As humanity passes through this intense period of transformation, it’s very important that we take a good hard look at the path we are walking racing down. Are we beyond hope, or can we still change our ways? Will we burn inside the fires of a thousand suns, or can we yet redeem ourselves? The album puts the last century into perspective, and urges us to heed its warning, and indeed its deeper message that peace is still an option.
The reactions to A Thousand Suns have been wide ranging. There is no doubt that Linkin Park has come a long way since Hybrid Theory and embraced a totally new sound and message. No longer can we look to Linkin Park merely as an outlet for angst and rage. There are more important issues to deal with in 2010, and ATS brings them to our attention.
One criticism that seems to keep popping up is whether or not the band has “sold out” in changing their style of music. Upon listening deeply to the message of this album, it seems more likely to be just the opposite. If anything, Linkin Park is very much opposed to the status quo, and will no longer stand idly by and keep their mouths shut about what is happening in the world. Beyond that, the band has made it clear that they intend to continue evolving, changing their sound and style as necessary to support the new message. Yes, their rapping and screaming are what set them apart, and these do play in to the new album, but there is much more diversity here to be explored.
The album is meant to be listened to in its entirety, encouraged by the release of “A Thousand Suns: The Full Experience”, a 47 minute track which includes the full album. The band is experimenting with a wide range of new sounds, and also a wide range of emotion. Alongside rage we find redemption, and next to despair we find hope. Some of the tracks on this album are downright moving, which is a very new feeling for a Linkin Park song.
We open with the introduction track The Requiem, which is a haunting build-up of piano, soft voices, and industrial sounds. We’re then presented with the chilling question, echoed several times throughout the album:
God save us everyone, will we burn inside the fires of a thousand suns?
For the sins of our hand, sins of our tongue, the sins of our father, the sins of our young?
As this troubling question fades away, we enter a more militaristic space in The Radiance which builds up to the famous quote by J. Robert Oppenheimer, commenting on the first Trinity test of the atomic bomb in New Mexico.
We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty, and to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form, and says, ‘Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.’ I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.
Perhaps lesser known is another line Oppenheimer recalled at the time. “If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the mighty one.” Here we have both the title of the track and the title of the album, and we’re able to put both into greater context.
We now have two ways of perceiving what Linkin Park is asking us to consider.
Will we become so militaristic as to annihilate ourselves entirely, our physical destruction brought about by our terribly violent ways?
And on a more subtle level, can our actions as a civilization be forgiven? Even if we don’t blow ourselves up, we are already ravaging the planet and rapidly consuming its every gift and resource. How far can we go down this path of inevitable destruction? Could we perhaps invoke the wrath of a force greater than ourselves? Think Atlantis, if you’re so inclined.
Fading into the next track, we’re yet again immersed in an array of industrial sounds with subtle, reflective piano. Burning in the Skies is a mournful song of regret, expanding on Oppenheimer’s words from a post-apocalyptic perspective.
I’m swimming in the smoke of bridges I have burned,
So don’t apologize, I’m losing what I don’t deserve
The blame is mine alone, for bridges I have burned,
So don’t apologize, I’m losing what I don’t deserve
These words are echoed again later in the album, emphasizing their importance. How would we feel if we destroyed our planet, either through nuclear warfare or environmental devastation? Are we worthy of this beautiful green Earth, considering how we treat her and her children? This song urges us to take a strong look at what we’re doing before it’s too late, before we ourselves sing these mournful words.
Fading out into the sounds of crickets and war cries, we’re interrupted by a beat that quickly evolves into one of the most incredible drum beats you’ll ever hear. We’re now into When They Come For Me a song that encourages evolution, transformation, and ultimately redemption.
On a surface level, this song discusses Linkin Park’s evolution into a new style of music. Mike Shinoda makes a number of references to the band’s earlier albums, and makes it clear that he’s moving on to try something new. Alongside the excellent rapping we know him for, two lines emerge as the most important in this song, as they are repeated numerous times.
Try to catch up, motherfucker!
If you’ve listened to a lot of Mike’s lyrics, you’ll understand his perspective and the challenges he’s faced with other rappers and the music community at large. In these words, and in the song itself, he’s making a powerful statement about the evolution Linkin Park has gone through, and will continue to go through. They have always been ahead of the game, changing the face of music and bending genres as they go. Now they’re moving in another new direction and picking up the pace. Try to catch up!
Oh, when they come for me, come for me, I’ll be gone!
This line is also repeated a number of times, building up to an incredibly powerful crescendo with drums and chanting. You absolutely have to hear this one for yourself. Even better, blast it while driving on the highway. After the crescendo comes more fast paced drums and a lyrical chant that sounds rather Arabic in origin. This incredible track then ends as quickly as it began.
The deeper meaning to the song is essentially evolution. We look our demise face to face in the previous track, before this one presents us the opportunity to evolve. Similar to the way Mike and the other Linkin Park members have been criticized, so too are those individuals who strive for evolution, in a world that so rigidly wants us to stay the same. But sameness is simply not an option any more. We can no longer walk the slow death march to our inevitable destruction. Even if we incur criticism from outside, personal evolution and global change are absolutely necessary at this time.
Graceful piano invites us into Robot Boy one of ATS’s more moving tracks. After being encouraged to evolve, this track provides a hopeful and moving motivation to do so. The weight of the world rests with the individual. In order for us to change our fate, we must each overcome and release our burden, and contribute to the changes we wish to see in the world.
You say / you’re not gonna fight / ’cause no one will fight for you
And you think / there’s not enough love / and no one to give it to
Here we are faced with the general consensus feeling about the world today. Most people are so jaded, so unable to overcome the deep emptiness inside of them. At this point, we are so content to work our 9-5 jobs and enjoy what mindless entertainment we can still afford, that we have nothing left to give back to the world, no energy left over to improve the world we live in for the next generation.
By NetGraFX.
At this rate, with the national debt of $12 trillion ever increasing, the global population of 6 billion exponentially rising, and the destruction of our very habitat, we are not painting a pretty picture for our children and grandchildren. We need to do something NOW.
This song is deep, slow, and moving. It almost has a soothing quality like a lullaby. It sings to us to move beyond our selfish fears and depression, and embrace the power within us, embrace the need to do something more important with our lives. Yes, things are frightening out there and they seem to get worse every day, but isn’t that all the motivation we need to do something about it?
As the melody becomes ever more uplifting, Chester cries out in an expression of pure and raw emotion.
You say / the weight of the world / has kept you from letting go
And you think / compassion’s a flaw / and you’ll never let it show
And you’re sure / you’ve hurt in a way / that no one will ever know
But someday / the weight of the world / will give you the strength to go
These lines are repeated a few more times, again to emphasize their significance. If the weight of the world is not motivation to make a difference, what is? It is exactly this motivation that this track attempts to awaken within us. This world is certainly not ideal and we are all hurting, but we need to evolve beyond that selfish view and embrace the larger perspective. The song encourages us to expand to the level of the collective consciousness, far beyond our fragile egos.
Hold on / the weight of the world / will give you the strength to go
So hold on / the weight of the world / will give you the strength to go
The track fades out, its echoes building into an equally moving interlude called Jornada Del Muerto featuring Mike Shinoda singing faint lyrics in Japanese, which translate to two phrases we’ll hear again later in the album:
Lift me up, let me go!
To me, this sounds an awful lot like ascension. After taking on the weight of the world and doing our work to make a difference, many of us are crying out for release from this suffering, for entrance into a new kind of world. Whether or not LP is making a reference to ascension is unclear, but what does seem obvious is the cry out for the ending of suffering, the ending of these cycles that have so trapped humankind in its current state. Lift us up beyond these illusions, let us go from this endless pain.
Jornada del Muerto is spanish for “one day’s journey of a dead man” and is the name of the location in New Mexico where the Trinity test took place. Many of the interludes in this album connect back to this event.
Now it’s time for a change of pace. We quickly enter into one of Linkin Park’s very new styles with Waiting For The End.
This song also has a very uplifting vibe to it, and many of the lyrics seem to mimic its title. The song also seems to speak to the revolution that is taking place at this time, and the desire for this struggle to finally be over, for humanity to finally enter a time of peace. This echoes the overall theme of A Thousand Suns, which both addresses the issues facing us during this time and offers hope to overcome them. Many of the tracks span this wide range of emotion.
We say yeah / with fists flying up in the air
Like we’re holding onto something that’s invisible there
‘Cause we’re living at the mercy of the pain and fear
Until we dead it / forget it / let it all disappear
With all that’s been happening in the world especially in the past few years, it’s easy to tell that things are accelerating. But to what? This time of transformation could end in so many ways. It’s up to us as individuals which result we’ll experience. The fight has been long and exhausting, and no doubt many are crying out, hoping it will all be over soon. It certainly will, one way or another.
All I want to do is trade this life for something new
Holding on to what I haven’t got
Once again this echoes the “lift me up, let me go” line we’ll be hearing again before the end of the album. How much longer will this go on, when will we truly be free?
On a musical level, this song is very different from previous Linkin Park music, and also other tracks on this album. Mike’s singing on this track almost takes on a bouncy, pop or ska quality, while Chester’s lyrics come in at moments of silence or resonant, moving tones. The two sounds together are unusual, but very powerful. Once again, the track builds to a vibrant crescendo before quickly transitioning to the next song.
A different style of militaristic sounds approach us, darkly but layered with brighter electronic melodies. Blackout serves us our fix of Chester’s screaming, balanced out with very soft, uplifting melodies from Mike toward the end.
You say that it’s not your fault / And swear that I am mistaken
You said it’s not what it seems / No remorse for the trust you’re breaking
You run but then back you fall / Suffocate in the mess you’re making
You can’t get enough you take / And take and take and take and take
F*** it Are you listening?
Some have theorized this song is about a troubled relationship, but listening through the perspective on war and government throughout the album, it’s more likely addressed to the corrupt system we find ourselves living in. They continue to try to convince us that conspiracies are merely theory, that things aren’t as bad as they seem. They continue to take and take from us, and we continue to let them. When will this pattern come to an end?
Next comes the most overtly anti-establishment track in the form of Wretches and Kings. We open with a clip of another incredible speech, this one by Mario Savio.
“There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part. You can’t even passively take part, and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop. And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all” -Mario Savio
Savio delivered this speech in 1964 on the steps of Sproul Hall at the University of California in Berkeley. At the time, Savio was an activist and a prominent member of the Free Speech Movement. Since then, the steps have become a common place for student protests of all kinds.
The track opens up with dark, powerful, and pulsing beats. It is one of the angrier tracks on the album, and clearly directed toward the “wretches and kings” in charge of our world.
At this point of the album, we’ve passed the realization that change is needed, and that evolution is possible if we make the effort. But what is standing in our way? What is the main obstacle we must overcome in order to achieve human, animal, and Earth liberation? Can you guess? Why, the system of course!
Steel unload, final blow / We the animals, take control
Hear us now clear and true / Wretches and kings we come for you
The wretches and kings fill our televisions with violent and destructive imagery, fill our hearts with fear and sadness, and fill our minds with self-loathing. In order to begin improving our own lives and our world, we have to face up to this fact and confront it. We have to stop the machine before it can do any more damage.
As Peter Finch once said in the film Network “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!” Again, sadly, many of us forget about the many injustices happening in the world even as you read this article. The next track, Wisdom, Justice and Love will remind you.
“I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no other choice… A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, ‘This way of settling differences is not just.’ This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation’s homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love…” -Martin Luther King Jr
This powerful quote delivered by Dr. King at Riverside Church in New York is as relevant today as it was in 1967. The quote is paired with reflective piano and a haunting backdrop which builds toward the end of the track, at which point the words “cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love” are repeated several times, becoming a bit more distorted each time. The track fades out, leading us into another moving song.
Iridescent is another painfully moving song, again taking us to a post-apocalyptic feeling after all has been lost. The music is hopeful though, and throughout the painful thoughts, again builds to a powerful crescendo.
Do you feel cold and lost in desperation / You build up hope but failure’s all you’ve known
Remember all the sadness and frustration / And let it go, let it go…
The ending of the track is almost cathartic, with voices repeating “let it go” again and again. We’re being encouraged to leave our fear, despair, and worry behind. We’re being reminded that hope is possible, that even though things seem terribly dark, the light can yet shine through.
Fading into the next interlude, Fallout reminds us of some thoughts from earlier in the album. I’m swimming in the smoke of bridges I have burned. So don’t apologize, I’m losing what I don’t deserve.
And then we arrive at The Catalyst, the first single from the album and one that weaves many sounds, thoughts and emotions from the album into one track. There is a powerful feeling of resolution when this track starts up, as if we’ve come full circle.
This song is a declaration of the state of our time, and a sincere question about our future.
God bless us every one / We’re a broken people living under loaded gun
And it can’t be outfought / It can’t be outdone
It can’t be outmatched / It can’t be outrun, no!
So if we can’t fight the system, what is the Catalyst? What is this song trying to convey to us?
God save us every one / Will we burn inside the fires of a thousand suns
For the sins of our hand / The sins of our tongue
The sins of our father / The sins of our young, no!
And here we have it, the most powerful question of the album. Will we burn inside the fires of a thousand suns? Will we eventually destroy ourselves, or be destroyed for the sins of humanity?
No! They declare. We can yet save ourselves. We can fight the system and make the necessary changes. The song builds up to a climax with the familiar line “Lift me up, Let me go!” which becomes very moving, another of the many emotional releases experienced in this album. Before the track ends, we’re again asked the question: will we burn?
If this song is the Catalyst, waking us up to the problem, offering us this choice, than what is the solution?
The Messenger is the final track on the album, the solution to the questions and problems presented so far. Linkin Park’s simple, yet perhaps unexpected answer: Love.
When you feel you’re alone / Cut off from this cruel world
Your instincts telling you to run / Listen to your heart, those angel voices
They’ll sing to you / they’ll be your guide back home
Opening with guitar and Chester’s sincere voice, we’re back to basics. We see another side of Chester in this song. Yes, he screams and sings his heart out, but there is no anger here, no loud rock music to distract us from his message. Just guitar and piano.
When you’ve suffered enough / And your spirit is breaking
You’re growing desperate from the fight / Remember you’re loved and you always will be
This melody will bring you right back home
If this album woke you up to the need to do something, yet you’re feeling down about the current state of affairs, this song speaks directly to you. Yes, the world is very messed up right now and we do need to find a solution. Yet in the meantime, we can’t forget how magnificent and beautiful each of us are. We need to develop self-love in order to love others and the world. We need to take care of ourselves, face our fears, and face up to the challenge we’re being presented with.
When life leaves us blind, Love keeps us kind
After the wild ride Linkin Park has taken us on in A Thousand Suns, this is the message they chose to leave us with. We must remember Love, and never forget it. We can be the change we want to see in the world, but it all begins with love.
So yes, it’s important to be aware of the state of affairs on Earth. We do need to make changes, overturn this current system and return our beautiful planet to a state of peace and harmony. But we can’t do that by being angry and raging against the system. Those emotions only serve as a catalyst, to wake us up to the need for evolution. The answer to our problems is Love.
So I leave you with this thought. What can you do, today and every day, to bring more Love into the world?