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Graff, Gary Billboard (9 Oktober 2009) [77/100]
TThere's a question that lingers when listening to the debut album from Dead by Sunrise, the new project from Linkin Park's Chester Bennington: What can he do musically in this setting that he can't in his day job? The answer, apparently, is quite a bit. Bennington's emotive vocals and a similar quiet-to-loud dynamic identify Dead by Sunrise with Linkin Park, but "Out of Ashes" is grittier and more punk-driven. This is best displayed on the punchy groove of "Crawl Back In," the blistering cadence driving "Inside of Me," the three-chord attack of "My Suffering" and the butt-kicking rock of "End of the World." Bennington and his Dead by Sunrise bandmates (who hail from the electronic rock band Julien-K) also display a deft touch with atmospherics and textures on tracks like "Too Late," "Give Me Your Name" and the goth-tinged "Let Down," among others. On the opening track, "Fire," Bennington searches for "a way to keep my pain from burning down to the bone." But his agony is the listener's sonic gain, so let it burn.
Heaney, Gregory Allmusic [70/100]
Consisting of material that Chester Bennington didn't want to hammer into the mold of Linkin Park's electronica-infused nu metal, Out of Ashes finds the singer exploring a moodier hard rock sound, teaming up with co-collaborators Julien-K (a production/synth pop outfit featuring Amir Derahk and Ryan Shuck of Orgy). The album has a more melodic, guitar-centric approach than Bennington's previous work. The Julien-K touch really manifests itself in atmospherics — rather than sitting in the forefront, synths are used more strategically, thickening the sound and filling in the empty spaces. The album's more rocking moments are reminiscent of Velvet Revolver, with riff-driven songs storming out of the gates at full gallop. "Inside of Me" wholly embraces that idea, grabbing the listener from the get-go and relentlessly barreling straight through to the end like some kind of rock & roll Cannonball Run. The album also features a lot of really satisfying melodic moments, making a downtempo shift from time to time and giving the listener a brief respite from all the action. "Fire," the album's opening track, is the star of the show. Bennington's vocals soar over the massive, triumphant chorus, kicking the album off to an epic start. As a whole, Out of Ashes is a solid record and a fine opening volley for Bennington's solo work. While it may not be a terribly adventurous record in the grand scheme of rock & roll, it's certainly a departure from his work with Linkin Park, and should make for a refreshing change for fans who want to see another side of the singer, as well as winning over people who aren't into his other work.
Rosen, Jody Rolling Stone (13 October 2009) [50/100]
This side project by Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington is a grim affair, with hackneyed post-grunge arrangements propping up pity-poor-me sentiments telegraphed in song titles like "My Suffering" and "Crawl Back In" ("Sometimes I cry/Sometimes I feel like I want to die," Bennington wails). Ashes is slightly redeemed by ballads like "In the Darkness," which bears a resemblance to the winning emo turn Linkin Park took on the Rick Rubin- produced Minutes to Midnight (2007). But the album is oddly inert, lacking both the brute force and big choruses that raised Linkin Park to rap-rock godhead status.
Pareles, John (aka Mr. Douchebag) New York Times (13 October 2009) [50/100]
Chester Bennington, 33, has a highly commercial gift: He’s still directly in touch with the pain, insecurity and turmoil of adolescence, and he expresses them without any fear of clichés.
“Sometimes I laugh, sometimes I cry/ Sometimes I feel like I wanna die,” he wails in “Crawl Back In” from “Out of Ashes,” the first album by his band Dead by Sunrise.
Mr. Bennington is no newcomer. He’s the singer for the rap-metal band Linkin Park, in which he splits vocals with the rapper Mike Shinoda. Mr. Bennington’s voice is versatile enough; it can be a thin, sustained whine or an aggrieved hard-rock rasp. But his ear for melody contributes to a tag-team combination of pugnacity and tunefulness that has made Linkin Park one of this decade’s best-selling bands. Linkin Park hasn’t broken up; Mr. Bennington has squeezed Dead by Sunrise into his other band’s time off.
Dead by Sunrise is his alliance with the musicians in Julien-K, a band that on its own leans toward electropop. (Julien-K also counts Mr. Bennington as a member.) But Mr. Bennington wrote the songs for Dead by Sunrise, and they are rockers, completely setting aside Linkin Park’s hip-hop and turning instead to grunge, emo and power ballads. Produced by Howard Benson, who pumped up the drama for My Chemical Romance, the elaborately layered tracks on “Out of Ashes” put synthesizers behind power chords and mesh programmed rhythms with drums, while Mr. Bennington’s voice answers itself — run through different effects — and gets multiplied into huge backup choruses.
Technically it’s spacious, state-of-the-art pop. It’s also shamelessly imitative, mimicking a Nirvana intro for “Crawl Back In,” echoing Green Day and Metallica in “My Suffering” and aping Pink Floyd in “Give Me Your Name.” Between writing its first songs in 2005 and finishing the album, Mr. Bennington went through a divorce, addiction problems and a new marriage, and the songs allude to all that, but only in the most generic terms. “Say goodbye to yesterday/ I made it through, I’m here today,” he sings in “Into You.”
Mr. Bennington strives to sound sympathetic, but after a song or two it’s clear that his only sympathy is for himself; there’s no humility, much less humor or proportion. As real as his prolonged adolescent angst is supposed to be, it quickly curdles into narcissism. (Dead by Sunrise is to perform Wednesday at the Gramercy Theater.)
