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
Midnight (musician) was later re-released simply as "M", produced by Tim Fredenburg and featuring Bobby Kovacs on guitar, it explored a more acoustic direction (only 500 copies were made). Once again, Midnight vanished until late 2004 it was announced that he had joined forces with Black Lotus Records to release his full-length debut solo album, "Sakada". After the release of "Sakada", Midnight did a short press tour in Europe which also included several acoustic performances. In 2007, Midnight joined forces with a new group of musicians including Matt LaPorte who also played with the ex-Savatage frontman's band Jon Oliva's Pain, and Lee