Frontman Chester Bennington explained the band has changed their sound again for fourth album `A Thousand Suns`, and insisted some fans need to accept the nu-metal band`s evolution.

He told Australia`s Herald Sun newspaper: "A lot of people will need to digest it and get over what perhaps their expectations were, and a lot of people are gonna be like, `What the f**k is this? Are you kidding me?`

"And all of those reactions are totally awesome. I prefer any one of those over, `Yup, it`s exactly what I thought they were gonna do`."

Chester said the band refuse to trade off their "glory days" - the height of their popularity came in 2000 with the release of debut `Hybrid Theory` - and it has always been necessary for the band to evolve to survive.

He added: "When we made `Hybrid Theory` we made music that we hadn`t necessarily heard before.

"When we went back in the studio it was like everyone wanted us to have another record like it, that was successful like that record. So we felt like we had to make another record like it, so we did.

"When it came time to make the third album it was like, `Look, we know we can do this all the time, but is this the band that we want to be for the rest of our lives, or do we want to really push ourselves and challenge ourselves?`

"That`s when we made the decision, and we grew a pair."

`A Thousand Suns` is available now.
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