Originally, I gave this album a 2.5 - just an average album, without original elements, or terrifyingly bad moments. But, that in itself is what makes this such a poor album. There is virtually nothing worth taking away from Out of Ashes. Chester goes to great lengths to make these songs sound as catchy as possible. His attempts to make each an epic fall completely flat, even with the assistance of Julien-K. All the teen angst he brought to Linkin Park, he's whipped out here, except we're nearly a decade past and the angst has been stale for years. Even discounting the aforementioned, the album is lyrically uninspired, and at times, painfully cliched.
Ultimately, this is nothing more than a poorly executed side project - one that is lacking especially when compared to Mike Shinoda's Fort Minor. |
