The new Linkin Park album ‘A Thousand Suns’ was released this week and boy it’s mighty fine! This, their fourth album was produced by the legendary Rick Rubin, who also produced the sublime ‘Minutes To Midnight’.

‘A Thousand Suns’ feels like a great album… the band are treading new ground in every aspect which makes for an exciting and unpredictable listen. It’s an album you must listen to in it’s entirety from track one through to track fifteen as it’s a journey, six of the fifteen tracks are two minutes or less so the record feels quite pacey and flowing.

Lyrically, it is a fairly political record directly recalling the words of nuclear weapon (atomic bomb) developer J. Robert Oppenheimer on ‘The Radiance’:

“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.”

Linkin Park have crafted new sounds throughout the album, extending and developing their repertoire once more. As usual, the melodies and vocals are stunningly good, ‘Burning In The Skies’ is a prime example of both at work so majestically. Other highlights include the regret filled lyric of ‘Waiting For The End’ and the thrashing and thunderous ‘Blackout’. ‘Iridescent’ is beautifully written, the hooks and chorus feel stadium bound.

The lead single from the album ‘The Catalyst’ is probably the most experimental track on the record, it’s brooding, fragmented and clever, in the way that the track builds to a wonderfully noisy climax. The video helps to create and develop the sense of mystery and foreboding present within the lyric.

In short, ‘A Thousand Suns’ is another triumph for Linkin Park… marvellous!