Call them nu metal, call them rap rock, call them hugely successful. Last year marked the 10th anniversary of Linkin Park’s debut album, “Hybrid Theory,” and Billboard magazine in conjunction with number-crunching auditor Soundscan named the So-Cal rockers the No. 1-selling alternative rock band of the past decade. Even in these times of music biz austerity, Linkin Park is an old-school, multiplatinum, mega unit-shifting band with more than 50 million in worldwide record sales.
Linkin Park’s fourth studio album “A Thousand Suns” shot to the top of Billboard’s Top 200 album chart upon release last fall, making it the band’s third consecutive record to do so. But the dark, moody sounds of “Suns,” which was co-produced by Rick Rubin and co-lead vocalist Mike Shinoda, reveals the band in a somber and mature mood.
“We’re changing,” Shinoda says during a call just before the U.S. tour launched in Florida. “We’re listening to different music. We’re playing different instruments, interested in talking about different things, so all of that stuff gets mixed into the pot and, at the end of the day, the music is built partially upon all of that stuff. But, yeah, I think we’re changing as people.”
Linkin Park
with Pendulum and Does It Offend You, Yeah?
Friday-Sunday nights
MSG
Seventh Ave. at 32nd St.
$44-$75, all ages, 212-465-MSG1
www.thegarden.com
