Linkin Park are back with a third album Minutes To Midnight that rocketed straight to the top of the UK charts and we have an exclusive live set from the band as they filmed their first AOL Music Session.

A muscular musical six pack, Linkin Park haven't stood still since they fused classic rock with hip hop and settled on their current line-up in 1999. From tearing it up in venues around southern California, they were turned down three times by record labels but once signed they made and released Hybrid Theory.

Triple nominated for Grammys, Hybrid Theory was a raging success around the world off of the back of singles such as Crawling and One Step Closer. Touring that album with Cypress Hill saw the band play more than 320 live shows in one year.

Four years later, the band hit gold once again as Meteora was released. And, following the ground-breaking collaboration Collision Course with the mighty Jay-Z, the band took a break for some solo work and to recharge the batteries.

Linkin Park: Larking about

In 2006, Rick Rubin came on board to produce their new album Minutes To Midnight and just before recording this session, the band disappear into a conference room to take a call from Mr Rubin and run through the final tweaks to the sequencing of the album.

Rubin has been instrumental in helping the band to break down their musical walls: "We really put a lot of limitations on ourselves that we didn't realise and Rick [was] just like, 'Is it really that important to have that style? If the music is great and you guys all feel something and it moves you, that should be all that it's about,'" says lead singer Chester.

This session was a unique opportunity for the band to run through some highlights from the album and it's quickly clear that they're moving on in sound and songwriting. And, despite the ominous title of the album, there is much light and shade on it.

Decision on the album made, they launch into lead single What I've Done, followed in quick succession by No More Sorrow, Given Up before dipping into their past for In The End. A fuse blowing gives the guys the chance to improvise and have some fun with Missy Elliott's Lose Control. Then they're into Faint before rounding off with Breaking The Habit.

Minutes To Midnight

Change is good according to Chester: "Music is never going to disappear. There's just finding new ways of doing it."

- Download Linkin Park with iTunes
- Buy Linkin Park on CD from Amazon
- Visit their official website
- Search: Linkin Park

More

- Air Traffic
- Andrea Corr
- Ash
- Bright Eyes
- CSS
- Editors
- Interpol
- James Blunt
- Kelly Clarkson
- Linkin Park
- Maroon 5
- Natasha Bedingfield
- Robyn
- Scarlett Johansson
- Unklejam
- Wilco

great

- Avril Lavigne
- Daughtry
- Ghosts
- Hard-Fi
- Joss Stone
- Kings Of Leon
- Lady Sovereign
- Lupe Fiasco
- NKOTB
- Scott Matthews
- Snoop Dogg
- The Enemy
- The Feeling
- The Fratellis
- The Kooks
- The Fray

music

- Adele
- Cat Power
- Fergie
- Foals
- Gwen Stefani
- Lil Chris
- Jojo
- Josh Pyke
- KT Tunstall
- Manic Street Preachers
- Muse
- Nas
- Nicole Scherzinger
- Paul Weller
- Rihanna
- The Killers