The band did more charity work. On January 11, 2011, they started the new version of "Download to Donate for Haiti". It was called "Download to Donate for Haiti V2.0", with more songs to download. For the new compilation, the band released a remix of "The Catalyst" by Keaton Hashimoto from the "Linkin Park featuring YOU" contest. Shinoda designed two T-shirts, so that the money earned will help the victims of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami disasters. Music For Relief also released "Download to Donate: Tsunami Relief Japan", another compilation of songs. The money earned went to Save the Children to help the victims.
The album helped the band reach many year-end positions. Linkin Park reached No.8 in "Billboard" Social 50, a chart of artists that use many social networking sites. In other "Billboard" Year-End charts, the band reached No.92 in the "Top Artists" chart, as well as "A Thousand Suns" reaching No.53 in the Year-End chart of the "Billboard" Top 200 albums and No.7 in the 2010 Year-End Rock Albums, and "The Catalyst" reaching No.40 in the Year-End Rock Songs chart. The band charted in many "Billboard" Year-End charts in 2011. The band was No.39 in the Top Artists Chart, No.84 in the "Billboard" 200 Artists chart, No.11 in the Social 50 Chart, No.6 in the Top Rock Artists Chart, No.9 in the Rock Songs Artists Chart, No.16 in the Rock Albums Chart, No.4 in the Hard Rock Albums Chart, and No.7 in the Alternative Songs Chart.
In 2012, The band released "Living Things", which saw an exploration into a more electronica based sound. From this album came the songs "Castle of Glass", which was used in the 2012 videogame "Medal of Honor: Warfighter", "Roads Untraveled", which was used in the 2014 film "Need For Speed", and "Powerless", which was used in the 2012 film "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter."
Like the last album, this one explored a lot of different sounds. Some fans loved it, and others disliked it. The album itself sold over 2.5 Million copies as of 2013. It quickly rose to No. 1 in the Billboard Top 200 Chart. An extremely successful album for the band, they went on to tour for the next few years.
In 2014, the band once again decided to change their style for the new album. Mike Shinoda stated that he wished to create a more traditional Rock sound after listening to the radio one day. The band decided to make the music that "they" wanted to hear. The album was explosive, loud and possibly the heaviest they had been yet.
They decided not to have Rick Rubin produce this album, for the first time in 3 consecutive albums. It features guest appearances by Page Hamilton of the band "Helmet", rapper Rakim, Daron Malakian of the band "System of a Down", and Tom Morello of the band "Rage Against the Machine".
The album produced five singles; "Guilty All the Same", "Until It's Gone", "Wastelands", "Rebellion", and "Final Masquerade".
It was well received by critics and fans alike, and reached No. 3 on Billboard 200.
In early 2017, the band released the new single from their latest album, called "Heavy", featuring new artist Kiiara.
Fans immediately reacted with polarised responses. Some loved the new direction taken by the band, which can be described as "Poppy", whereas others disliked it, calling Linkin Park "Sellouts". The Official Lyrics video got some of the highest dislikes of any Linkin Park video on YouTube. Frustrated with the response from fans, Chester Bennington became angry on several occasions, though publicly apologized later on, saying that he understands the fans' perspective, is grateful to all of their fans, and that he should rethink his own perspective.
Despite the polarizing response from critics and fans alike, the album became extremely successful. Like before, it reached No. 1 on Billboard 200, and was certified gold in several countries.
The album features Kiiara, Pusha T, and Stormzy as special guest artists.
After touring "The Hunting Party", the band decided to write songs with outside help. They teamed up with several big names in the music industry, with a focus on writing lyrics before music, something they had not really experimented with before. They said that they wanted to attempt to do away with any notion of genre.
When strangely ridiculed about the lack of guitar and drums on the album, based purely on their first release of "Heavy", Brad Delson responded by saying that actually, there is a lot of guitar in the album. He then went on to list the songs "Sharp Edges", "Invisible" and "Sorry For Now" as having lots of layers of different guitars each.
The album produced several singles; "Heavy", "Talking to Myself" and "One More Light", the song for which the album is named. This is the first time that Linkin Park have named an album after a song.
Mike Shinoda described the album as "risky". The band had been following a traditionally rock oriented sound, and this marked a big change from that style.
Instead of focusing on anger, betrayal or other negative emotions, as they had been known for in the past, many of the songs focus on family, friends, and emotions. For instance, the songs "Invisible" and "Sorry For Now" both focus on the band member's children, and the title song "One More Light" is about remembering, and caring about someone after they have died.
Chester Bennington's close friend and musician Chris Cornell committed suicide by hanging. When Chester heard the news, it made him extremely upset, as the pair had known each other for years. Cornell had performed on stage with Bennington in the past, and was even the godfather of some of his children.
The loss of his friend affected him and the band so much that they decided to perform the song "One More Light" in his memory at the "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" Show in Los Angeles, rather than perform a more commercially viable song from the album. It was a fitting song for them at that time because of its themes of dealing with the loss of a friend or loved one. After his death, Bennington said "I can't imagine a world without you in it" about Cornell.
Chester began to talk more openly about some of his struggles. He had previously revealed that he was a victim of child abuse and rape, but also talked about his mental issues, as well as his battles with drugs and alcohol. He described his depression and anxiety in several talk shows, and stated that he sometimes feels very upset with himself.
At Cornell's funeral, Chester sang Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah".
Midway through the "One More Light Tour", On July 20th 2017, Linkin Park released a music video for "Talking to Myself" on YouTube. They were unaware that the same morning, Chester Bennington had died in his home in Los Angeles at the age of 41. News reports surfaced across the internet, and fans began to panic.
On Twitter, Mike Shinoda posted:"Shocked and heartbroken, but it's true. An official statement will come out as soon as we have one".His death was ruled as a suicide by hanging. A half-empty bottle of alcohol was found at the scene, but no other drugs were found. His housekeeper discovered his body around 9:00 a.m. PDT.
The band, friends, family and fans all paid tribute to Chester. A trending Twitter hashtag surfaced, "#RIPChester", which was used several million times, and simply listening to Linkin Park songs, fans managed to populate, and even completely fill charts with many classic Linkin Park songs, even some from "Meteora" and "Hybrid Theory", which at the time were over 13 years old. Remembrance events were held by fans, who attended in their thousands, paying tribute to the late artist by singing songs, lighting candles and creating memorials to Chester.
His funeral was held on July 29th, at South Botanic Garden in Palos Verdes, California. Many musical tributes were held in his memory, and he was buried there.