I know this thread is for conspiracies but nah. Maybe originally like right after PR 04 and the Brazil show they would have started making a trilogy but by the time that they regrouped and started working in November of 2005, they wanted to change. Chester flat out said that when they first met with Rick Rubin that he told them he wasn’t interested in working with them if they wanted to make another album like the ones they had done and Chester said they then told him that they didn’t want to work with him if he wanted them to make another album like the first two so it worked out perfectly. He also said they didn’t want to make a trilogy from the beginning on the Making Of Minutes To Midnight. I also believe Mike said that the next album would probably be more similar in style to Breaking The Habit at the end of the Meteora cycle, and it was. Chester was saying stuff like ‘’I fucking hate nu-metal’’ in interviews in 2007, etc. They said if they made anything that sounded like it, they immediately discarded it. It wasn’t until Living Things that they felt comfortable making some music similar somewhat again. But really it wasn’t until From Zero. I think Chester maybe was the member most against nu-metal, that could be why.
