1. 1. Linkin Park A Thousand Suns Digipak Analysis A Thousand Suns is the fourth major studio album from American Rapcore band, Linkin Park. The album was released in 2010 but received this Special Edition re-release the following year. There are many interesting aspects to the album cover which make it unique and aesthetically pleasing. Firstly to note, there are no characters or images of the band themselves within the entire digipak, leaving CGI images, as also seen with the Enter Shikari album, to set across the message. The main image is placed on the front of the album cover, displaying a simplistic white shape, the symbol of the album, which is the rays from a rising sun. Though this picture is simple, it is also rather symbolic of the album as a whole, with the colouring aiding in the message. The white of the rays represents innocence and purity, while the black surrounding it is to represent evil, hate and also connotes depression and death. This creates a powerful image which reveals the narrative of the entire album, with the message of hope in a doomed world. Following removing this is the inner box, hidden beneath the sleeve of the album. This is completely black across the outside, further enforcing the feeling of darkness. The interior of this box, where the content is contained, harbours the bands album specific symbol engraved and embossed into the material, with the white lines showing through the black, emphasizing this emergence of good in a world of evil. The case then contains 2 CDs, completely black in keeping with the house style, contained in 2 cardboard sleeves bearing the image of a distorted sun, with the black and white theme continuing on one and the other containing a graphic fade between red and green, showing the merging between rage and greed, a powerful message to the world. Finally are 2 lithographs, one bearing the album logo with reversed colours, showing hope surrounding and suppressing hate, and the other of various distorted symbols, as well as the double vinyl pack containing an image of the universe placed with a kaleidoscope effect. This all adds to the narrative of the album. The albums narrative is similar to that of Enter Shikari's, with an emphasis on the collapse of the environment, the unnecessary need for money, the overuse of rage and destruction and the helplessness of so many on the planet. The black and white throughout are used to connote purity and the good in the world against the hate and destruction and death in the world. This is a powerful message with the black surrounding the white on the front, showing that the band believes that all the world's good is being destroyed by anger, greed and hate. Though, it also shows it emerging out of the darkness, a positive message which states that this is the start of a more positive era where hate and evil are unwelcome. This is repeated on the lithograph with the reversed colours, this time showing the worlds purity surrounding and suppressing the darkness and evil, which is a message of change to the audience of the album. The use of the distorted universe is also quite significant, with the image representing how the universe is becoming corrupt, and people are distorting our perceptions on what is real and what is fake, hiding the true world problems behind a veil. This message is directed at the audience and is supported throughout the album, showing people that changes need to be made to the planet. As mentioned at several points earlier, the iconography in the music video is hugely important in displaying the true message and purpose of the album, with the main image connoting the good in the world penetrating the hate, going on to surround and suppress it in the lithograph, while the green and red show the combination of both hate and greed or love and health, depending on the way its looked at and the distorted images showing the ruse of lies we are being fed. The technical features of the album are quite minimal, with the main bulk being CGI edited and very few complicated images being used.