Linkin Park, A Thousand Suns review by Deborah Jackson
Linkin Park are set to release their latest album ‘A Thousand Suns’ on September 14th, and it could be their most eclectic to date. We were lucky enough to be given a sneak peak.
The first single, ‘The Catalyst’ which was debuted on August 2nd gave fans a once in a lifetime opportunity to be featured on the album. An online competition was held requiring fans to remix some audio from the track. They had an overwhelming response but the lucky winner was an English teacher from Poland. Her remixed version of ‘The Catalyst’ is currently available for free stream on Linkin Park’s MySpace page and is definitely worth checking out!
The album is hard to describe. We were blown away by the diversity of styles and the seemingly complete change in direction the band has taken. You could be forgiven for forgetting that you were listening to Linkin Park, as they seem to have drawn inspiration from so many different genres. Fans will either love it or hate it. We loved it.
Without giving too much away, let us give you a little run down of what you can expect.
Now it was at times a little hard to distinguish where one track was ending and the next was beginning because there were no pauses in between, so we will do our best.
The album begins slowly with a mysterious and hypnotic almost other world-ly sound that builds up into the voices of a choir and another female singing “don’t save us everyone we are broken people living under loaded guns”.
The first couple of songs have a jazzy/electro/pop kind of feel, while still being somewhat dark and haunting. We apologise for the vagueness in our description, but like we said, the album is hard to categorise!
It really starts to take off with the third track, ‘Burning in the Skies’. A heavy bass teamed with an awesome beat and an amazing piano and vocal solo really got our attention. It almost gives the impression of being in a warzone.
Tracks four and five kind of begin to give of a bit of a different vibe. Keep your ears open for an awesome rap in what we think was track four, ‘Empty Spaces’. Listen for more of an electro-beat teamed with an awesome use of various instruments. We think we picked up on the use of synthesizer strings throughout the album.
‘Waiting for the End’ is a track to keep your eyes open for. The drums and vocals are particularly predominant in this piece. A quiet chorus is very climatic and the bridge had us in a trance.
The beat in the next track ‘Blackout’ is somewhat like a heart beat. It is a little bit more emo than the other tracks with a slight bit of a rap thrown in and some disc scrubbing makes it feel almost like a remix. Now that all sounds kind of a mess and confusing, but it all surprisingly works really well and made for an awesome song!
Again the next track was kind of emotional. But “Wretches and Kings” actually turned out to be our favourite. It begins with a speech that I would guess is from the WWII era. The guitar is very distorted and dirty as are Chester’s vocals, but this adds to the whole effect of the song. The lyrics are great, the beat is amazing, Mike’s rap is great, and the scratching is great. Honestly couldn’t fault this one!
The next few tracks are real tearjerkers. ‘Wisdom, Justice, And Love’ begins with a slow and sad keyboard intro and incorporates a speech by Martin Luther King. Then comes an electronic almost frightening sounding voice.
The final track ‘The Messenger’ is another contender for our favourite on the album. It has an acoustic guitar this time, which is a nice change of pace from the rest of the album and has Chester singing the almost romantic lyrics ‘love leaves us blind, keeps us kind…’
All in all our opinion of the album is that it yet another fantastic contribution from Linkin Park. But it is different, so prepare to be shocked!
