A Thousand Suns: A Retrospective
This is not the end This is not the beginning Just a voice like a riot Rocking every revision But you listen to the tone And the violent rhythm And though the words sound steady Something empty's within 'em
On July 20, 2017 Linkin Park front-man Chester Bennington was found in his Palos Verdes, CA home, dead of an apparent suicide by hanging, leaving behind a legacy of some of the strongest contributions to the rock music community. Among these, Linkin Park’s greatest and most misunderstood albums, the rock opera A Thousand Suns.
Waiting for the end to come Wishing I had strength to stand This is not what I had planned It's out of my control
Upon initial release on September 28, 2010, the album polarized critics and fans alike. The album was a purposeful departure from the band’s previous three number one albums, leaving many disappointed and confused. Others were enthralled in the mastery of the composition, comparing it to other classic albums such as Pink Floyd’s The Wall and Radiohead’s Kid A and OK Computer. Christopher Weingarten of The Village Voice praised the album, calling it "2010's best avant-rock nuclear-anxiety concept record." Even with such praise, the album could be considered a commercial disappointment, despite a number one debut, failing to ride the same stream of success as Linkin Park’s previous albums.
Sitting in an empty room Trying to forget the past This was never meant to last I wish it wasn’t so
Upon hearing this album for the first time, the way it was meant to be heard as the nearly 48 minute single track it was released as, I was taken aback and captivated by the creation streaming through my headphones. I was feeling what I can only imagine people had experienced the first time they put the needle down on their first Simon & Garfunkel album. This was not just a concession of singles clumsily strewn together for a hodgepodge studio release, this was poetry. Music in its purist incarnation.
Flying at the speed of light Thoughts were spinning in my head So many things were left unsaid It's hard to let you go
A Thousand Suns was an experiment in composition, combining elements of rock, hip-hop, electronica, metal, ambient, 80s new-wave, and spoken-word to tell a story of the fear of nuclear annihilation in a modern or future society. The album’s title itself is taken from a line in the Hindu Sanskrit scripture Bhagavad Gita, made famous by father of the atomic bomb J. Robert Oppenheimer. This work infuses samples of speeches from the likes of Oppenheimer and activists Mario Savio and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to remind us of the dangers of the future if we are unable to learn from the past.
"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,"
To say that this album was ahead of its time would be an understatement. One need only to turn on the news or scroll through their Facebook feed to see the messages reflected throug this album. Political discourse, civil unrest, war, famine, pestilence, and potential eradication of society are all dangerously knocking on our doors every day. In today’s climate we need an album like A Thousand Suns to remind us that we are not alone and that it is ok to be afraid, for we have experienced times like these before and we have prevailed. Leaders rise, nations fall, and in the end it doesn’t even matter, for it is not experience we learn from but the consequences that result. To err, to learn, to grow, this is the nature of humanity, and to live, to die, and to leave behind a legacy, this is what it means to be human.
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 the fear Until we get, forget it Let it all disappear
Chester Bennington is no longer with us, but his artistry still shines through in the works he left behind. And like most great artists, it is perhaps in death that his greatest work will be best understood. His suicide will leave a hollow in the hearts of those closest to him, his wife, his six children, and the millions of fans who admired and respected him. I could join others, as this is not just a time to mourn the loss of an artist, but the crumbling of a world we no longer understand. Instead, I will choose to sit down for 47 minutes and 56 seconds and remember another time when the struggle was truly real and remember that life does go on and things do get better, and we will once again overcome.
I know what it takes to move on I know how it feels to lie All I wanna do Is trade this life for something new Holding on to what I haven’t got
Linkin Park. “Waiting for the End.” A Thousand Suns. Warner Bros., 2010.