Minutes to Midnight (Linkin Park album) Linkin Park started work on their third studio album in 2003, taking a break to tour in support of "Meteora" in 2004. In this time period, the band formed numerous side projects; Mike Shinoda formed his hip hop side project Fort Minor, while Chester Bennington formed Dead by Sunrise, causing the album to be shelved temporarily. The band returned to work on the record afterward, taking on a different musical direction than the 2003 sessions while working with producer Rick Rubin. The album's completion was delayed several times for unknown reasons. Eventually, "What I've Done" was chosen as the album's
Minutes to Midnight (Linkin Park album) studio album to contain a Parental Advisory (the first overall being their collaborative EP with Jay-Z, "Collision Course") and politically charged lyrics. The songs that contain profanity are "Given Up", "Bleed It Out" and "Hands Held High". The front and back cover were recorded around the ruins of North Shore Beach and Yacht Club in North Shore, California. A year after the release of "Minutes to Midnight", the band released ten different covers that were originally used as consideration for the final cover for the album prior to its release. The band made all ten of these covers available for