ARTIST: Dead By Sunrise
ALBUM: Out of Ashes
LABEL: Warner Bros. Records Inc.
RELEASE DATE: October 9, 2009
A Change of Season
Written by Mike Lowther
Man, it’s hard to imagine a super successful side project from Linkin Park’s frontman, Chester Bennington. We’ve seen Mike Shinoda do it with Fort Minor, and come out on top with much acclaim. But the last time I saw Chester go off on his own was back in ‘02 with the song System, off the Queen of the Damned album, which was nothing short of an amazing addition to a flawless soundtrack. But that’s when the nu metal genre was as large, and melodic hard rock from younger artists was in its prime. Now, we’re introduced to Out of Ashes, Bennington’s album from his band, Dead By Sunrise.
It’s apparent Bennington rides this entire album, which also features members from Orgy filling in on these mainstream rock ballads. This disc is very similar in melody to some of the tracks off Linkin Park’s Minutes to Midnight. You can clearly tell Chester wrote some of these during that time, and probably needed a different output to make them bleed though a new medium, hence Dead By Sunrise. Ever since the original LP days, it was extremely evident that Chester would head out and do something on his own, and this is his statement.
I can hear the grunge and sorrow, spilling of emotion, and tasty diction through a balanced flow of tunes throughout the record. In the track Give Me Your Name, slight nuances of dreamy ocean vocal effects can be heard in the recited, “and I fall into the ocean”. Other tracks like Crawl Back In and My Suffering give off a cheesy pop-rock vibe. I can do without them. The record feels as if it’s completely run by a mainstream label, which in all honesty, it is, but what Chester really knows how to do is comply artistically to the rules and regulations of creating a catchy, comm ercial album. And it’s done right. I don’t shun this at all; it’s smart, but I’m not tickled very much. You can hear a STP influence brought into today’s decade with a hint of Nirvana and a sprinkle of Orgy synth throughout the course of the record, but I can’t brush off the nagging pop-rock feel. I hope Bennington has been able to get this out of his system and head back to Linkin Park with a fresh, heavy-hitting vibe.