Enduring rock band thriving as a hybrid

Early in its career, Linkin Park was known as Hybrid Theory.

That eventually became the title of the Los Angeles heavy-rock band’s diamondcertified debut album in 2000, but it also remains the best descriptor of the sextet’s musical approach.

During the course of a career — which to date has included seven studio albums and two remix sets — Linkin Park has put a premium on unapologetic musical melding, whether its joins rap and heavy metal or ventures into electronic music or fullfledged collaborations with rappers such as Jay-Z and Kendrick Lamar.

Whatever the group has done, the music has worked: Five of those seven albums have made their debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, including the newly released “One More Light,” and six have gone platinum or better.

“We’ve always been about mixing things,” rapper/

keyboardist/producer Mike Shinoda said from Los Angeles.

“With every album, every song, we’re trying to challenge ourselves. ... The style can change dramatically, and different elements — different genres that we listen to — might sit more in the forefront than others.”

With “One More Light,” however, the drama has been particularly pronounced.

From the February release of its first single, “Heavy” — featuring the singer Kiiara — the 10-track distinguished itself from its predecessors.

Working more closely than ever with outside songwriters, Linkin Park created an album with a pronounced flavor of mainstream pop, drawing from the well of electronic and hip-hop influences found throughout the Billboard Hot 100.

The province is one that most acts would aspire to, but it didn’t sit well with the headbanging contingent

among Linkin Park’s following.

“In terms of just the honesty and the intimacy,” said Brad Delson, guitarist and co-producer of the album, “I think there was no holding back. We just chased the greatest music we can make, and you never know how people are going to respond to it.”

Linkin Park’s first order of business with “One More Light,” Shinoda said, “was to “flip our writing process,” creating lyrics and melodies first instead of coming up with instrumental “beds” and writing the songs on top of them.

“The very first thing we’d do each day,” he said, “is get into the studio and say: ‘What’s on my mind? What do I want to sing about and write about?’ And that defined a whole different kind of writing.

“It builds a wonderful foundation to put everything else on top of. And the soundmaking is one of the most fun parts for me.”

With “One More Light” charting high in other countries — including No. 1 in Canada, Hungary and the Czech Republic and Top 5 in the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Australia — Linkin Park recently kicked off a world tour that includes an Aug. 12 stop at Riverbend Music Center in Cincinnati.

Delson said fans who go see the band should be ready for even more musical changes.

“These songs are very natural for us to play because of the way they were written,” he said. “They’re almost easier to share and play; whereas, on other albums, that translation process from what we did in the studio to the stage took some thinking and some work.

“These songs are very versatile. They’re natural to play. They fit in with the other songs really well.”

Then Delson concluded: “And one thing we’re pushing ourselves to do, in the spirit of the songs we've written, is to be able to play the songs in different forms — whether it’s the version you hear on the album or something really stripped down and intimate.”