Niki N. Phaser

The thing with Dead by Sunrise is that you can either listen to it as Chester Benington’s side-project and compare it to Linkin Park, you can also listen to it as Julien-K without Ryan Shuck on vocals, or you can clear your mind of all these faces and names and enjoy a new rock band. And, truth be told, it’s not at all difficult to enjoy Dead by Sunrise’s debut album, Out of the Ashes. The overall feeling you get from this first studio effort by these guys, is that you are listening to some classic rock’n'roll album, something old school, but still alive and kicking. Billy Idol’s Rebel Yell is the first thing that comes to mind, but Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet is not too far either. I’m not entering sound issues when mentioning these albums. I’m just trying to say that Out of the Ashes has everything you would want from a rock album. It might not become your favourite, but you will respect it.

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Linkin Park’s frontman Chester Benington is finally releasing an album with his side-project, Dead by Sunrise, comprised of Julien-K and ex-Orgy members. Talks of a non-Linkin Park project have been circulating even before Meteora days. This time, it’s the real deal. Benington revealed that Dead by Sunrise will release an album entitled Out of Ashes in September. The sound will be dramatically different from Linkin Park, mainly due to the absence of Mike Shinoda, who, Benington considers, “has created our signature sound“. There will be no hip-hop influences on this one, just straightforward rock. The album will have ten tracks, as this reminds Benington of the memorable records of the 60′s and 70′s. A possible first single is a track named Crawl Back In, for which they will be shooting a video around the beginning of August. As for gigs, the nu-metal icon announced through Twitter a series of surprise Dead by Sunrise shows, adding “They will be short sets. And no one will know when or where they will be”. The one hint he gave was “So if anyone wants to see us doing these performances you’d better try to get to the LP shows this summer”. Their first official offering (through their Myspace page), entitled Morning After, is quite promising.