MikeShinodaClan.com has scans of the new issue of Kerrang! with Linkin Park featured in it. If you aren't signed up there I recommend you sign up because they have an incredible gallery of pictures accessible with only a few clicks.
In the article, Mike says the band is "hitting the studio pretty hard right now". He adds "This time we're not being so afraid of sounding like us and it's a good mix of old and new." "A Thousand Suns was intentionally polarising" he says.
With more and more press posting about new LP, it's sounding quite likely the next studio album will indeed be released in 2012!