is it just Mike saying that in general? Either way, pretty interesting.
With how fantastic Reanimation was (and that had a lot of hip-hop on it), it surprises me they never tried to make another rap-centric album as a band. So yeah I definitely wouldn't be shocked if your prediction holds true because that's been long overdue. Just a hint really. He's saying that the rock isn't gone. It's just on vacation .
One More Light and Living Things had alot of hip hop elements but I would like another rap-centric album for sure. On average, their hip hop elements age better than their rock elements. On Hybrid Theory and Meteora, both albums have hip hop production that wouldn't sound too far from the chill/electronic-based hip hop beats heard today. Obviously the distorted guitars scream early 2000s, but Reanimation and the hip hop elements on HT and M still sound fresh. I'd love for Shinoda to explore his improved hip hop capabilities. If the beats from TRT still sound good from 2005 then I'd be excited to hear what Mike can do in 2020.
I would actually be interested in Linkin Park going full hip-hop without nu-metal. I would love to see Mike bring back more of his fast rapping like in Reading My Eyes, Part Of Me, Papercut, A Place For My Head, etc. He hasn't done any fast rapping in a long time. I think Bleed It Out was the last time he did it, correct me if I'm wrong.
I wouldn't mind some sort of rap album, but Mike would seriously have to change or at least get away from the LP-type raps he's been putting out.