After "Meteora" was successful, the band did not work on another album for over three years. Instead, they kept on performing at concerts and created side projects. Chester Bennington appeared on "State of the Art" by DJ Lethal. He also created a new band called Dead by Sunrise, with the band members of Julien K. Mike Shinoda also worked with Depeche Mode. In 2004, the band started making a remix album with Jay-Z called "Collision Course". The album, which included mash-ups of both Linkin Park and Jay-Z songs, was released in November 2004. The album's only single is "Numb/Encore", which was successful. Shinoda also created a new hip hop side project Fort Minor. With the help of Jay-Z, Fort Minor released its first album, "The Rising Tied", to very positive reviews. A the same time, the band was arguing with their record label, Warner Bros. Records. They were arguing because of many trust and money matters. After many months, the band finally made a deal with them in December 2005.
The band also did a lot of charity. They raised money to help victims and survivors of Hurricane Charley in 2004 and later Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The band donated $75,000 to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation in March 2004. They also helped efforts for the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami victims by performing in many charity concerts and starting their own charity, Music for Relief. Their most famous charity concert was Live 8, a number of concerts for charity for awareness worldwide. They performed with Jay-Z on Live 8's stage in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with an audience around the world. The band would later be reunited with Jay-Z at the 2006 Grammy Awards. Linkin Park and Jay-Z performed "Numb/Encore" with Paul McCartney who added lyrics from the song "Yesterday". "Numb/Encore" won the Best Rap/Sung Collaboration award. They would later perform at the 2006 Summer Sonic music festival, which was hosted by Metallica in Japan.
In 2006, Linkin Park returned to the recording studio and began writing new songs. They chose producer Rick Rubin to help in the new album. Even when they said that the album will be released in 2006, the album was pushed to 2007 after realizing that they could not finish it in time. The band had recorded thirty to fifty songs in August 2006. Shinoda said the album was halfway done. Bennington also said that the new album will no longer show their famous nu metal sound. Warner Bros. then officially announced new album's title, "Minutes to Midnight". It was released in May 15, 2007 in the United States. After 14 months of working on the album, they wanted to make the album better by taking five songs out from the original seventeen tracks. The album's title was a reference to Doomsday Clock. The title also suggested the album's lyrics and topics. The album sold more than 625,000 in its first week. It is one of the most successful starts for an album in recent years. The album also went to #1 on the Billboard Charts.
The album's first single, "What I've Done", was released on April 2, 2007. The music video premiered on MTV and Fuse at the same week. The single was loved by listeners, becoming #1 on "Billboard"'s Modern Rock Tracks and Mainstream Rock Tracks charts. The song is also in the soundtrack for the 2007 movie "Transformers". Shinoda was also in on the Styles of Beyond song "Second to None" which was also included in the movie. Later in the year, the band won the "Favorite Alternative Artist" in the American Music Awards. The albums's other singles are "Bleed It Out", "Shadow of the Day", "Given Up" and "Leave Out All the Rest". They were released from 2007 to 2008, and were successful. The band also made a single with Busta Rhymes called "We Made It", which was released on April 29, 2008.
The band's concerts included a performance at Live Earth Japan on July 7, 2007. and at Download Festival in Donington Park, England and Edgefest in Downsview Park, Toronto, Canada. The band finished their fourth Projekt Revolution tour. After that, they performed concerts at many arenas around the UK, including Nottingham, Sheffield and Manchester. They performed for two nights at the O2 arena in London. Bennington also said that the band will make a new album after "Minutes to Midnight". However, he said that the band will first perform in the United States so they can have ideas for the next album. He told "Rolling Stone" that the band already started writing for the album. Shinoda also said that the album will be released in the last part of 2009. Shinoda also announced a live CD/DVD called "", which was released November 24, 2008. It was recorded from their Projekt Revolution concert at the Milton Keynes Bowl on June 29, 2008. The band also released "Songs From the Underground", a compilation of previously unreleased songs.
In May 2009, the band said that they were working on a fourth studio album. They planned it to be released on 2010. Shinoda told IGN that the new album would be 'genre-busting.' They were taking themes and sounds from "Minutes to Midnight" He also mentioned that the album would have more experiments and advanced than their other albums. Bennington also confirmed that Rick Rubin will return as a producer of the new album.
While working on the new album, Linkin Park worked with famous movie music composer Hans Zimmer to make the music for the movie "". The band released a new single for the movie called "New Divide". Hahn directed the song's music video. It has scenes from the movie. On June 2009, the band performed at Westwood Village after the first showing of the movie. After finishing work on the movie, the band returned to the studio to finish their album. In late 2009, Bennington's band Dead by Sunrise finally released their album "Out of Ashes".
On January 19, 2010, the band released a new song entitled "Not Alone". It was part of a compilation from Music for Relief called "Download to Donate for Haiti". The compilation was to help the people hurt in the 2010 Haiti earthquake. On February 10, 2010, the band released the official music video for the song. On April 26, the band released a game for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, a game called "8-Bit Rebellion!" In the game, the band members are characters that can be played. After beating the game, a new song called "Blackbirds" will be unlocked. The song was also later released as an iTunes bonus track on their new album.
The band later revealed their new album's title is "A Thousand Suns". It was released on September 14. The album's first single was "The Catalyst", released on August 2. The band performed at many concerts so that it can have attention. They started in Los Angeles on September 7. The band also used MySpace to get attention for their album. They released two songs called "Waiting for the End" and "Blackout" on September 8. They also made a "making of" of the album, entitled "Meeting of A Thousand Suns". It was also shown in their MySpace page. It was included in the album's deluxe edition. On August 31, it was told that the band would perform the song live for the first time live at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards on September 12, 2010. They performed the song at the Griffith Observatory. It was a famous place used in many movies. The album reached #1 on the "Billboard" 200 chart. The album's other singles were "Waiting for the End", "Burning in the Skies" and "Iridescent". On April 13, 2011, Shinoda said that "Iridescent" is part of the soundtrack of the movie "". This continued Linkin Park songs being the theme songs of the "Transformers" movies (after "What I've Done" and "New Divide").