Chester Bennington’s pre-Linkin Park band Grey Daze have shared the music video for “Sickness” off their upcoming album Amends, a collection of newly recorded music paired with remastered vocals from Bennington’s mid-to-late Nineties tenure with the Phoenix, Arizona, band.
“This is loosely based on a true story from when Chester was 15 years old,” Grey Daze founder and drummer Sean Dowdell said of the track. “He was being bullied at school and one day suffered a real beating. That was the day I assumed a role as protector and almost older brother figure to Chester that has lasted since, even after his passing.”
The song’s video marries that original concept with a visual that features a teenaged skateboarder finding escape in writing song lyrics. Digital 8-quality Nineties footage of a young Bennington and his Grey Daze bandmates is also dispersed throughout “Sickness”
In addition to the release of “Sickness,” Amends is available to preorder now ahead of its April 10th release date. The Grey Daze artist store is offering the album in a variety of formats, including a CD housed in a 16-page book, a first pressing, ruby red vinyl variant exclusive and a numbered deluxe edition featuring both a CD and LP, the latter which includes a disc tray designed for vinyl.
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, members of Grey Daze reminisced about the group and their decision to rerecord and rerelease their Nineties output with the blessing of Bennington’s widow Talinda.
“The only thing I said to Sean about the project was, ‘Don’t change Chester’s voice,’” Talinda told Rolling Stone. “As far as I know, that’s how it is.”
A year prior to Bennington’s suicide in 2017, he reached out to Dowdell to discuss a Grey Daze reunion to mark the band’s anniversary; they formed in 1993 — when Bennington was 15 years old — and broke up in 1998.
“We were planning on sending the producer out on the road for the sake of time to track [Chester’s] vocals while he was out on the road of the next leg of the [Linkin Park] tour,” Dowdell said. “But obviously that didn’t happen.”