Grey Daze/ Chester Bennington
[Photo via YouTube]

Grey Daze release first Chester Bennington re-record "What's In The Eye"

The late Chester Bennington was and continues to be a staple of rock and roll and music as a whole. As the frontman of Linkin Park, Bennington showcased his supreme writing and vocal talent to millions over the years. One lesser-known avenue of his creativity was his first band, Grey Daze. After years of hard work, Grey Daze have released the first track and video for “What’s In The Eye” featuring Bennington’s vocals.

Three years ago, Bennington took to Instagram to say that he had reunited Grey Daze. His intention was to revisit and rerecord tracks from the band’s first two albums, Wake Me and no sun today to take advantage of new technology and the budget considerations. However, this never fully came to fruition due to Bennington’s death.

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Bennington’s widow, Talinda Bennington, posted a statement to her social media last night saying, “One of Chester’s greatest gifts was music. The only thing he took more pride in was being a father to his children. Given how much he cared, he wanted fans to hear everything that he did, and his musical journey started with Grey Daze.

“In February 2017, Chester and his bandmates began re-recording their music for a planned re-release of the band’s early music. By June, he announced that Grey Daze was reuniting and would be playing a 20th anniversary reunion show later that fall.”

Well, the remaining member of Grey Daze carried on. With the addition of Bennington’s existing vocal takes, the album should now be released this year by the Loma Vista label.

The first single from the upcoming album is “What’s In The Eye.” Within the first minute of the song, we are reminded of what made Bennington so successful. Grey Daze described the track saying “It’s the voice of Chester you all know, remember and love but in a whole new light.”

“Chester’s voice had a personality that made you a believer,” Loma Vista Recordings founder and President Tom Whalley said. “Listening to the new versions of these tracks, I think it represents everything that the band members and the family told me that Chester wanted to achieve with re-recording this body of work.”

The video even shows clips of Bennington performing. Listen to “What’s In The Eye” by Grey Daze below.

“What’s In The Eye” Lyrics

What’s in the eye
Can you tell me
Watching the time pass me by
There’s so much locked up inside
Don’t go
Too fast
My friend
Or you’ll lose control
Don’t go
Too fast
My friend
Or you’ll lose control

What’s in the eye
That I cannot catch
Is me I want to know
Why it’s so hard to let go

Don’t go
Too fast
My friend
Or you’ll lose Control
Don’t go
Too fast
My friend
Or you’ll lose control
What’s in the eye
What’s in the eye

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The record also features performances by a number of modern-rock luminaries including Bennington’s son Jaime who rerecorded his father’s old vocals earlier this year. Korn’s Brian “Head” Welch and James “Munky” Shaffer, P.O.D.’s Marcos Curiel, Bush’s Chris Traynor and Ryan Shuck, the Orgy/Julien-K guitarist who also played with Bennington in Dead By Sunrise, also appear on the pending LP.

In an open letter penned for the release, Jaime Bennington spoke about his experience with Grey Daze and his father.

“Most importantly though I got to work on one of the last things my dad ever made,” Jaime says.  “Something I had so many questions about, like: How were they going to continue to work on an album when the lead vocalist was no longer in the picture? I had been told that there were no plans to bring in another vocalist to replace my dad on the album, but I didn’t understand at the time what that actually meant.”

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“It was only when I stepped into the studio that I saw the magic being performed. And by magic, I mean magic. Sean Dowdell, Esjay Jones, and Lucas D’Angelo are miracle workers who not only had massive holes to fill in the production of album but had rather limited means of filling them. But they did it.”

Grey Daze also issued an open letter discussing the meaning behind remastering the past work.

“We all wanted to fulfill Chester’s dream of people hearing Grey Daze music as he always envisioned it,” the letter says.  “The fact that we got to retrack and rewrite the music around his vocals was an amazing experience. This is what our good friend wanted. He wanted the music to feel fresh and relevant, so people who knew his music but not his original band, could relate to it.”

“That’s what we’ve tried to do with this Grey Daze record now. We cannot wait for his fans and the world to hear this new album, we hope we made him, and you, proud.”

Chester’s ex, Talinda and his mother Susan Eubanks also penned open letters upon the Grey Daze release. They can all be read, in full, here. As of now, there is no title or release date for the Grey Daze album.

See more: In memoriam: Musicians we lost in 2019

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