Review Summary: Chester's need of fresh air in his career just falls flat.
Before I take my first step on this review, I have to admit; I listened this record recently. It's 2020 and I'm a Linkin Park fan. Not a huge fan of all of their records but I have huge respect for what they done. And of course, huge respect for Chester. He ifluenced today's alternative music so much. And this has to be our starting point. To respect.
I heard Dead by Sunrise years ago. With their breakout single "Crawl Back In". That was a good song. Acceptable. Have to admit it's kinda sounds like Song 2 by Blur. But my high school boy-self quite enjoyed it back then. So, I listened to this song quite few times, but then I completely forgot about it.
Years later, I finally listened to this whole record. And I'm sorry to admit that I haven't missed anything. I'm actually listening some of the songs while I'm writing this review because I already forgot about maybe more than half of it. Sound and production is pretty ordinary, nothing special. Not any notable guitar works or memorable drum parts. And most importantly; vocals are pretty dull. Why is this the most important thing? We all know that this band came in recognition all because of Chester's fame. Everyone listened to this record to find something different that Chester contributed to the music world. No one expected a plain and simple collection of forgettable songs. At least that's what I'm thinking about the reason of this albums failure.
Chester Bennington is not a untalented artist. Out of Ashes might get you thinking that the reason of his success is only his bandmates in Linkin Park. There is a thing called chemistry in music. Linkin Park's chemistry is very well balanced and it was a working formula (One More Light is not included). What Chester tried to do with Dead by Sunrise is not to catch Linkin Park tunes or anything similar to that. Artists sometimes needs some fresh air to move on. Let's refresh our memories; this record released around Linkin Park's shifting times, between Minutes to Midnight (2007) and A Thousand Suns (2010). I personally liked Minutes to Midnight as an alternative rock album. Not any nu metal work. A Thousand Suns was a lot different record. And when you listened to Out of Ashes by Dead by Sunrise, it will begin to make sense. And maybe the only important thing about this album is how it's mirroring the style-shift of Linkin Park by that time.
Not any kind of creativeness or innovation; Out of Ashes contributes nothing but boredom to the modern music world. With all due respect to Chester Bennington and his bandmates in Dead by Sunrise; they should be stayed inside the ashes.
Reccommended Tracks (if you insist):
Crawl Back In
Too Late
