Album Preview: Linkin Park's 'A Thousand Suns'

Album Cover tagged from WikiMedia

Just before I do a couple more Gunpla reviews, I figured that I post something different. Because a lot has been happening everywhere, particularly in the music scene. New artists popping out like mushrooms with their catchy, LSS-inducing tracks and what not. 

Then there are those 'experienced' ones - the artists who try to: one, create new media by reusing their old formula; or two, reinvent their musical identities altogether. 

In the case of Linkin Park, particularly with their upcoming album A Thousand Suns however, I'm quite confused: they claim to be going back to their roots for this one, but they also plan on making on making a new niche for themselves. Uh... What really is true here?

Anyway, a few days after, I plan to get this album to find out. So far, I've heard five of the tracks, and seen countless conflicting comments from critics and fans alike. A lot of them has been saying that it is quite a good direction for the band, trying to distance themselves from their old Nu-Metal roots (the same roots that have been tainted by some Emo-inclined groups -sorry, too critical '^^) in the process. Others are crying foul at the fact that they do not want LP to change from their trademark musical style, pre-Minutes to Midnight.

My stand on this: I do not see much difference in this album, compared to its three predecessors. I mean, when Hybrid Theory  was released in 2000, It reinvented the way we think of rock, deviating from the violence-induced frenzy at that time, while cementing their image as one of the premiere Nu-Metal bands of the era. Meteora  reinvented this view even further, although I have yet to appreciate most of the tracks there. Minutes was a redirecting for the band, focusing more on the reality of life without being overtly aggressive (lest they be branded at the same ranks as System of a Down... sort of...)

Suns, as far as I can perceive with the info I have right now, is more of mashing the fast-paced screams of Hybrid Theory (Listen to 'Wretches and Kings' and 'Blackout' for proof), the electronics-induced technicality of Meteora (Case in Point: 'The Catalyst'), and the rhetorical litanies from Minutes (primarily the lyrical construction of all songs, but refer to 'Burning in the Skies', just in case), with a little bit of optimistic creativity, and maybe a few lathers of elbow grease to boot. All forming what could be the band's most ambitious breakout in ages. 

But until I have heard the entire album, I'm reserving my deeper personal insights to this. Call me bias if you wish, but try hearing it for yourself if you wish to get my point...