In October 2008 Shinoda revealed on his blog that he, Phoenix and Hahn had begun working on two song ideas at Hahn's home, with
studio recording to begin in earnest soon. In 2008, Bennington announced that
Linkin Park's fourth studio release will be a concept album.The band has not released many specific details about the album. In an interview with
MTV in November 2008, Bennington stated, "It sounds a little daunting to me, so, I think my confidence level will drop, but when it was presented to us by this friend of ours, we liked the idea. It was an inspiring idea, and it was something we could relate a lot of the things we like to write about to". He also added that the band planned to begin recording in December for a six-week session. The album was expected in mid 2009, but in late March, Mike Shinoda wrote on his blog saying "We're hoping to have Chester's Dead By Sunrise album out this fall, and the new LP album out early next year.
In December 2008, Digidesign gave the band the opportunity to preview the new Pro Tools 8 software. The experiment resulted in an instrumental song performed by Shinoda and Bourdon.
In April 2009, Mike Shinoda revealed on his blog that
Linkin Park will be working on the score for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen with successful film composer Hans Zimmer.On May 7, it was further confirmed that the song recorded for the film is titled "New Divide," and was released as a single on May 18.A clip from the song can be heard 14 seconds into the new trailer. The
music video for "New Divide" was released on June 12, 2009 and was directed by Mr. Hahn. On June 22, 2009, the band played a short set after the premiere of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. The concert took play on the street in Westwood Village
