I think the die-hards will need to keep this on repeat for awhile to let it sink in. Mike Shinoda and legendary producer Rick Rubin link up to create an album that transcends what fans normally attribute to Linkin Park. Shinoda did say that during the creation of Minutes To Midnight that LP was looking to sound differently than what people have heard previously and they have succeeded. Nevertheless, the album is fantastic. After listening to the songs like “Shadow Of The Day” you can’t tell me that you aren’t mentally, if not emotionally, transported to a memory that this song evokes. Of course there’s the political side in Shinoda’s rhymes on “Hands Held High” where he addresses the current middle eastern wars and his discontent with President Bush. Chester Bennington gets his shots in about the victims of the gulf coast in “The Little Things Give You Away.” If you find that this new sound is a bit too much at once and that you ache for more the LP that your ears love, listen to “No More Sorrow” and “Given Up”. I thought it was a different album. Don’t expect Meteora or Hybrid Theory. Minutes To Midnight stands on its own. And one should view it as such.