And after listening to it a few times, I'm really not sure what to make of it. This certainly isn't in the same ballpark as Hybrid Theory or Meteora, at least; some of the songs though have obvious connections to songs like "New Divide" and "Shadow of the Day." Something very noticeably different between this album and previous ones, and maybe a bit of a side effect of the concept album nature, is the way a number of tracks run together: for instance, the first three tracks, despite having separate titles, may as well be one long piece of music.

The concept of the album is supposed to be anti-nuclear war and anti-war in general. In the time I've spent with it, I haven't quite picked that up out of the lyrics that Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda deliver. However, the album also uses a number of vocal samples that fit more in that vein, starting on "The Radiance" with J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atomic bomb, look him up) quoting a passage from the Bhagavad Gita about being the destroyer of worlds. Later, a speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. is sampled in "Wisdom, Justice, and Love," referring to how acts of war and oppression "cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love." And there is also a call to arms of sorts, quoting a speech by Mario Savio to throw yourselves onto the gears of the machine.

Despite their association with pop music, and the generally vapid nature of such, Linkin Park are stepping forward and trying to deliver a message on this one. On the other hand, there's still a little bit of ridiculous posturing and self-reference, such as the rap on "When They Come For Me" calling back to Hybrid Theory's "Points of Authority."

Musically, the album is all over the place. There are several interludes, some of which are just ambient pieces or filler sections between several connected tracks, and some of which contain the speech samples ("The Radiance" and "Wisdom, Justice, and Love"). Songs like "Burning In The Skies" and "Robot Boy" are basically four chord songs and have absolutely nothing to do with their alt-/nu-metal roots. They're pretty hooky, though, and have a sing-along vibe. At the other end of the spectrum are the tribal industrial groove of "When They Come For Me," or the nu-metal-meets-Year Zero-NIN groove of "Wretches and Kings." "Blackout" has a long, relatively chill intro, before leading into an upbeat verse with Chester's frantic vocal line lending a sense of urgency to the song.

Later, "Blackout" turns into a chaotic, sliced breakdown in the vein of the second half of "The Great Destroyer" (from the aforementioned Year Zero). Then there's the dance groove of "The Catalyst," which I didn't think much of as a single but which fits well within the context of the album, and even the acoustic guitar/piano/wailed vocals of closer "The Messenger."

They seem to have made arbitrary decisions about when to separate songs out as interludes and when to just attach them to the beginning of a track. Then again, if you listen to the album as clearly intended - from start to finish in one sitting - I guess that part doesn't matter as much.

It seems wholly unfair to judge it in terms of their previous work, because for the most part it seems to have little connection to it. As such, this isn't the sort of CD that lends itself to "If you're a fan of CD x from their catalog, go grab this one too." For what it is though, it's a pretty good collection of music. Some of the more generic songs - like "Burning In The Skies" or "Robot Boy" - don't really do anything for me, but others are catchy and get me moving without me actually noticing it. Initially I was only into the more tribal and industrial songs, but the rest of them have grown on me as well. So overall, give this one a try. It may not totally be the cutting edge album they were aiming for, but it's close, and it's certainly interesting enough to listen to a few times.