I decided to continue my trend of discussing concept albums for my passion blog this week since they have so much depth even in between songs. And what better way to continue then to discuss the most followed band on social media, Linkin Park’s, concept album released in 2010 named “A Thousand Suns”. To the everyday listener, the title of the album may not stand out, yet the astute historian will realize that the title is based on a quote from J. Robert Oppenheimer, the creator of the atomic bomb. As this title suggests, the concept album discusses war, dissension, and oppression, warning especially about the use of nuclear weapons.
This album sounds nothing like anything else that Linkin Park has done. It is a lot mellower than the eviscerating screams and guitar riffs that are present in their famous freshman release Hybrid Theory and is not pop like their newest album One More Light in 2017. Linkin Park has always experimented with their sound as they continually have evolved as a band, but their sound in A Thousand Suns stands out because it fits the story they are trying to tell. The echo effect in some of the vocals, the overlapped synths, and mixed guitars, and even the isolated piano found on the record all sounds like it is coming out of an apocalypse, yet it still sounds excellent. Iridescent, for example, was the lead song in of the transformers movies.
The story of the album which discusses the consequences of war is an important one and makes sense since Mike Shinoda, the band’s rapper and main writer is Japanese-American. He had family in Japan during WWII as well as family in internment camps in the US. Although he never experienced this himself, the albums warning is related to this conflict and gets deeply personal at times.
The beginning of the album begins with a speech from Oppenheimer discussing the devastation his invention could create, calling it “Death, the destroyer of worlds”. Next, the song Burning in the Skies discusses the fire and devastation that war can cause. The song’s perspective is from someone who has started a war a conflict but has been retaliated against and is now facing the same devastation that they had initially created. The haunting chorus calls out “So don’t apologize, I’m losing what I don’t deserve”. In between the tracks of the album, there is gunfire and people yelling for cover, continuing the theme of war. Next, songs like Robot Boy and
Iridescent talk more about the consequences of war. How it can isolate people, making them lose hope and emotions and give up. Robot Boy, in particular, is my favorite song from the album as the singer calls to the boy to “hold on”.
The album concludes with a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. calling for people to stand up to stop the cruel wars that have killed people with napalm and bombs, and the track: The Catalyst. This was the first single from the album and calls out for forgiveness for the terrible deeds that humans have done.“God save us everyone, will we burn inside the fires of a thousand suns? For the sins of hand, the sins of our tongue, the sins of our father, the sins of our young.” (A Thousand Suns). It criticizes the use of nuclear weapons as it concludes the albums’ anti-war message.
This album is one of my favorite albums ever and it relays a good message that is difficult to convey. I would recommend you check it out when you have the time!