Say what you will about "New Divide," the brand-new Linkin Park track featured in the upcoming "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," but you can't accuse the guys of departing from their time-tested formula.

The big, rocket-launcher guitars, the electronic fireworks, the vocal gymnastics — it's very much classic Linkin Park, the kind of tune that's helped move millions of albums and pack arenas around the globe. And if you're an LP fan, you should probably savor it, because from the sound of things, Linkin Park might be leaving songs like "Divide" behind for good.

"We've got this song for 'Transformers,' and then sometime soon after this, Chester's going to be releasing a solo record called Dead by Sunrise, and that will be out towards the end of this year," Linkin Park MC Mike Shinoda said. "And then early next year there's going to be another Linkin Park record too. We've been writing a lot and all the stuff we've been experiencing and stuff we've seen — that stuff is all going into the songs. Over the next year or so, you're going to get a lot of different LP music, and I think you're going to get a lot of takes on everything that's been going on."

And that "different" music starts with Bennington's Sunrise, a long-in-the-works project that the singer says will finally see the light of day in September. And in keeping with what Shinoda was saying, Bennington is warning Linkin Park fans to prepare to be shocked by what they'll hear. Oh, and to fire up their black lights too.

"There's a stylistic thing that's different. With Linkin Park, we have a signature sound — you know it when you hear us. [Dead by Sunrise] does not have that feel. It has a completely different feel. Trying to describe that difference is like trying to describe the difference between Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, you know?" he said. "They're both rock, but they're different styles. I'm confident in saying this next record is going to be the most challenging ... and complex and intriguing music that has come out of the Linkin Park camp. It's really dark. It's like post-apocalyptic 'Blade Runner' meets LSD."

"I have to say, I'm really proud of Chester — he has his own style. ... You know how they say you can turn on Pink Floyd and 'The Wizard of Oz' and they go together?" Shinoda added. "You'll want to put this record on with 'Blade Runner' and 'Tron.' "

"Or 'Blade Runner' and 'Tron' and 'A Clockwork Orange,' all at the same time," Bennington laughed.

And then there's the matter of Linkin Park's new album, the follow-up to their ultra-successful 2007 epic Minutes to Midnight. Already described by Bennington as being a semi-conceptual piece, it now sounds as if the band is pushing the boundaries even further.

"With working on Minutes to Midnight, we really broke out of our shell — we really discovered that we can lose our minds in our music, and we're going to keep going with that for this new one," Bennington said. "We're all creative in a lot of different ways. If you have more than one thing you're good at, or you have more than one style of doing one thing in particular, it helps keep the creativity fresh and new and keeps things rolling in a positive direction. If I was Bob Ross and I painted a forest scene every day, I'd get really good at painting a forest scene, but I don't know if I'd be very good at doing anything else."