Dead By Sunrise - Out Of Ashes (Review)

Artist: Dead By Sunrise
Album: Out Of Ashes
Label: Warner Bros.
Release Date: October 13^th
Genre: Hard Rock
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Rating:

There is no mis­tak­ing Chester Bennington’s voice. It trade­marks Linkin Park songs with a tow­er­ing tenor, and now he’s put it to work for a side project. As you may recall, the other front­man of Linkin Park, rap­per Mike Shinoda, released his project Fort Minor’s album in 2005, find­ing fre­quent radio­play with the sin­gle “Where’d You Go.” Now it’s Chester’s turn, but it doesn’t feel that dif­fer­ent, despite the sep­a­rate styles. Dead By Sunrise is as Fort Minor was: car­ry­ing for­ward that part of Linkin Park which the respec­tive mem­ber enacted, and doing it com­pe­tently, but not astoundingly.

Though many fans of rock music despise Linkin Park (almost to the point of Creed, who will be ref­er­enced very soon), they have a cer­tain je ne sais quoi that is inescapable. They are a sub­lime mix­ture of gen­res with direct, emo­tive lyrics, and each album is use­ful for dif­fer­ent pur­poses. For exam­ple, Hybrid Theory pounds away the deep-seated anger of the 21^st-century young adult, while Minutes to Midnight helps the lis­tener look inside them­selves. But this isn’t a ref­er­en­dum on Linkin Park. This is sim­ply to set up the con­text for the review, which is that if you’ve heard Linkin Park’s mod­ern rock tracks like “Pushing Me Away,” “What I’ve Done,” and “Easier to Run,” you’ve already heard Dead By Sunrise. It was there in Chester’s head all along.

But its highs are not high enough and its lows are not low enough. Lead sin­gle “Crawl Back In” is com­pa­ra­ble to “Given Up,” but the aggres­sion is tem­pered by an Achilles’ Heel: the lack of the rest of the mem­bers of Linkin Park. “In the Darkness” and “Walking in Circles” both recall Midnight’s slower moments like the hit “Shadow of the Day,” but though both are above mediocre, nei­ther will become anyone’s favorite song. Or even close. “End of the World” rec­om­mends you “grab your cru­ci­fix and fall to your knees, and beg him ‘please, have mercy on me’” in a bit of reli­gious move. But with­out Shinoda’s polit­i­cal lyrics (“Hands Held High”), this turns into the worst track on the album.

Much bet­ter are “Too Late” and “Let Down” (power bal­lads), the angry-yet-loving “My Suffering” (rock out!), and the gor­geous “Into You.” The album’s best track, oddly enough, is the bonus track “Morning After,” which mixes an indus­trial sen­si­bil­ity with a sky-high cho­rus. But none of these tracks beg repeated lis­tens, and most music fans (even Linkin Park fans) will for­get about Out of Ashes by the next mod­ern rock release. In the end, Chester hasn’t cre­ated another Linkin Park album, but it’s a lit­tle too close for com­fort. And his writ­ing doesn’t seem to be sep­a­rated from the band’s style, which casts a pall over any future solo career he might attempt.

Track Listing:
1. Fire
2. Crawl Back In
3. Too Late
4. Inside of Me
5. Let Down
6. Give Me Your Name
7. My Suffering
8. Condemned
9. Into You
10. End of the World
11. Walking in Circles
12. In the Darkness
13. Morning After

Similar To: Linkin Park, Creed, Chevelle

Review by: Jordy K.