Claim: The Catalyst is a rock song.

A Thousand Suns is the fourth studio album by American rock band Linkin Park . It was released on September 8 , 2010 , by Warner Bros. . Records . The album was written by the band and was produced by Linkin Park vocalist Mike Shinoda and Rick Rubin , who worked together to produce the band 's previous studio album Minutes to Midnight -LRB- 2007 -RRB- . Recording sessions for A Thousand Suns took place at NRG Recording Studios in North Hollywood , California from 2008 until early 2010 .   A Thousand Suns is a multi-concept album dealing with human fears such as nuclear warfare . The band has said the album is a drastic departure from their previous work ; they experimented on different and new sounds . Shinoda told MTV the album references numerous social issues and blends human ideas with technology . The title is a reference to Hindu Sanskrit scripture , a line of which was first popularized in 1945 by J. Robert Oppenheimer , who described the atomic bomb as being `` as bright as a thousand suns '' . It also appears in a line from the first single of the album , `` The Catalyst '' .   `` The Catalyst '' was sent to radio and released to digital music retailers on August 2 , 2010 . `` The Catalyst '' peaked at the Billboard Alternative Songs and Rock Songs charts . Three more singles were released to promote the album : `` Waiting for the End '' , `` Burning in the Skies '' and `` Iridescent '' . `` The Catalyst '' and `` Waiting for the End '' were certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America -LRB- RIAA -RRB- . Linkin Park promoted the album through the A Thousand Suns World Tour from October 2010 to September 2011 .   Upon release , the album polarized critics and fans . The band 's fanbase divided over their new sound , splitting them into `` love-it versus hate-it groups '' according to one reviewer . Despite this , the album has been a commercial success , debuting at number one on over ten charts . It was certified gold by the RIAA in February 2011 . By June 2014 , it had sold over 960,000 copies in the United States according to Nielsen SoundScan .