Before he helped steer Linkin Park to massive fame, Chester Bennington cut his teeth with what was his first proper band, Phoenix, Arizona's Grey Daze. The alt-rock group released two little-heard LPs, Wake Me and No Sun Today, but never quite got off the ground given the financial and artistic limitations they faced at the time. Following Bennington's success, he and the other band members reunited in 2017 and decided to revisit those old jams so they could rework and re-record them to give justice to their project once and for all.
Tragically, Bennington took his own life before those dreams could come to fruition, but with the blessing of the singer's widow, Talinda, and his family, the group's current members — drummer Sean Dowdell, bass player Mace Beyers and guitarist Cristin Davis — took on the task of completing the project themselves. The first taste of the results is the single "What's in the Eye," which showcases Bennington's iconic voice in a fresh context.
The band explained these intentions via open letter on social media, telling listeners: "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."
"What's in the Eye"'s lyrics were jointly composed by Bennington and Dowdell, and tell the story of a friend's tragic death in a car accident, poetically grappling with the inexplicable tragedy of a loved one gone far too soon. As such, the song strikes a particularly resonant chord now, in light of Bennington's own premature death.
"What's in the Eye" will appear on a forthcoming new Grey Daze album, which is due via Loma Vista Recordings and will feature contributions from members of Korn, P.O.D. and Bush, as well as Bennington's 12-year-old son Jaime. More details will be shared in the coming weeks. "We all wanted to fulfill Chester's dream of people hearing Grey Daze music as he always envisioned it," the band said in their open letter. "We cannot wait for his fans and the world to hear this new album, we hope we made him, and you, proud."
