Linkin Park - A Thousand Suns

A Thousand Suns' first track, "The Requiem" breaks in with vocals set to an ambient background melody speaking of a biblical 'save us from ourselves and sin' theme. As track 2, "The Radiance" breaks in you'll hear sound clips of J. Robert Oppenheimer talking of an apocalyptic theme and in reference to the Hindu scripture, "The Bhagavad Gita."

Continuing into the third track, "Burning In The Skies" is the actual beginning of the music and introduces what seems to be an extremely softened-down version of vocals for Linkin Park. While it does seem to possess a catchiness it's a bit reminiscent of lesser mainstream music.

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Track 4, "Empty Spaces" is a mix of a night scene of crickets, some lyrics and the voices of what seems to be soldiers and sounds of weapons firing. As track 5, "When They Come For Me" opens it offers a bit more of a rough, bass-y sound with a primitive feeling of drums, rhyming lyrics, some singing and the electronic touch present in many past Linkin Park songs.

Track 6, "Robot Boy" is what could be called Linkin Park's try at a piano ballad of sorts with a soft ambience much like early 90s downtempo. Only mixed with, of course, a touch of Linkin Park's style of electronic music. Track 7, "Jornada Del Muerto" title's meaning, in Spanish, is 'single day's journey of the dead man' while the lyrics are Japanese, "Mochiagete, Tokihanashite" which translates into, "Lift me up, Let me go". Track 8 offers up a bit of a ska-like style at the opening and turns to a bit more of a emotional soft rock, with a slight touch of folk, as Chester's vocals begin. Near the end it breaks into the ska style rhymes again.

Track 9, "Blackout" dives into a piano intro into the heavier sound Linkin Park is known for. And i can't deny that the beat is much of my style that the other songs. As the song continues it opens into a lot of mixing then softens out until the ending's fade out. Track 10, "Wretches and Kings" is another short speech portion of Mario Savio that turns into electronic-fueled rhymes with, in my opinion, an aggressive meaning to it.

The 11th track, "Wisdom, Justice and Love" is another sermon-esque speech of apocalyptic-style themes. It is a sermon by Martin Luther King Jr., who was a minister, and it's evident this is the most open track speaking on a "new world order" as the voice fades into a demonic-like voice as it repeats "..will not be justified with wisdom, justice and love."

Track 12, "Iridescent" is another song with a piano intro with a soft sound consisting of vocals and ambient music alike. In an emotional fashion it's meant to tug at heart strings like it's trying to capture the "hearts" of the disaffected with a 'positive' message. Wherein, the song applies, in one way or another, to us all of us. Track 13, "Fallout" is another poetic track only this time vocoded with a melodic filter.

Track 14, "The Catalyst" begins with record scratching with a message of victory against tyranny. In turn, it changes into part of the theme of the first track, the 'save us from ourselves and sin' theme. It's definitely a plea, in a way, to God. The final track (track 15) entitled, "The Messenger" is an acoustic song with piano accompaniment, sang by Chester Benning, with another emotional message about getting through hard times of love and conflict.

All in all Linkin Park's "A Thousand Suns" album will definitely be well-liked by dedicated fans of theirs and perhaps even others who are giving their music a first listen. Whether it becomes their best selling album is doubtful but my opinion it'll sure give good competition to their past album sales.