The Album: Basics

A Thousand Suns is the fourth "official" album by the Los Angeles-based sextet Linkin Park (there are live albums, fan club exclusive EPs, etc. that aren't counted in the official tally). It was released September 08, 2010 on Warner Bros. Records.

The tracks on the album were all written by the members of the band: vocalist/instrumentalist/leader Mike Shinoda, lead vocalist Chester Bennington, lead guitarist Brad Delson, bassist Dave "Phoenix" Farrell, drummer Rob Bourdon, and DJ/art director Joe Hahn. The album was produced by Mike Shinoda (yep, he does that, too), along with Rick Rubin. The two also collaborated on the album previous to this, "Minutes to Midnight."

Recording sessions for A Thousand Suns took place at NRG Recording Studios in North Hollywood, California from 2008 to early 2010. The tracks were most likely "born" (aka: written, and demos recorded) in Mike's home studio, as they usually are.

A Thousand Suns is kind of an abstract album about nuclear war, as well as the general hopes and fears people have. Linkin Park experimented with a lot of new sounds, concepts, effects, and styles on this album. It is an album the fandom seems split on: it is either loved or hated. There are very few people who seem to say, "it's okay." Obviously, I am in the camp who loves it. Despite the division, the album did eventually reach Platinum status, selling 1.1 million copies as of August, 2017.

The title, A Thousand Suns is a reference to a 1945 quote by J. Robert Oppenheimer, who described the atomic bomb as being "as bright as a thousand suns." The title also appears in the lyrics of the album's first single, "The Catalyst", and its opening track, "The Requiem."

— Some information found on this page was gleaned from this Wikipedia page (where you can also read more about the album)