For Ben Gillies of Silverchair, writing and recording albums is nothing new, however this time is a little different.

Stepping out from behind the drums to assume the frontman position, Gillies has undertaken an extremely daunting task and delivered the result brilliantly.

On Diamond Days, the debut LP for his new project Bento, Gillies has let his creative side run wild putting together 12 tracks of unique and fantastic music.

From the opening number and lead single “Diamond Days”, the album immediately takes an upbeat, happy sound and runs with it for the first few tracks including “Words Of Love” and “West Side Story”.

The middle of the album slows down a little with tracks like “Miss My Mind” and “Glue” before picking up again with a couple of rock numbers towards the end in the form of “Living Strong” and “Poison Ivy”.

The beauty of this album is that you can’t just slap one genre on it as Bento tackles slow songs, rock songs, funkier songs and even tracks that are a bit more electronic (such as “April Fool”).

Handling the vocal duties perfectly, Gillies sounds a very convincing frontman. Without any expectations on him at all, he has managed to create a very complete and fun album that will have you singing along, dancing, and just generally having a fun time.

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Gillies has made his very own mark on this album and gives us all something to look forward to in the future.

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