30 In 30: Linkin Park – A Thousand Suns [90/100]

Notes: “The Requiem” is a slow fade in, industrial sounds and echoes transition into piano and vocal harmony, then a vocoded female, “God Save Us Everyone” which I’ve heard on the single towards the end of the album. Progresses into “The Radiance”, very industrial techno sound, Oppenheimer’s “I am become death, the destroyer of worlds” sample dominates the short track. Fades out, first actual song three tracks in in “Burning In The Skies”, piano, clean electric guitar, nu-metal drumkit. Provoking lyrics, “I’m swimming in the smoke / Of bridges I have burned / So don’t apologize, / I’m losing what I don’t deserve” The sound is quite clean, distances itself quite effectively from “Minutes To Midnight”, a rather tame guitar solo bridges a song that’s pretty standard of the genre with regards to arrangement. Progresses into “Empty Spaces”, wartime samples of explosions, short segue track into “When They Come For Me”, jarring industrial-distortion on the electric guitar is quite different from anything I’ve heard them do before. Congas and this buzzing guitar sound lead into a very interesting blend of tribal and industrial, M. Shinoda’s rap is on-point and really a great arrangement on a very unique track. Reminded of Nonpoint’s earlier stuff for some reason, “Bullet With A Name” is a distant cousin but I really like both. Song closes out with greater emphasis on vocal harmony, Chester’s chanting gives it a very tribal ending, gritty, focused, powerful, the song may not makes waves on Rock radio stations but it’s one of their best since Meteora. “Robot Boy” uses their usual opening of piano and nu-metal drums, but kick drums and claps slow the tempo to half-time. Chester in three-part harmony, gently swelling strings in the background transition the song into a reverb-heavy echo chamber that’s a drumkit shy of being a capella. Part of why I like these guys is they’re willing to step into genres that most rockers aren’t, this is almost an electronica/R&B sound, it’s a bit more energetic than their closer on Minutes To Midnight “The Little Things Give You Away”, but there’s a similar feel. Progresses into “Jordana del Muerto”, opening vocals are run through a noise gate, I appreciate the attempt but it’s falling flat, it doesn’t stick around for very long, instead going for an overdriven synthesizer with a crescendo of background noise, so far the album is aiming to be more of an epic than their previous works. Progresses into “Waiting For The End”, very moody sound imparted by a buzzing electric guitar, piano is again present, I will give them credit for at least changing the dynamics of the piano up each track. The moodiness subsides and you’re left with Chester singing a slow ballad-esque track, the track is minimalist but has their sound signature all over it. I think I have heard this one on the radio already, their second single off the album. It’s a bit too close for comfort to “Robot Boy” honestly. “Blackout” opens with pad synths and a military snare, then synthesized bass guitar and piano. Transitions rather abruptly into a strange mix of Chester’s early days of screaming (think “Faint”). The backing track is strangely upbeat, the whole thing in a major scale until a bridge that changes the whole landscape of the song, Chester’s vocals sliced, scratched and mixed in an angry 30 seconds that has the feel of a panic attack. Bridge leads to a vocal style more fitting the original upbeat sound, then finishes with the same vocal-heavy finish I’ve heard a few times already, though this one is much more electronica-infused than previous tracks. “Wretches And Kings” opens with a vocal sample, interesting tricky guitars move us back into industrial, M. Shinoda and Chester tag-team this one which are almost always interesting tracks if nothing else. The song is much more a rap song than “When They Come For Me” was, emphasis on the dropped 8th bar for rhyming with a scratch-heavy outro. My original thought was the track was out of place contextually, but the vocal sample indicates there was in fact an underlying message. “Wisdom, Justice, and Love” is a vocal sample of Martin Luther King, Jr. and piano, another segue track but they are actually quite effective in tying the album together thus far, the vocal sample is increasingly vocoded and dehumanized as the track continues, until it ends with an inhuman voice repeating “Cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love.” Their strongest segue track thus far. Progresses into “Iridescent” is piano and vocals, building up with a kick drum and Chester joins in for the chorus, subtle hat joins in somewhere during the first chorus and we’re at a fully fleshed-out track by verse 2. Though the last album was technically about the Doomsday Clock, this one has a much tighter association with it’s name. I have to say, the minor changes in this one don’t do enough to set it apart from “Robot Boy” or “Waiting For The End”. It’s not bad, but for a short album we’re covering a lot of the same ground. Progresses into “Fallout”, brooding sweeping synthesizers and vox box recounting lyrics from “Burning In The Skies”. The vocoder almost has an organ feel, slowly transitioning to Chester’s voice. Progresses into “The Catalyst”, their first single off the album. Organ and nu-metal drumkit lead the way, tremolo-infused vocals reference the introduction, the track is eminently creepy opening up and transitions into a synthesizer and kick drum reminiscent of Hardstyle tracks. Building up instruments and energy for a good three minutes, this is the best fusion of electronica and rock on the album thus far and given I’ve only got one track to go I’d say it’ll hang on to that title. Finally the crescendo breaks to piano and that hardcore synth, floor drums close the song out in half-time. Electric guitar and rock drums give this outro much more energy and character than previous tracks, vocals “in the round” aren’t used enough these days and it was really a good match for the feel of the song. Very emotional song, almost drained by the end of it. “The Messenger” opens with acoustic guitar, the first time it’s come up in the album. I’ve never been a huge fan of simple acoustic and damn-near shouted vocals, and it’s actually clipping quite a bit in my headphones. Piano joins in on chords, I’m really wishing Chester had dialed it down just a bit here, but willing to take the ride here. Trying to end the album with upbeat lyrics give mixed messages as to the point of the album, actually undermined it a bit there at the end.

Tone and Overall Sound: 20/20 Points. This was a 16 originally but the criteria I chose meant they were getting full marks here. The album has tons of polish, you can tell a lot of talk and effort went into getting things exactly how they envisioned. Solid and beautiful throughout.

Melody and Harmony: 12/20 Points. The way Linkin Park approaches an album has more to do with the percussion and vocals getting the feel across than the other instruments. No real innovation even from their previous works in this category, and a bit too much repetition in places.

Rhythmic Qualities: 20/20 Points. One thing I really like about these guys is that even something like a kick drum or a snare won’t be the same track-to-track, they take care to adjust the reverb, effects and dynamics to make their percussion pop nearly every time. Good variance of rhythms, tempos and drum kits.

Mixing and Production: 20/20 Points. I’m a bit surprised I’m rating the album this high but I’m going by a standard criteria and again they get full marks here. Great use of samples, and not just using them but wrapping them in effects that give them entirely new meanings. Tons of gated effects and subtle pans and cues that are a trademark of their work ethic.

Theme and Concept: 10/10 Points. Consistent reinforcement of a nuclear/apocalyptic theme throughout with lyrics, samples, and effects. I’m a huge fan of music that makes you think, and they give a tremendous effort here.

Presentation: 8/10 Points. The cover art was intended to be ambiguous and open to interpretation, but sometimes that stretches the credibility of the thing and while I like it, and get the connections one can make, I’d have liked something with a bit more substance.

Total: 90/100 Points. If you haven’t listened to them since their days of Meteora and Hybrid Theory, it’s time to check up on them, we see them give some of their best work since those heady days thanks to “The Catalyst” and “When They Come For Me”. Don’t miss this one.

Setup:
Scoring Method: http://is.gd/gnNWc [pdf]
Sennheiser HD25-1 II
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS
MOG 320kbps MP3 Stream

Alright, that’s two albums down and twenty-eight to go, tomorrow we’re moving from nu-metal to alt-rock, and the newest album by 10 Years, titled Feeding The Wolves. Give it a listen tonight and be ready for tomorrow’s review.