Linkin Park's A Thousand Suns

A Thousand Suns is the fourth album by the American band Linkin Park. It was released in September, 2010. Mike Shinoda, the band’s rapper, stated, "On this record, the concepts blend human ideas with technology [...] Human fears, your fear of what's going to happen in the world, the music kind of references that."

Though the album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, it has received several negative comments. It has been described by Terry Beezer and James Gill of Metal Hammer Magazine as having “virtually no guitars whatsoever” with “over the top, industrial-like” rapping.

A Thousand Suns opens with The Reqiuem, an errie introduction piece. The second track, The Raidance, cannot even really be considered a song. It is a man describing a line a Hindu scripture with noise in the background. The album is full of fillers, like tracks one, two, four (appropriately named Empty Spaces), seven, eleven, and thirteen.

In the past, Linkin Park has been able to balance rap vocals with melodic vocals. In contrast, When They Come for Me, the fifth song on the album, is completely rapped. Oddly enough, there is a evident Indian feel to this track, though no thanks to the singing. Keeping up with the international feel, the following track contains Japanese. In fact all four words in Jordana del Muerto are in Japanese.

The first half of the song Blackout perhaps best resembles Linkin Park’s heavier, angrier style that had made them famous. Unfortunately, once it reaches the half-point, it becomes a mess. It does, however, clean itself up near the ending, though with the new style that the band has shifted to.

The album’s first single, The Catalyst, is the best song on the album. The style is almost old Linkin Park. It was quite well done, with enough energy to keep it enjoyable but not so much as to turn it into a dance song.

The balance that once made Linkin Park interesting is gone. It is quite difficult to become interested in such a dull album. The entire style is a million miles away from what they’ve done in the past. Of the songs that aren’t filler, about half are pop, and the other half are rap, as opposed to the band’s familiar rock/ metal songs. It is, essentially, not a Linkin Park album.