'A Thousand Suns'

(CREDIT: to owner, who is not me.)

My Rank = 0.5/5
Shamefully, Horribly, Irritatingly Terrible

Beware of my wrath. This review is much more immature than I ever have been here. How can I begin to review the quality of an album that I have SEVERELY miscalculated? How could it be far worse than I predicted?

I am sorry to everyone who likes Linkin Park and this album. I am sorry to my one good friend who is probably tired of me complaining about this. But to be blunt, for Linkin Park... THIS ALBUM SUCKS. Don't get me wrong, the messages in the lyrics aren't bad, so I refuse to bash their meanings. Even some of the recordings in the tracks are decent. HOWEVER. The sound is still horribly slow and boring.

Because I am too lazy to write an entire paragraph on this, here are the cons:

- Every song has the same piano riff used over and over again...

- Every song is so damn repetitive, this makes Lady GaGa sound versatile.

- You have no clue where the verse ends and the chorus begins ("Robot Boy" and "Burning in the Skies" are perfect examples.)

- What kind of album has TWO INSTRUMENTAL TRACKS to start off?!

- "The Catalyst" still bores the hell out of me. The second single, "Waiting for the End," is much stronger, but still mediocre; however, it should have been the first single.

- This album makes me take back insults I had for Minutes to Midnight

- There is just a total lack of motivation. They clearly have a message to give us, but they fail to execute it enough to make one care enough to listen.

To add something else, in "Blackout" Chester screams and raps... my feelings of happiness and disgust have canceled each other out. And again, the whole thing sounds very sloppy. Because I know nothing about music, I'm not sure if the producer or mixer should have been fired for performing such a sloppy job. Or maybe it's the band to blame.

However, there are a few pros. "Wretches and Kings" sounds like the Linkin Park I used to know and love: fairly intense instrumentals, Mike's rapping, Chester's screaming, and Joe Hahn's turntables. Also, if I could use the MP3 Trimmer application on my computer, I would reedit one decent song on this album: "When They Come for Me." FINALLY MIKE SHINODA IS RAPPING AGAIN!!!! But the song is far too long with the too lengthy outro after the final chorus.

The first time I heard this album, I had to stop in the middle of "Robot Boy" and walk away from my computer. I refused to give the album another try until now to review it. That was a two month time gap. But wow. I can't say I wasn't expecting the album to bring my view of Linkin Park to fall, but I wasn't expecting it to go down so fast in less than fifty minutes. This does not sound like a rock act anymore; it sounds like a psudo-electronic pop-rap-rock album. What a scattered mess.

As of now, I still love Meteora and Hybrid Theory, but this album shatters my hopes for this band. I have grabbed a lifeboat and left the ship that is continuing to sink. I wish Linkin Park and their fans the best, but I can't join them on the journey anymore. This is embarrassing...