Mike Shinoda on the album that split the Linkin Park fanbase in two

Mike Shinoda
(Image credit: Greg Doherty/Getty Images)

Mike Shinoda has revealed which Linkin Park album he believes to be the most divisive among the band's fans. 

Shinoda discussed Linkin Park's back catalogue in a new interview with Anthony Fantano, and which one of their seven albums seems to polarise fans the most.   

Shinoda said: “A Thousand Suns which was our fourth record, it wasn’t as commercially successful as the earlier ones because nothing could be – that would be impossible.

“It was very polarising. It got one or five stars by everybody, so we ended up with three-star ratings all over the board because half the people hated it with all of their heart and soul.”

Shinoda went on to say that over time, fans have come around to the album, which was released in 2010. 

“Now we’re at a point where if you ask the average person who’s relatively familiar with the band what their favourite record is, a lot of them say that one,” he said. “It’s changed, the whole relationship with the band has changed.

“People go, like, ‘Man, that was like the first album I ever bought, that’s how I learned to play guitar! And then I moved on to guitar that was harder…’ And that was part of the thing we were like, ‘Yeah, Brad Delson could actually play much more difficult stuff…’ But we loved how that sounded and we wanted to make stuff that a kid who couldn’t really play guitar, and he’d be like, ‘Yeah, let’s play this riff!'

“I appreciate that being older. I do love the idea of being in a position to maybe be a good teacher or a role model if I know something that somebody else doesn’t know.”

You can watch the full interview below. 

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