A Thousand Suns is the fourth studio album by American rock band Linkin Park. It was released on September 10, 2010, under Warner Bros. Records. The album was written by the band while production was handled by Linkin Park vocalist Mike Shinoda and Rick Rubin, who previously worked together to produce the band's third studio album Minutes to Midnight (2007). Recording sessions for the album took place at NRG Recording Studios in North Hollywood, California from 2008 until early 2010.
A Thousand Suns is a multi-concept album dealing with human fears such as nuclear warfare. The band has acknowledged that the album is a drastic departure from their previous work, as they experimented on different and new sounds for A Thousand Suns. Shinoda stated in an interview with MTV that the album references numerous social issues, as well as blending human ideas with technology. The album's title comes from the Hindu Sanskrit scripture, the Bhagavad Gita: "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," a quote made famous by J. Robert Oppenheimer in reference to the atomic bomb, which references the numerous apocalyptic themes of the album.
The lead single for the album, "The Catalyst", was sent to radio and released to digital music retailers on August 2, 2010. "The Catalyst" peaked at the Billboard Alternative Songs and Rock Songs charts, as well as reaching #27 at the Billboard Hot 100 upon the album's release. Three more singles were released to promote the album, namely "Waiting for the End", "Burning in the Skies" and "Iridescent". "The Catalyst" and "Waiting for the End" have been both certified gold by the RIAA. The band promoted the album through the A Thousand Suns World Tour from October 2010 to September 2011.
Upon release, the album was met with mixed reviews, polarizing critics and fans over the band's new direction. Despite this, the album has been a commercial success debuting at number one on over ten charts. The album has been certified gold by the RIAA on February 2011 and has sold 840,000 copies in the United States as of April 2012.
Recording for the album began in 2008, shortly after the release of Minutes to Midnight (2007). As with their previous album, Minutes to Midnight, Shinoda and Rick Rubin served as the album's producers. Primary recording sessions for A Thousand Suns took place at NRG Recording Studios in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. In November 2008, lead singer Chester Bennington claimed the new record was a concept album, and stated that it "sound a little daunting to me, so, I think my confidence level will drop, but when it was presented to us by this friend of ours, we liked the idea. It was an inspiring idea, and it was something we could relate a lot of the things we like to write about to." In May 2009, a Billboard magazine story was published where Shinoda revealed info on the album, saying: "I feel like we've been writing a lot. I'd say we've got about half the music done, though I shouldn't say halfway because who knows how long the next batch of songs will take. But all the material's just kind of coming together, and every week we meet up and assess the situation and for the rest of the week we just go and work on whatever we find exciting." He also explained the experimentation that the band would be working with. "It's not going to be Hybrid Theory. It's not going to be Minutes to Midnight. And if we do it right, it'll have a cutting edge sound that defines itself as an individual record separate from anything else that's out there." Bennington continued composing for the album while touring with Dead by Sunrise in support of their 2009 studio album Out of Ashes. He claimed that the band was still making a concept record, stating in another interview with MTV that "we might need to just make a record and still try to do a concept but figure out a way to do it without actually waiting another five or six years to put out a record, to try to pull off all the grandiose insanity we were thinking of doing. And we're doing that." Bassist Dave "Phoenix" Farrell predicted that the band's fans will be divided on A Thousand Suns, saying, "We've known going to be different, and if fans were expecting Hybrid Theory or Meteora, they're going to be surprised. It's going to take people some time to figure it out and know what to do with it."A Thousand Suns is the fourth studio album by American rock band Linkin Park. It was released on September 10, 2010, under Warner Bros. Records. The album was written by the band while production was handled by Linkin Park vocalist Mike Shinoda and Rick Rubin, who previously worked together to produce the band's third studio album Minutes to Midnight (2007). Recording sessions for the album took place at NRG Recording Studios in North Hollywood, California from 2008 until early 2010.
A Thousand Suns is a multi-concept album dealing with human fears such as nuclear warfare. The band has acknowledged that the album is a drastic departure from their previous work, as they experimented on different and new sounds for A Thousand Suns. Shinoda stated in an interview with MTV that the album references numerous social issues, as well as blending human ideas with technology. The album's title comes from the Hindu Sanskrit scripture, the Bhagavad Gita: "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," a quote made famous by J. Robert Oppenheimer in reference to the atomic bomb, which references the numerous apocalyptic themes of the album.
The lead single for the album, "The Catalyst", was sent to radio and released to digital music retailers on August 2, 2010. "The Catalyst" peaked at the Billboard Alternative Songs and Rock Songs charts, as well as reaching #27 at the Billboard Hot 100 upon the album's release. Three more singles were released to promote the album, namely "Waiting for the End", "Burning in the Skies" and "Iridescent". "The Catalyst" and "Waiting for the End" have been both certified gold by the RIAA. The band promoted the album through the A Thousand Suns World Tour from October 2010 to September 2011.
Upon release, the album was met with mixed reviews, polarizing critics and fans over the band's new direction. Despite this, the album has been a commercial success debuting at number one on over ten charts. The album has been certified gold by the RIAA on February 2011 and has sold 840,000 copies in the United States as of April 2012.
Recording for the album began in 2008, shortly after the release of Minutes to Midnight (2007). As with their previous album, Minutes to Midnight, Shinoda and Rick Rubin served as the album's producers. Primary recording sessions for A Thousand Suns took place at NRG Recording Studios in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. In November 2008, lead singer Chester Bennington claimed the new record was a concept album, and stated that it "sound a little daunting to me, so, I think my confidence level will drop, but when it was presented to us by this friend of ours, we liked the idea. It was an inspiring idea, and it was something we could relate a lot of the things we like to write about to." In May 2009, a Billboard magazine story was published where Shinoda revealed info on the album, saying: "I feel like we've been writing a lot. I'd say we've got about half the music done, though I shouldn't say halfway because who knows how long the next batch of songs will take. But all the material's just kind of coming together, and every week we meet up and assess the situation and for the rest of the week we just go and work on whatever we find exciting." He also explained the experimentation that the band would be working with. "It's not going to be Hybrid Theory. It's not going to be Minutes to Midnight. And if we do it right, it'll have a cutting edge sound that defines itself as an individual record separate from anything else that's out there." Bennington continued composing for the album while touring with Dead by Sunrise in support of their 2009 studio album Out of Ashes. He claimed that the band was still making a concept record, stating in another interview with MTV that "we might need to just make a record and still try to do a concept but figure out a way to do it without actually waiting another five or six years to put out a record, to try to pull off all the grandiose insanity we were thinking of doing. And we're doing that." Bassist Dave "Phoenix" Farrell predicted that the band's fans will be divided on A Thousand Suns, saying, "We've known going to be different, and if fans were expecting Hybrid Theory or Meteora, they're going to be surprised. It's going to take people some time to figure it out and know what to do with it."false2022-10-16 08:10:50A Thousand Suns6.420102010-09-142010-09-1448Alternative MetalAlternative RockArt RockElectronicElectronic RockExperimental RockHeavy MetalHip HopIndustrialIndustrial RockNu MetalPop MetalPop RockPost-GrungeRap RockRockRap Metal1113582111328585bd6c6-926f-43dc-a85e-f28f76f685daf59c5520-5f46-4d2c-b2c4-822eabf5341965404106-2976-4f98-a0e2-4e76923ea06d/media/data/media5/Music/Linkin Park/A Thousand Suns (2010)/folder.jpgLinkin ParkAlbumArtistLinkin ParkArtistLinkin ParkLinkin ParkLinkin Park is an American rock band formed in Agoura Hills, California, in 1996. The band's lineup consists of vocalist/rhythm guitarist/keyboardist Mike Shinoda, lead guitarist Brad Delson, bassist Dave Farrell, DJ/turntablist Joe Hahn, and drummer Rob Bourdon, with vocalist Chester Bennington also part of the band until his death in 2017. Categorized as alternative rock, Linkin Park's earlier music spanned a fusion of heavy metal and hip hop, while their later music features more electronica and pop elements.
Linkin Park rose to international fame with their debut studio album, Hybrid Theory (2000), which became certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Released during the peak of the nu metal scene, the album's singles' heavy airplay on MTV led the singles "One Step Closer", "Crawling", and "In the End" all to chart highly on the US Mainstream Rock chart. The lattermost also crossed over to the #2 spot on the nation's Billboard Hot 100. Their second album, Meteora (2003), continued the band's success. The band explored experimental sounds on their third album, Minutes to Midnight (2007). By the end of the decade, Linkin Park was among the most successful and popular rock acts.
The band continued to explore a wider variation of musical types on their fourth album, A Thousand Suns (2010), layering their music with more electronic sounds. The band's fifth album, Living Things (2012), combined musical elements from all of their previous records. Their sixth album, The Hunting Party (2014), returned to a heavier rock sound, while their seventh album, One More Light (2017), was a substantially more pop-oriented record. Linkin Park went on an indefinite hiatus following the suicide of longtime lead vocalist Bennington in July 2017 and have not recorded or toured since then. Since Bennington's death, they have only released 20th-anniversary editions of their first two studio albums, as well as a greatest hits album, Papercuts, in 2024.
Linkin Park is among both the best-selling bands of the 21st century and the world's best-selling music artists, having sold over 100 million records worldwide. They have won two Grammy Awards, six American Music Awards, two Billboard Music Awards, four MTV Video Music Awards, 10 MTV Europe Music Awards, and three World Music Awards. In 2003, MTV2 named Linkin Park the sixth-greatest band of the music video era and the third-best of the new millennium. Billboard ranked Linkin Park No. 19 on the Best Artists of the Decade list. In 2012, the band was voted as the greatest artist of the 2000s in a Bracket Madness poll on VH1. In 2014, the band was declared as "The Biggest Rock Band in the World Right Now" by Kerrang!.