A Thousand Suns is the fourth studio album by American rock band Linkin Park. It was released on September 8, 2010, through Warner Records and Machine Shop.
The album was produced by Mike Shinoda and Rick Rubin, who had also worked together to produce the band's previous studio album Minutes to Midnight. Recording sessions for A Thousand Suns took place at NRG Recording Studios in Hollywood, California from 2009 until mid-2010.
Background[]
Early in June, Linkin Park vocalist posted what appeared to a be an animated image of static on the official Linkin Park site. As time went on, the image soon appeared to quickly read 'MOREMESSAGESCOMINGSOON'. Following this post two weeks later, another message appeared online, this time featuring a block of Binary numbers, which when converted and translated to English, read a near direct quote by J. Robert Oppenheimer. Fans were asked to search hard for an understanding to the quote which appeared to be incomplete.
J. Robert Oppenheimer was soon to be discovered as the leader of the Trinity Project, a project which experimented with the first atomic bomb and that his quote was missing three words, 'A' 'THOUSAND' 'SUNS'. Another message that followed appeared to be new lyrics from an unknown new song. However, there were missing letters throughout the lyrics. When retrieving the missing letters and putting them together, they made the word, 'THE CATALYST'. Later in the month, another image came online, this time as a letter Mike Shinoda had personally written himself to Linkin Park fans.
The message discussed the band's excitement about releasing the album and dedication to not spoiling anything. Fans later discovered that a watermarked text appeared in the image when the colours were altered with a standard editing program. The watermark appeared to read 'THE CATALYST /// AUGUST 2ND' which was then confirmed as the first single. One more picture eventually made it's way online, only this time, it was a group of jumbled up images that if placed together, made the recently updated Linkin Park symbol. There also appeared to be a green watermark in the image when placed together correctly. The watermark read 'A THOUSAND SUNS /// SEPTEMBER' which officially confirmed the title and month of release for the upcoming album. Not long after, Mike officially announced and confirmed all the information without the use of a riddle or a puzzle.
On November 24, 2010 a promotional model, the RX-78GP01-Fb Gundam Full Burnern "Zephyranthes" Linkin Park Edition, was released to tie in with both Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme Vs. and Linkin Park's album, "A Thousand Suns" in Japan as part of the 30th anniversary of Gunpla. According to their official Japanese website, the members of the band are big fans of the Gundam franchise and designed the custom color scheme of the model.
Singles[]
August 2, 2010
October 1, 2010
March 21, 2011
May 27, 2011
Track Listing[]
All tracks written by Linkin Park except "Wisdom, Justice and Love" credited to Linkin Park and Martin Luther King Jr.
| Standard Edition | ||
|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Length |
| 1. | "The Requiem" | 2:01 |
| 2. | "The Radiance" | 0:57 |
| 3. | "Burning in the Skies" | 4:13 |
| 4. | "Empty Spaces" | 0:18 |
| 5. | "When They Come for Me" | 4:53 |
| 6. | "Robot Boy" | 4:29 |
| 7. | "Jornada del Muerto" | 1:34 |
| 8. | "Waiting for the End" | 3:51 |
| 9. | "Blackout" | 4:39 |
| 10. | "Wretches and Kings" | 4:10 |
| 11. | "Wisdom, Justice, and Love" | 1:39 |
| 12. | "Iridescent" | 4:56 |
| 13. | "Fallout" | 1:23 |
| 14. | "The Catalyst" | 5:39 |
| 15. | "The Messenger" | 3:01 |
| Total length: | 47:48 | |
| Best Buy, Napster and HMV Limited editions | ||
|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Length |
| 16. | "New Divide" | 4:29 |
| 17. | "Blackbirds" | 3:22 |
| 18. | "The Catalyst" (NoBraiN remix) | 4:22 |
Credits[]
- Linkin Park
- Chester Bennington – lead vocals, percussion, rhythm guita
- Mike Shinoda – co-lead and rap vocals, rhythm guitar, lead guitar, keyboards, sampler, piano, synthesizer; vocoder, producer, engineer, creative director, Pro Tools
- Brad Delson – lead guitar, rhythm guitar, sampler, backing vocals, keyboards, percussion, acoustic guitar, Pro Tools
- Dave "Phoenix" Farrell – bass, backing vocals, keyboards
- Joe Hahn – turntables, samples, programming, backing vocals, creative director
- Rob Bourdon – drums, percussion, backing vocals
- Samples
- Martin Luther King Jr. – speech/speaker/speaking part ("Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" speech)
- J. Robert Oppenheimer – interviewee
- Mario Savio – speech/speaker/speaking part ("Operation of the Machines" speech)
- Production
- Rick Rubin – producer
- Neal Avron – mixing
- Kymm Britton – publicity
- Anton Brooks – publicity
- Lindsay Chase – production coordination
- Ryan DeMarti – production coordination, A&R
- Nicolas Fournier – assistant
- Jerry Johnson – drum technician
- Liza Joseph – A&R
- Frank Maddocks – art direction, design, creative director
- Ethan Mates – engineer, Pro Tools
- Vlado Meller – mastering
- Josh Newell – engineer, Pro Tools
- Czeslaw "NoBraiN" Sakowski – programming
- Mark Santangelo – assistant
- Peter Standish – marketing
- Josh Vanover – artwork, creative director
- Ellen Wakayama – creative director
- Tom Whalley – A&R
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| Gallery • Demos • Release history • Certifications • Awards • Credits | |||||||
