Chester Bennington's friends are helping his pre-Linkin Park grunge band make a tribute album

By Sam Barsanti | February 4, 2020 | 1:35am

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Chester Bennington's friends are helping his pre-Linkin Park grunge band make a tribute album

Photo: Ethan Miller

When Linkin Park lead singer Chester Bennington died in 2017, he left behind a project he was working on his with pre-Linkin Park band Grey Daze to rerecord and rerelease its two albums—1994's Wake Me and 1997's …No Sun Today. That plan was set aside out of respect for Bennington, and though drummer Sean Dowdell briefly considered dumping the original albums on iTunes so fans could at least get them, the plan has now evolved into a full-on tribute to Bennington and his formative musical years. As reported by Rolling Stone, Dowdell, Grey Daze bassist Mace Beyers, and Bennington’s longtime friend Cristin Davis are compiling the remastered and rerecorded songs into a new album called Amends with some help from members of Korn, Helmet, P.O.D., and Bennington’s other band Dead By Sunrise (plus his son, Jaime). His original vocals will be used, and at the request of his window Talinda, they will be untouched.

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The Rolling Stone piece has some interesting details about what happened with Grey Daze, which had developed a big following in the band’s hometown of Phoenix before the members split up and Bennington went on to Linkin Park. Apparently, Warner Bros. (Linkin Park’s label) actively worked to scrub the internet of “any mentions of Grey Daze” since the band was a “competing product” against it’s nu-metal hit-makers. As for Amends, Dowdell told Rolling Stone that he turned down better offers from big labels and signed with Loma Vista for the album because it promised to only put out the music “for the right reasons.” Some of the proceeds from it will now be going to Talinda Bennington’s suicide prevention organization 320 Changes Direction, with other proceeds being specifically allocated to Bennington’s children. Amends will be available on April 10.

If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is available 24 hours a day at 1-800-273-8255.