I'm in agreement with your mates, hybrid theory and meteora were great but since then its been pants. there were a couple tracks off minutes to midnight that were OK (bleed it out and I think no more sorrow) but other than that i dont like the new direction they went in
keeping with the times is all well and good but I think a majority of the original fans would prefer if they stayed with the same style rather than trying to change and get new fans. I also understand this is no way to stay popular (with exception of a few)
saying that though there are bands who have always been doing the same music for 20-30 years and are still top of their game. from the top of my head Iron Maiden come to mind, I just watched their 1985 tour on sky arts and the style and sound was pretty similar to their final frontier album which i think was released in 2010. also metallica with exception of a few albums in the middle of their career their sound today is very similar to the days when they started out
maybe gone a bit off topic here but just my 2 cents

bring back old linkin park
