Shinoda also went into detail about his frustration while writing the lyrics for "Bleed It Out" in an interview with Kerrang in 2007. This song has exactly the same structure as the old band songs, but the manner in which we performed it is very different." The track was recorded almost at the very end of the recording of the entire album and was a great celebration for the completion of the work." Chester added, "It's Linkin Park's style (intro, rap verse, chorus, rap verse, chorus, bridge and chorus again) Mike raps and I do the choruses. To achieve that, the band threw a real party in the studio as explained by Chester, "I've played everything from clapping, stomping my feet, we had a party in the studio once and recorded that, that's the beginning of "Bleed It Out"." The April 2007 issue of a French magazine published a track by track of Minutes To Midnight on which Rob said, "Rick Rubin had the idea to bring all the people from Linkin Park's maintenance team (make-up, photographers and security guards) into the studio and record their cheering voices to this song. It’s got rapping on it and a real big chorus, but it’s also got these great Motown drums and a real party vibe to it. With its 80’s-inspired guitar and bass, roadhouse blues piano and clapping, Motown-style drums, irreverent death-party rap verses, and punk chorus, this song is a party (albeit a strange one) from beginning to end." Chester Bennington, too, described the fun, party-like vibe of the song as something that " rides the line of what you might expect from us. This track is one of the places that it is most evident. The limited edition booklet for Minutes To Midnight reiterated that idea, saying " One of the band’s goals on this record was to enjoy it. But hopefully their next thought will be 'F*ckin' Cool'." It's so different it may take people a beat to go 'I can't believe it's the same band.
But it's got rapping and Clash-style vocals. Several months before the album was released, Mike Shinoda talked about the sounds and influences found on "Bleed It Out" in an interview with Rolling Stone, stating " The guitar sounds like AC/DC, the beat sounds like Motown, and there's a Stones-like groove to it.