Good review. Still doesn't seem worth my harddrive space though. I'll just listen to some of the tracks in shitty quality on youtube.
Fire 6/10 too repetetive Crawl Back In 5/10 eh Too Late 8.5/10 nice melody Inside of Me 7/10 too short Let Down 8/10 like having drums as opposed to accoustic version Give Me Your Name 8/10 beautiful My Suffering 6/10 bad production Condemned 7/10 STP anyone? Into You 10/10 PERFECT End Of The World 8/10 fun song for the live show Walking In Circles 9/10 awesome lyrics In The Darkness 7/10 its growing on me Morning After 6/10 prefer the 2001 version
My favourites: Walking In Circles, Too Late, Let Down, In The Darkness. I like the first two better than anything on MTM.
I would pay to have a studio version of old My Suffering. It was easily 10x better than album version.
I would pay just to hear the older cut of the album. Chester said that had he released the album earlier it would have been different. He should release the older cut too.
Love the album, but really can't be bothered writing a lengthy in-depth review. The standouts were fire, let down, into you, walking in circles and in the darkness. I think chester is at his best doing darker, almost ballad like songs. You really feel the pain and hurt.
There are good moments and good songs, but too much of it just passed me by and there isn't a lot that I'd like to see rubbing off on the next Linkin Park album. Chester's vocals are good and the music sounds good (as in the way it's mixed and so on). I don't want to come off as being too critical because I didn't really dislike it, but I didn't genuinely like a great deal of it either. Maybe it'll grow on me if I listen to it more but as things stand I'm pretty much indifferent on the whole.
Fire: 5/10 Crawl Back In: 6.5/10 Too Late: 8/10 Inside Of Me: 7/10 Let Down: 8/10 Give Me Your Name: 10/10 My Suffering: 5/10 Condemmed: 7/10 Into You: 8.5/10 End Of The World: 7/10 Walking In Circles: 10/10 In The Darkness: 10/10 Morning After: 3/10 It's a good album but I think there are some moments that are just not to the standard we know Chester can perform. Either way I think overall the lyrics seem incomplete on the majority of the album which is dissappointing. That said this will tide me over til the next LP album certainly and it opens the door for Chester to come back to this project in a few years a better songwriter and correct the errors made in this album. I'm already anxious to hear what the followup to Out Of Ashes will be like. 7.5/10 On a side note there are some tracks that seem like they could fit on a modern day Grey Daze album. Also I don't care for the album version of Morning After, the Julien-K remix and 2001 acoustic versions are much better imo.
Fire 8/10- Pretty good song that sweeps me away Crawl Back In 3/10-Boring,annoying, and not good Too Late 5/10- average song..not much to say Inside of me 4/10- way to short to do anything for me Let Down 7/10- To much work was done on it. still good tho Give Me Your Name 2/10- zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz My Suffering 8/10- I just like this song.Its catchy =] Condemned 7/10- pretty good. like the vocal work Into You 9.5/10- definatly a highlight track End Of The World 8/10. This one had a NIN feel for me. Liked it Walking In Circles 9/10. I like the dark feeling in this one. Didnt get a 10 cuz it drags a bit In The Darkness 7/10.Idk why but something about this song seems familiar. I just cant make it out Morning After 6/10. Nothing special about this one. an ok song. like it better then the remix So overall. Fairly decent album. Not a bad first attempt but we shall see what he will improve whenever he does his next one. OVERALL RATING 7/10
Fire (8/10) Loved this song since it was first released. I think it's one of the strongest on the album. Just a great all around track. Crawl Back In (3.5/10) As opposed to "Fire," I have thought nothing of this song ever since it was released. Boring, generic. Too Late (5/10) An alright power ballad. Could be better. I like the keyboards in the chorus. Inside Of Me (6.5/10) I really liked it when it first came out, its slipping into the background now though. Too much like Given Up and My Suffering, and way too short. Let Down (5/10) Meh. It's okay. The acoustic version is better. Give Me Your Name (2/10) This song does nothing for me. Too long, too boring. My Suffering (7/10) Crap lyrics but an okay song. I little too short, but gets the job done. Again too Given Up-eske. Although, I actually like it more than Given Up.I like the vocal melody in the chorus. Condemned (6.5/10) Yet another short-ish, heavy-ish song. Like My Suffering, I like the chorus melody; but also similarly, the lyrics are a little weak. Synth is a nice addition here and Chester's screams are top notch. Gives me confidence that maybe there will be some screams on the next LP album after all. Some nice lead in the outro too. Into You (8/10) Really great song. A really lovely acoustic strumming first half leads into a sweet sounding heavy bridge and epic chorus/outro. One of the strongest efforts. End Of The World (6/10) Not horrible, but not fantastic. The synth is too loud in the mix. A bit of a rock and roll vibe to Chester's vocals is a nice touch. Walking In Circles (9/10) Best song on the album. Just pure epic-ness. In The Darkness (6.5/10) Pretty good ballad song. Not a touch on Into You though. Repetitive. The Morning After (4/10) Pretty much a dud. It's just the Julien-K remix made to sound like the original. Fail. Overall (6.5/10) As you could probably tell from my track-by-track, I was not overly impressed with the album. Got a few classics out of it in Fire, Walking In Circles and Into You, as well as a decent heavy in My Suffering. Other than that it doesn't do that much for me. I would have taken it as an EP with just those four songs and maybe Inside of Me or In the Darkness thrown in.
I think the album is a solid effort from Chester; and the meaning behind the songs are the greatest part of the album for me. Chester has been really transparent about where the songs came from; and apparently 2005-2007 was a really tough period for Chester. I like how these songs are so personal for him. I agree that the record was over produced a bit. But let's remember that this is a side project and that Chester, Ryan and Amir came together specifically to do these songs. I think they're great songs. My favorites are Condemned, Let Down, Morning After, Fire, and My Suffering. Total 8/10 for Out of Ashes.
To me, when a member of a band branches out on his own for a solo album, the material he releases on said solo album should be stuff that his band wouldn't normally create (see: City & Colour/Dallas Green, Fort Minor/Mike, etc). Don't get me wrong, I like the album kinda, but it really does sound like Linkin Park to me. I can imagine all of these songs on a future LP release. For some reason, I went into this album expecting Depeche Mode or something similar, and what I got wasn't what I expected (or wanted, really). It's catchy, but it just doesn't live up to what I thought it'd be.
^ I think a lot of people feel that way because MTM really expanded the palette of what peopel think LP is capable is, any sort of music with Chester as the vocalist on it would be fair game for an LP song, which is why you probably thought it sounded like LP.