A Thousand Suns

A Thousand Suns is the fourth studio album by American rock band Linkin Park. It was first released on September 8, 2010. The album was written by the band and co-produced by Linkin Park vocalist Mike Shinoda and Rick Rubin, who previously worked together to produce Minutes to Midnight (2007). The lead single for the album, “The Catalyst”, was sent to radio and released to digital music retailers on August 2, 2010.The band is currently promoting the album through the A Thousand Suns Tour.

A Thousand Suns is a concept album dealing with nuclear warfare and themes of war in general. “On this record, the concepts blend human ideas with technology Human fears, your fear of what’s going to happen in the world, the music kind of references that”, said Mike Shinoda on an interview with MTV.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.

The album was commercially successful and received generally positive reviews upon release. It has been compared to the work of Radiohead and Pink Floyd.


Writing and recordingRecording for the album began in 2008, shortly after the release of Minutes to Midnight. In November 2008 Chester Bennington stated this “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.