Diehard Chester Bennington fans know the story already: Before the singer became famous with Linkin Park, he fronted what was his first proper band, Arizona post-grunge quartet Grey Daze. Bennington sang in the group from 1993 to 1998. Nearly 20 years later, in 2017, he announced that the band had reunited and that they would be re-working and re-recording a collection of old songs, as well as playing shows together. After his suicide just months later that year, the future of the project was put into serious question. However, with the blessing of Bennington’s widow, Talinda, and his family, the surviving band members decided to proceed. The result is Grey Daze’s forthcoming LP, scheduled for release this spring via Loma Vista Recordings, and it’s lead single “What’s in the Eye.” The new version of the song arrives accompanied by a Zev Deans-directed video featuring archival footage of Bennington from the era. “What’s in the Eye” was originally recorded in the 1990s, but was reworked for the new tribute album.
“Over the years, we’d become more knowledgeable, more experienced, and had more resources, so we decided to pick a selection of songs from our previously released albums and re-record them the way they deserved to have been treated back in the ’90s when we initially wrote and released them,” Grey Daze explained in a joint statement. “By February 2017, we started recording and in June, Chester and Sean announced the reunion, with a live performance planned for that fall. Unfortunately, as we all know, that never happened.”
In addition to Bennington’s vocals and instrumentation by the surviving band members, the upcoming Grey Daze album will also feature an array of guest musicians including Chester’s 23-year-old son Jaime Bennington, Korn guitarists Brian “Head” Welch and James “Munky” Shaffer, P.O.D.’s Marcos Curiel, Bush’s Chris Traynor, as well as Ryan Shuck, Chester’s bandmate in Dead by Sunrise. Listen and watch “What’s in the Eye” below.
