Medium: Album
Stimulus: Dead by Sunrise – Out of Ashes
Anno: 2009

This project is a bit of a hydra, mixing the vocals of Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington with the music of electronic rock band Julien-K. The result is more guitar-driven rock than the usual synth output of Julien-K, which doesn’t elevate Bennington’s vocals beyond the standard and his lyrics beyond the trite. During the boring rockout of “Crawl Back In,” Bennington utters the cliché: “It’s hard to think of anything that I haven’t heard before,” before rambling on about the requisite voices in his head. That line, above any to be found on Out of Ashes, describes the album.

It opens with 80s glory riffing, and Bennington sings the see-you-in-heaven words of “Fire” with triumph but not enough conviction. From there, Out of Ashes alternates between the sad-eyed pouts heard on “Too Late,” “Let Down,” and “In the Darkness,” and the butt-rock struttings of “My Suffering,” “Condemned,” and “End of the World.” The songs are well written, but are performed with far too much by-the-numbers. This raises the question of how different the disc might have been had the electronic expertise of Julien-K not been held beneath the surface, coming out only in brief, token bursts.

If there is a bright point to be found on the album, even it is unchallenging. The lyrics of “Inside of Me” are as typically despairing as everything else (ex: “My head is like a loaded gun”), but the accompanying AFI-toting pop-punk actually has some speed and energy to it, and forces Bennington to keep up. On an actual punk album, the song would get lost in the shuffle, but in this desert, it’s an oasis.

There are brief moments of lucid enjoyment, but for the most part Out of Ashes plays like sedate rock wallpaper with aims of sedate media attention. Each member’s band of origin certainly has its flaws, but their works all function better than this.