Linkin Park – The Catalyst

General CommentThis song has multiple meanings, but they tie together. One is a religion reference and the other is a nuclear war.

The first verse describes the plight of humanity. I can be that we have fallen into sin, or that we are about to blow each other up. The second half refers to a fate that we cannot escape.

The second verse can be either literally humanity burning for its sins (continuation of falling into sin lyrics on the first verse), or being annihilate by nuclear war. The "a thousand suns" reference can refer to a hindu holy text that was quoted by oppenheimer at the first nuclear bomb test (ties meanings together). It mentions the splendor of the god being greater than "the radiance of a thousand suns". This could mean humanity being punished by a religious figure for our sins, but since thermonuclear bombs basically work like suns, it could be us annihilating ourselves. Again, the sin lines tie in here because it would be our own fault we blew ourselves up.

The chorus parts fit these as well. The "radiance of a thousand suns" religious reference or the literal blinding light of a nuke fit perfectly with the second line. Closing the eyes could be shielding your vision, or closing your eyes to think solemnly about the end of mankind, or even praying. The next part refers to humanity becoming only a memory in cold space, as all evidence of our existence decays away and echoes off into space. Far from the world of you and I could be everyone moving on to the afterlife or the memory of humanity fading into the distant reaches of space, as our last radio transmissions echo away (this is more literal tho). Oceans bleeding into the sky can be the seas literally evaporating at the end of the world, or a metaphor the end.

Lift me up, let me go to me is a way of saying "save me." It could be a prayer (said when eyes are closed) to be saved and let into the afterlife, or a way to beg humanity to save itself and not blow everyone up.

This is just my interpretation, but i think it fits well.

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  @rcm034

General CommentSeems to be about nuclear war.

"We're a broken people living under a loaded gun"

We have long since accepted the potential for nuclear holocaust so much that it's no longer even that much of a concern, and nuclear arsenals can't be fought or escaped from.

''And when I close my eyes tonight''
''To symphonies of blinding light''
''Like memories in cold decay''
''Transmissions echoing away''

If we were annihilated by a nuclear exchange tonight, our old radio and television signals would be all that was left to say we were ever here. Which is of course an exaggeration.

''Far from the world of you and I''
''Where oceans bleed into the sky''

The point where the oceans "bleed" into the sky is the horizon.

"God bless us everyone" and "Lift me up/Let me go" are requests for divine intervention.

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  @Letmein

General CommentThis has to be the best Linkin Park song to date.

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  @iJeremy
  +3

  I absolutely hate going on Facebook or Youtube and seeing comments like: "This isn't Linkin Park, this sounds nothing like HT or Meteora" or "I want my Linkin Park back"
  
  Reading someone else appreciate it is definitely a breath of fresh air.

  Flag zGodModeon August 02, 2010  

  +1

  i couldn't agree more with you zGodMode
  
  those people just need to stop complaining

  Flag iwnbts17on August 03, 2010  

  -6

  HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! good one. cus u must me joking. this is no way ther best song to date, theme is cliche, lacks originality, not the greatest beat. honestly if the rest of the album turns out like this then its just mediocre.
  I get what you guys are talking about tho
  people are just mad because the linkin park of Meteora and HT were producing new exciting music, ther stil creating some great songs they just moved in a different style and direction that seems worse than what they used to be. and to be honest, there are only a handful of linkin parks new songs that really excite me.
  Chester has always been good at lyricism, hes never had really complex lyrics but they have always been original an for some reason these lyrics have let me down.
  The instrumental is horrible. mainly because they built their beat off of claps and clicks and bass. SO GAY. its not hip hop, not rock, just crap.

  Flag johnnyblueyeon August 05, 2010  

  0

  I agree zgoodMode, like johnnyblueeye completly ignoring what we just said, lol. The instrumentation is mostly synthesized though, I'll grant you that. i would have liked to see more instrumentation. If it's not their best song, it's their best song lyrically. It's actually only part of the song, the real song is the whole album, just one song running continuous. betcha didn't know that huh?

  Flag corerulezon September 14, 2010  

  -1

  how did i ignore what you said? I may have been in a pissy mood when i wrote that so let me clarify what i was trying to say:
  Linkin park used to be a mix of metal, thrash, and hip-hop. They were very original and people responded to that and they became very popular. But they changed over the years, which they should because who wants to hear the same thing over and over, im just pointing out that in my opinion they didnt improve as a band when they changed.
  I understand now that it is a concept album and that this song is a climax to an overall theme, props to linkin park for that.
  Saying this song is the best song ever by linkin park? thats absolutely STUPID. You could argue is was the best album conceptually or lyrically, all im saying is that with this new album they didnt improve musically.
  Play this song alongside Somewhere I Belong or The Little Things Give This Away, it just doesnt compare.
  There are other songs on this album that are great, blackbird for example, but seriously, there is no argument backing this up as one of linkin parks greatest works.

  Flag johnnyblueyeon October 27, 2010  

  0

  what the heck are you talking about there is no song called blackbird on the freaking album i own it there is blackout but thats it no freakkiin blackbird!

  Flag punkrocklover97on January 04, 2011  

  0

  hmmmm yea never trust limewire...

  Flag johnnyblueyeon February 03, 2011  

  0

  This is definitely one of their best songs. I just listened to Somewhere I Belong and it does not compare to this song. The lyrics and feeling given by this song is amazing.

  Flag LinkinParkftwon June 12, 2012  

General CommentThis song is FULL of meaning.

"god save us everyone we are broken people living under loaded gun"
- refers the police state being constructed all around us, and the fact that the majority of the population has been lulled into submission.

"it can't be out matched, it can't be outdone, it cant be outfought it can't be out run"
- refers the NWO being worldwide and the ushering in of the new political and belief system of one world government.

"when i close my eyes tonight to the symphony of blinding light"

obviously referring the bombing of nations throughout the night (perpetual war in the name of "peace")


"memories in cold decay transmissions echoing away"
refers to free speech becoming a cold distant memory, especially online.

"far from the world of you and I, where oceans bleed into the sky."
a world we can't understand where anything destitute can happen... like a BP oil spill making the ocean floor literally BLEED and evaporate crude oil and other hydro carbons into the sky!

"god save us everyone will we burn inside the fire of a thousand suns?"
will we be engulffed by our own nuclear war we stared to destroy ourselves?


"for the sins of our tongue the sins of our touch the sins of our father the sins of our young"
the selfish, self fullfilling lifestyle of the past few generations, combined with the ignorance of the newest generation.


"lift me up, let me go" (repeated over and over!)
elevate your conscious, wake up, break free from the mind prison.



The entire song is a WARNING, meant to provoke a reaction and an awakening of the masses.
a "catalyst" by definition is the key component to begin a reaction, with significant results.


Cheers.

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  @chris2323
  0

  Good interpretation...
  
  "memories in cold decay transmissions echoing away"
  refers to free speech becoming a cold distant memory, especially online.
  
  Yes. When we are going through the agenda that is coming, communication will be null if anything.
  
  This reminds me of the lyrics of Radio Nowhere by Bruce Springsteen if anyone wants to check those lyrics too.
  
  Many artists are trying to prepare us...

  Flag soulfreedomon September 13, 2010  

  0

  I would say the whole album (which is one 47 minute song) is a warning of a catalyst. This is probably the most intense and most relevant part, and this is how I interpreted it (pretty similar to yours):
  
  
  God bless us everyone
  We're a broken people living under a loaded gun
  And it can't be outfought
  It can't be outdone
  It can't be outmatched
  It can't be outrun
  No
  *From the perspective of the innocent. The government is in charge as they prepare to destroy the world in weapons, with civilians having no way to avoid it.
  And when I close my eyes tonight
  To symphonies of blinding light
  (God bless everyone
  We're a broken people living under a loaded gun)
  Like memories in cold decay
  Transmissions echoing away
  Far from the world of you and I
  Where oceans bleed into the sky
  *The symphonies are obviously radioactivity or atom bombs. The oceans are also evaporating into the sky
  Lift me up
  Let me go
  16x
  *I think this is the everyone in the world saying "let me die now"
  
  That's just how I saw it.

  Flag corerulezon September 15, 2010  

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  The entire ALBUM is a warning. About NWO and nuclear warfare. :(

  Flag Lynkson February 06, 2014  

General CommentWell these are interesting. The stuff from linkinpark.com are good too. Interesting replies from the discussion. Everyone seems to have the idea, but a few with deeper understanding. Here's the link from LP: linkinpark.com/forum/topics/…

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  @shmexy

General CommentThis is the climax of the whole album, second to last part of the 43 minute song (it's one continuous track, and it's a concept album about nuclear warfare) This is where the world is being destroyed and people pray for surivival. Can I get an EPIC?

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  @corerulez
  0

  EPIC

  Flag nelson14on September 28, 2010  

General Commenti havent heard this song yet. i suppose its off the new album coming out this year. it sounds to me like its about the state of the world we are living in today. With all the war and violence goin on its iminent that it will eventually lead to nuclear war(Will we burn inside the fires of a thousand suns)if we dont stop all the violence. That was just a shot in dark :)

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  @hollow1337

General CommentThis is difficult to interpret for me because on amazon.com, the page where you buy the cd has the following posted:

"On the eve of its completion, this body of work, assembled through unconscious inspiration and unmitigated exertion, has revealed to us notions both stirring and surprising. The album's personified imagery is neither dogma nor political premeditation. The emergent themes and metaphors illuminate a uniquely human story.

'A Thousand Suns' grapples with the personal cycle of pride, destruction, and regret. In life, like in dreams, this sequence is not always linear. And, sometimes, true remorse penetrates the devastating cycle. The hope, of course, springs from the notion that the possibility of change is born in our most harrowing moments."

So if they are saying that it's not dogma or political premeditation, how then does this song mean anything about environmentalism? I'm not saying that it doesn't, I'm just saying based on what I read on amazon...

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  @Kvothe

General Commentwow. total suspended animation, but Not in a state of bliss... not this time around. it appears that the end of the world has actually already come and gone–many times over. no matter how many times tragedy strikes we seem to have not been able to remember what we should’ve come to know. Can we surrender if lost? Is one lost if stagnant? Do we have the right to choose a marked fate? Do we have the will-power to even care? I'm presuming not. So we’ll spin into a doom- oblivion cataclysmic catastrophe--earth-collisions of masked Mardi-Gras chaos once again. Now Jump! And it seems to all taste the same in the end. Truth: Music will always rise to shatter the constraints of any burrier or time-latent glass lid confines. But we will react as our reflections serve to us gaseous illusions of distorted truths, and fractured by black-tar lies we’ll drown ourselves in, as worst enemies do. We treat our brothers no differently than how we evade ourselves, yet we struggle to remember a reality we don’t want to embrace or admit to experiencing, because that would mean having to take ownership. Perhaps once a stable, although dark congregation, we seem numbed, maybe lost to lucid clouds we wait on to break--only for a glimpse of such a defiant structure: our world as we know it, tangible in our darkest dreams, anyways. Thank you to the oil god’s and the struggles we’ve met and endured in order to create something to share with our foreign aficionados, like democratic order, in exchange for respect and honor for sacrificing our own waters for the fate of the all-mighty American Dream. Was this just a deterrent? Were we ever ‘built to last’? I can’t see you, anyhow, and air suspends us freely. Hello death. and open wide

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  @nowherecatie

General CommentSo, given the entire album is rife with metaphor (or direct quotes) of nuclear holocaust, why are people spouting off about how this song is about "the police state being constructed all around us, and the fact that the majority of the population has been lulled into submission." and "the NWO being worldwide and the ushering in of the new political and belief system of one world government."


Seriously, the album opens with a quote from Openheimer and you think the "loaded gun" is a bunch of cops and polititians?

It's about nukes. Fits everything. They are the loaded gun, they can't be outfought/outwon/outdone/outrun etc, and with 10000+ of them still in storage around the world, we may well suffer the sins of our father and burn in the fire of a thousand suns.

Some of it is a bit more abstract. My best guess is the "twin symphonies of blinding light" are the only two times we've used nuclear weapons on a live target (japan). I am also GUESSING that the "transmission echoing away" is the fact that nukes release a huge amount of RF energy, they are theoretically "audible" across interstellar distances.

But yeah, this is a fine tune, but don't over analyse it. Nukes are bad, mkay?

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  @CthulhuChild