By Brian Johnston

Following their 2007 multi-platinum album, Minutes to Midnight, Linkin Park doesn’t have much to show with their newest release, A Thousand Suns.

With the intent on trying to still push the boundaries of their ever-present stereotype of being the good guys of rock, this album does nothing for the fan with hopes of hearing a full set list of new, in your face, material that we are used to.

Rolling Stone gave it three-out-of-five stars, saying that the collection of tracks sounds more like “a killer Linkin Park tribute band” instead of the head banging masterpieces such as Hybrid Theory.

Another problem was that this album was for the fans, and in one special case, by the fans. While this doesn’t sound like much of a problem, and would be a great thing in most cases, the fact that a song made by a fan is actually on the album makes it opposite from the tone that you’d think they would want to portray.

“Our albums are the foundation of who we are as a band, and reserving a spot for a fan to play on one of our songs felt like a way to show our dedication to them,” frontman Mike Shinoda said on Billboard.com.

The first single, “The Catalyst,” which was released on August 2, was performed last week at the MTV VMA’s at a top secret location in Los Angeles which was only revealed to be the Griffith Observatory at the time of the performance.

At first listen, A Thousand Suns will take a while to sink in because of the random sound bites and few moments where it seems to lack the “it” factor that the previous albums have instantaneously had.

This is definitely one of those projects that you might want to give a try before committing to purchasing.