I was never a fan of Linkin Park’s early records. I’ve always hated Chester Bennington’s distorted screeching that ruins almost every song he’s used that irritating vocal style on. That being said, the bands last album Minutes To Midnight was a turning point in the bands style and creative flow. The songs were suddenly better, the screeching vocals less prominent with actual singing taking it’s place. I became a big fan of the band after listening to Minutes To Midnight over and over again. (Although I did have to edit out Bennington’s screeching, scratchy, distorted, awful vocal in one section of the song Given Up.)
Like I said, on Minutes To Midnight the vocalists in the band learned how to sing and that made their music so much more enjoyable. So I was pretty stoked to pick up the new Linkin Park release A Thousand Suns. I bought the album without reading any reviews other than what the band posted on their website. I knew the album would be more experimental than anything they had done previously so I spun it up without any preconceptions. I have to tell you, A Thousand Suns blew me away!
If you want my short review I’ll give it to you right here. I love this album BUY IT NOW! I like this album because of the meandering flow of the music from start to finish. I love how the songs wind through each other and how the music builds and falls throughout the album. A Thousand Suns is not simply a collection of tracks. It is a complete album from start to finish with each song building from the one before it into the the song following it. I can’t tell you the names of the individual tracks because I listen to this album as one complete piece of work. It fits in with albums like Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon or Radiohead’s album OK Computer. A Thousand Suns is really a creative masterpiece in my opinion and I like it.
There are traditional Linkin Park elements at work on the album such as the excellent guitars, sampled beats and heavy drums. Bennington’s screeching gets it’s moment but it is not ruining the album like previous Linkin Park releases. The singing from Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda is better than ever and their voices sound excellent. I just can’t tell you how this album holds together, you’ll have to experience it on your own. My only advice is to give yourself a good chunk of time and listen to it from start to finish. Don’t listen for songs, just listen to the flow of the music and I think you’ll get it.
I quite like the songs but as your say they are in a completely different direction from what I’ve heard before… none the less they are pretty good and can in some respects work as instrumental tracks… But they do have pretty powerful lyrics as well.. we’ve grouped the Thousand Suns Lyrics at Shouty and found a lot of people are trying to figure them out… maybe they are more than just songs..!