Being a devout fan of Linkin Park, I couldn’t believe when I heard that Chester Bennington, the infamous linkin park vocalist, has left the band. I just couldn’t imagine listening to their songs with another vocalist. As expected, it turned out to be just a rumor. The truth being that Chester has formed a side-project called Dead by Sunrise, a Rock/Electro band featuring Amir Derakh and Ryan Shuck, as well as Brandon Belsky, Elias Andru, and Anthony “Fu” Valcic. The band’s debut album, Out of Ashes, is due for realease on October 13, 2009.

In 2006, working on songs for Minutes to Midnight, Chester came up with a few songs that sounded very good, but didn’t feel like Linkin Park. According to him, “..they were much darker and moodier.” So instead of transforming them into Linkin Park tracks, he decided to work on them on his own.

The band’s name, Dead By Sunrise, also has a story behind it. While beginning to work on the album, Chester found himself a lot of times in a self desctructive-state, and at times was even unsure he was going to make it to the next day. Hence, Dead by Sunrise reflects that state, and Out of Ashes, pictures his emergence from the state he was in.

Dead by Sunrise performed for the first time, on May 10, 2008, three of their songs (Walking in Circles, Morning After, and My Suffering). Later, they started touring with Linkin Park in Europe and Japan, jumping in the middle of Linkin Park’s set, playing a few songs, then jumping out and letting Linkin Park finish the set.

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