Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington calls critics of new music 'f**king pussies'

The lead singer of US rock band Linkin Park has launched an expletive-laden tirade against people claiming the band's new album sounds too poppy, branding anyone who criticises the album a "f**king pussy".

Linkin Park, who rose to prominence at the turn of the millennium, have struggled to reach the same heights that their early work propelled them to - and many fans believe they've now sold out in the pursuit of widespread popularity.

New tracks 'Heavy' and 'Good Goodbye' could certainly be categorised as pop, rather than rock music - while the entirety of newly released album One More Light borrows heavily from commercial pop and hip-hop.

As a result, the criticism has flown in over the band's new sound - but lead vocalist Chester Bennington is clearly tired of it, and in an interview with UK radio station Kerrang! he let loose on their detractors.

"We know we're going down a route that a lot of our hardcore rock fans are going to be like put off by it maybe," he told the host.

"I think my response was, 'Cool, f**k them, we don't want them as fans anyways'. By now, if people don't know that we can throw a curveball then f**k them!"

He continued berating his critics with even more vigour later on in the interview.

"If you're gonna be the person who says like, 'They made a marketing decision to make this kind of record to make money' you can f**king meet me outside and I will punch you in your f**king mouth because that is the wrong f**king answer," he said.

"Because guess what, calling us a sell out for that purpose is selling out on your f**king excuse as to why you don't like it. You're a f**king pussy.

"For any band to take musical risks because you like what you're doing in spite of what you know some people will say they don't like, it doesn't matter if they like it or not - what matters is that you took the chance to do something that you felt was important to you, and that's what being an artist is all about."

Earlier in the month, Bennington told another media outlet that critics could "stab themselves in the face".

One More Light, the band's seventh studio album, was released last Friday.

Newshub.