October 15, 2009

From Los Angeles Times

The best thing about Linkin Park's last album, "Minutes to Midnight," was how deftly it cleaved off the band's rap-rock stereotypes. Chester Bennington dialed down his caterwauling, and the songs were rooted in lighters-up emo tinged with snappy, heavy rock.

The debut release from Bennington's new side project Dead by Sunrise similarly fuses ambient atmosphere, trashy punk and bleeding-heart melodies onto a framework of pop-metal songwriting. But while "Out of Ashes" has moments of spark, it's more scattershot and less ambitious than the music Bennington makes with Linkin Park.

Bennington's self-laceration is pushed to the front of the mix here. The Foo Fighters-ish "Crawl Back In" has an odd return-to-the-womb psychology to it. Whoever heard of a rocker singing "I don't want to lose my innocence" before? The sounds likewise are a bit lost -- "Let Down" is a fitting title for a song built on synthetic drum presets.

The band is at its best when rocking the hardest. The metalcore grind of "My Suffering" and the Queens of the Stone Age riffage of "Inside of Me" prove Bennington still can pen the kind of inspiring choruses that have earned him a devoted following among angsty teen males. As a rock star side project, though, Dead by Sunrise has an unlikely fault -- it's not nearly indulgent enough.

From Mental Pirate

The solo project of Chester Bennington, Dead by Sunrise, is effectively a direct reflection of all of his influences. You have the synth lines and programming of Depeche Mode, the screaming vocal of Ministry and the guitar riffs of Stone Temple Pilots and The Cure. Don't get me wrong, the record isn't bad. In fact, each song is quite solid.

My biggest complaint of the piece is the mixing quality. You see, there are two gents in the music industry, the Lord-Alge brothers, who's sole talent is making hard rock bands not so hard. They have the distinct talent of flattening out the overall sound and polishing it up to it's most pop level. The same thing happened with Fear Factory and their 05 release, Transgression. Out of Ashes and Transgression are both good records, but they could have been great records.

Also, when I had heard that the musicians that made up the rest of the band was Julien-K I was excited. Pair that with Chester's aforementioned influences of DM and Ministry - I was looking forward to an industrial sounding album. Alas, I have been left with a shining example of modern day pop rock with a 90s alternative shine.

I'll do a brief song by song breakdown for you as I've listened to this album twice in a row all the way through.

You have the left over Linkin Park opener in "Fire" which is probably the least exciting opening track I've ever heard. You have the career culminating riff on "Crawl Back In" that sums up every STP album ever. "Too Late" and "Inside of Me" sound like they were written in the studio, though they also sound like their own band in this instance. "Let Down" and "Give me Your Name" also sounds like STP throwaways but one that was reworked tirelessly to get it away from that feel. "My Suffering" sounds more like a Dead by Sunrise original, but with the aforementioned mixing, it's so frustratingly flat. "Condemned" would be a solid live track that would inspire some serious crowd participation. "Into You" could have been co-written by Robert Smith. "End of the World" has a studio jam feel to it that would also make a great live track to jump around to. "Walking in Circles" and the closer "In the Darkness" are good, but two downers in a row does not a good song order make.

All in all, I think it's about time Chester took some time off from the music. I don't know if he's as inspired as he used to be. It's a good record, but I was expecting more.

From Kentucky Kernel

Don’t fix what isn’t broken.Chester Bennington would admit to you that his primary band, Linkin Park, isn’t broken, but that didn’t stop him from creating side project, Dead By Sunrise. Linkin Park took a big creative step with their last album, Minutes to Midnight.

However, through the writing process, lead singer Bennington felt that many of the songs he composed didn’t seem to fit stylistically with Linkin Park’s sound. It is through these leftover songs that Dead by Sunrise was born, and that is exactly what these songs sound like — leftovers. Dead by Sunrise’s debut album, “Out of Ashes,” released last week, sounds as though it could simply be a compilation of Linkin Park B-sides. Perhaps the starkest of missing influences is that of Mike Shinoda, primary writer for Linkin Park.

Gone are the catchy refrains and layered instrumentals. This effort sounds much more like a straightforward nu-metal album, without the elements that had always set Linkin Park apart from their peers. The album seems to be an outlet for Bennington’s darker material, while dually serving as his creative playground.

This isn’t to suggest that Bennington is a less talented writer than Shinoda; Shinoda’s side project, Fort Minor, paled in comparison to Linkin Park as well. “Out of Ashes” is simply proof the two are better together, and the ability to keep one another in check ultimately leads to much better material.

This album is not a disaster by any means. It has its share of bright spots — namely its opening track, “Fire.” Admittedly it seems to simply serve as a tease, as the much of the album doesn’t live up to its potential. However, there is enough here to help hold over diehard Linkin Park fans.

Bennington shines on the album in his ability to show that he is more than the hard-edged screams he often showcases on Linkin Park albums. “Out of Ashes” shows his attempts at softer ballads on songs such as “Give Me Your Name,” and while the writing may not be particularly impressive, the softer side of his voice is.

The tracks on this album are hit or miss, and, unfortunately, the hits are few and far between. The album’s high points show some very real promise. What remains to be seen is whether the potential will go toward the advancement of Linkin Park or Dead by Sunrise.

From Randomness

Okay, so I got Chester's album today and right now, I'm listening to it for the second time.
I have to admit that...overall...I like it a lot. Now, my view on Chester hasn't really changed, but if I don't think about all that crap, here are my thoughts on the album.
I won't do the rating with x/10, because I couldn't decide, even if I wanted to, but I'm just gonna make some notes about what I think and feel when I hear each song.

1. Fire
I like the lyrics and the song in general is very catchy. It only takes two listens to get most of the lyrics down and I like that, a lot.
Chester's voice sounds awesome and considering that he wrote this and one or two other songs in 8 hours, I think it's really good.
The only bad thing about it, is that it'll bore me pretty easily because it gets repetitive towards the end and it'll probably end up being one of those songs that I skip.

2. Crawl Back In
This was the first song I (and everyone else) heard from the album, before it came out.
I love the lyrics. I think most of us can relate to them, at least at some points in our life. I also love the 'roughness' of Chester's voice. It's what he does, isn't it?
Sadly this, too, gets a little repetitive, but it's definitely one of those songs that I'll dig out, when I feel like crap, just like I do with Breaking The Habit.

3. Too Late
I really, really like this one. Chester's voice is -amazing- on it and the lyrics gives me chills and makes the hairs on my arms stand up.
Definitely one I'll be destroying by singing along as loud as I possibly can, when driving, lol. I have a soft spot for soft rock ballads and this one is definitely one of my favorites.
Love the guitars and it's just... Fuck it, it makes me wanna fucking hug Chester!

4. Inside Of Me
I absolutely love the layering on this one and what stands out, to me, even if the rest of the songs probably do the same...is how melodic Chester's voice is, even when he's pretty much screaming.
That's something that always amazed me about him. I usually have issues with his screaming, but this one has just the right amount of screaming.
Very honest song.

5. Let Down
This song moved me to tears, the first time I heard the acoustic version of it and it made my heart bleed for Chester and everything that happened to him.
I have to admit that I prefer the acoustic version, but the lyrics still hit me right in my heart.
Is that Ryan interfering the singing, though? That's a bit annoying. Let Chester sing this one alone, dude.
Very powerful song, although I don't think Chester's able to portray the same emotions on the album version as he does on the acoustic version.

6. Give Me Your Name
Okay, I'm sorry. I know this is supposed to be all romantic and written for Talinda and whatnot, but it simply makes my skin crawl and it makes me want to hurt things.
It's like...was Chester high when he wrote this? 'Yeah, on love' *rolls eyes*. It seems to me like he just morphed into a member of New Kids On The Block, for a moment, there.
I don't even like his voice on it. The falsetto is just...ick. After my skin is done crawling and I've destroyed the biggest tree around, it makes me fall asleep. Definitely one I'll be skipping...a lot. I probably won't even learn the lyrics to this one, to the point of me being able to sing along.
So boring, so cheesy and not very amazing, at all.

7. My Suffering
Now this is the Chester, I like to hear. Aggressive and in-your-fucking-face! Even if it gets a bit repetitive, like Fire and Crawl Back In, I can forgive that, simply because the lyrics are fucking awesome and Chester's doing exactly what he became so famous for, with his voice.

8. Condemned
I...don't know what it is about this song, but it rubs me the wrong way. It seems like the lyrics doesn't fit with the melody. I'll probably like this song, if I'm in a horrible, horrible mood, but other than that, it just annoys the hell out of me.
Too much non-melodic screaming, maybe? I think that's part of it, anyway. I love Chester's melodic screaming, but this seems like he's just trying too damn hard and it just becomes screaming for the sake of screaming.

9. Into You
Probably my absolute favorite on the album. Nice soft and emotional voice from Mr. Bennington and nice instruments - rock, but not too much so they don't fit the lyrics.
Very cute lyrics. Makes me wish that I'd find a love like that. Good job, Ches.

10. End of the World.
Love the drums. Good song, good voice. Not mindblowing song, though, simply because it seems to me that Chester's lyrics are about the crisis and other bad things, we hear when we turn on the TV/radio/internet/whatever.
It's not a bad song and I might grow to love it as I listen to it more, but right now, it doesn't make me listen in awe.

11. Walking In Circles
Love Chester's voice on this one. I interpret this one to be about loneliness, when you're in a crowd and it touches me, although I don't think I could explain how, if my life depended on it.
Particularly love the line 'screaming silence', simply because it's so...not possible, lol. I don't know. I think this one touches the black side of my soul and the lonely, vulnerable girl, inside.

12. Into The Darkness
Heh, I love that Chester wrote a song like this. Now, I could be totally wrong and people could tell me to just get my mind out of the gutter, but this seems to be written about making love to someone, you share an epic love with.
And also to be accepted 100% by that person and having that person teach you how to make the most of things and appreciate life, again, not to mention the difficult task it is to surrender completely to someone.
I don't get the weird moaning-thing in the beginning, though. That's a bit annoying.
It's a little bit boring, if I'm honest, but also kinda sweet.

So yeah. Overall a good album that I'll be listening a lot to, when I need something -not- Grey Daze or Linkin Park.
You were right, Chester; these songs, minus Condemned maybe, are not Linkin Park songs and even if I was a bitch to you in my previous entry, I think you did a really good job with this album.
Thanks for letting us see inside your heart a little. Although, next time...put the lyrics in the booklet, okay?