COMPLETELY Off topic...

Alright, honestly, I have done a little work on Oruku Saki/Shredder, but nothing significant enough of a worthy update just yet.. still arguing with myself over armor designs, pulling my hair out, etc... SO, on a completely off topic post, I'm going to do something completely different just for this ONE post.

I'm going to review a CD. Yup. Deal with it. lol

Linkin Park - A Thousand Suns

Alright, I've been a LP fan for as long as I can remember.. they pretty much took their place at the top of my favorite bands list after first hearing "Hybrid Theory" as a teenager. Fast forward 10 years and here they are releasing their fourth studio album "A Thousand Suns". Now, unless you've completely been under a rock for the last 3 years, or just plain don't like LP, you would know that they've since changed their sound for their latter two releases, namely their last LP(Pun intended) "Minutes to Midnight". Here's the thing... yes, I'm an LP mark, I have been since first hearing them... I liked Minutes to Midnight. I liked it a lot. I was all of an advocate for supporting them wanting to change their sound up a bit.. explore broader horizons. All bias aside, I listened diligently to that album, and really got into it, despite it being a complete departure from everything they had done previously. I did miss the face that Mike didn't rap but on 1 song.. as I believe him to be one of the most talented musicians on the scene still... but I liked the rock/melodic vibe they had going.

Well, the majority of fans echoed something completely different. The old adage "If it isn't broke, don't fix it". I can understand this. The "old" LP were groundbreaking, high energy... an incredible group. People liked that. So it was natural that they hated when the change came. It's fine, it makes sense.. but still I stood behind LP, and urged people to give Minutes to Midnight a fair chance.. most of the songs on it were very well written, Chesters voice was the best it had ever been, and Mike.. well, he was singing too.

Alright, with that aside.. here we are at "A Thousand Suns". The title sounds epic. The band claim this is their most ambitious effort to date. It has to be great, right?!

 I guess not.

I was severely disappointed with this album.. for so many reasons. To start, after finishing listening to it(I listened through the whole thing in one sitting), it immediately felt like a dumbed down version of Minutes to Midnight. Same type of sounds, but dumber. Like Mike and Joe went on a synth frenzy, and dug up every fake beep and boop and buzz they could find. The songs hardly had any structure to them at all. Oh, by the way, the album is 47 minutes the whole way through.. decent, I guess.. but cut off about 10 minutes of that, because that 10 minutes was spent on synthy transitions between songs and the like. I don't really know what was going on here. I think it was far too poppy, and not very well put together at all.

Coincidentally, the only 3 songs I like on the album are the only 3 singles they released thus far. I'll give my vote for best song to the second single released, entitled "Wretches and Kings". I loved this song. It WAS old LP, with a fresh twist. Gritty, heavy beat, great lyrics, everything an LP song should be. After hearing this, I had high hopes for the rest of the album, which went unsatisfied unfortunately. I'll give honorable mention to the other 2 singles, entitled "The Catalyst" and "Waiting for the End", respectively. The former, I had initially not liked at all. I didn't care for the techno feel like most. But it grew on me, and made me feel like when I was singing it, that I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs and be passionate.. because Mike's singing/rapping in it are so full of conviction... the latter however, I heard recently. At first, didn't care for the key of the song at all. It was a little all over the place. But again, it grew on me. It has a very similar beat to another one of Rick Rubin(who produced the record)s proteges songs, namely Jay Z's "99 Problems". Just listen to it, you'll hear it.

Nonetheless, LP, I am disappointed. I hope you redeem yourselves, fire Rick Rubin and your record company(which I believe still is Warner Bros.), and get back on track. Revolutionizing your music is great, but you have striven too far from your territorial sound. Give the fans what they want.. they are the reason you're still here anyway.

Alright then. Have a good Sunday peoples, I will have Shredder updates ASAP! Promise. Laterzz.