Dark Before Dawn

Dark Before Dawn
Studio album by Breaking Benjamin
Released June 23, 2015
Recorded 2014
Studio 3013rd St. Studios, Ocean City, New Jersey and The Barbershop Studios, Hopatcong, New Jersey
Genre
Length 42:42
Label Hollywood
Producer Benjamin Burnley
Breaking Benjamin chronology
Shallow Bay: The Best of Breaking Benjamin
(2011)		 Dark Before Dawn
(2015)
Singles from Dark Before Dawn
  1. "Failure"
    Released: March 23, 2015
  2. "Angels Fall"
    Released: April 14, 2015
  3. "Defeated"
    Released: May 12, 2015

Dark Before Dawn is the fifth album by American rock band Breaking Benjamin, released on June 23, 2015 by Hollywood Records. It is the group's first studio album following the band's hiatus lasting from early 2010 to late 2014, and the first album to feature an entirely different lineup alongside founder and frontman Benjamin Burnley. Produced and composed by Burnley, the album took shape towards the end of the hiatus and was mostly written before the new lineup "even played a single note together." The recording process took place afterwards at both a personal studio of Burnley's and at the same studio Phobia (2006) was recorded, with all of the band members performing their respective instruments, including background vocals performed by guitarist Keith Wallen and bassist Aaron Bruch, making the record their first to feature vocals other than Burnley's.

The album was a critical and commercial success. It garnered mostly positive reception, many critics praising the album for staying true to the group's established sound, although others criticized it for sounding too similar to previous material. Burnley described that he did not want to "reinvent the wheel" with the album. It debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, the group's first in their catalog, selling 141,000 units in its first week, making it heretofore the group's most successful sales effort. The album's lead single is "Failure", which was announced alongside the album on March 18, 2015.

Background

Dark Before Dawn was the first album to not feature former members Aaron Fink (guitar) and Mark Klepaski (bass). In early 2010, Benjamin Burnley announced he was too ill to perform, thereby putting the band on indefinite hiatus while he went through the medical system. Inter-band issues and legal battles ensued in 2011 after Fink and Klepaski allegedly granted permission unilaterally for the production of a greatest hits album and the release of a remix of the hit song "Blow Me Away" featuring Sydnee Duran of Valora. The two musicians were subsequently fired from the band and sued for punitive and compensatory damages. Fink and Klepaski's attorneys asserted that at issue was a 2009 agreement allowing Burnley to dismiss them for "cause", asserting it was no longer valid due to Burnley's status of indefinite hiatus while he was too ill to perform.[1] After being ordered by a judge to arbitration,[2] the issues were settled, announced in April 2013, as Burnley reserved the exclusive right to continue under the band name Breaking Benjamin.[3] Shortly thereafter, drummer Chad Szeliga announced his departure from the band, citing creative differences.[4]

The album began taking shape towards the end of the hiatus. Burnley stated that after growing frustrated with the lack of answers concerning his health condition, he decided to focus on writing music, saying on That Metal Show, "I literally took my medical records [...] and I slammed them down like, 'You know what, forget this, I'm not getting anywhere with this', so I just decided to stop trying to find out whatever it was and just focus on our music, and that's when Dark Before Dawn really started to take shape." After the album was mostly written, Burnley began assembling new members of the band, including Jasen Rauch (lead guitar; originally from Red), Keith Wallen (rhythm guitar and backing vocals; originally from Adelitas Way), Aaron Bruch (bass), and Shaun Foist (drums; originally from Picture Me Broken).[5]

Recording and production

Burnley has described that the album was "about 95 percent" written before the new lineup "even played a single note together."[6] While Burnley remained the primary songwriter, Rauch wrote the intro and outro tracks, "Dark" and "Dawn", and also contributed to "Defeated" and "Never Again", the latter of which was also contributed to by Keith Wallen.[7]:[1, 9, 12] Burnley stated that while it was in 2014 that the record became cohesive, it was throughout the hiatus that he began creating new material.[8] Recorded and produced in New Jersey at both 3013rd Studios in Ocean City (a personal studio of Burnley's) and The Barbershop Studios in Hopatcong (the same studio with which Phobia was recorded in 2006),[7]:13 Dark Before Dawn is the first album with Burnley credited as the producer. The singer elaborated:

"Listen, other people will give you their versions of things, and I can't help that, but I myself am entitled to my own version, and I would say that I did the same amount of producing on this album as I've done on other albums, just never had my name [on it]. So, that was basically a really conscious decision for me, to be like, 'You know, I'm not doing anything different here than I have done in the past. Why shouldn't I be known to be doing it? You know, why shouldn't I get the credit for something that I'm actually doing?' So I just basically did it, and I didn't tell anybody, whereas the process before was, I would tell people that I was getting ready to do it, then we would gear up to do it, and then people would get involved, and the credit would go wherever. So I just didn't tell a single soul I was doing it, I just did it in my own studio, and it was great."[9]

Guitarist Keith Wallen and bassist Aaron Bruch performed all of the background vocals on Dark Before Dawn, unlike previous albums on which Burnley performed his own. Burnley stated that background vocals were worked on the most in regard to producing, elaborating on That Metal Show, "Because, guitars are guitars, you know, I mean, what are you gonna do, you can tune them and all these things, but singing is a totally different animal so that's where we spent a lot of time. Because when you're playing guitar you can kinda let your style come through, but if you're singing [along with] somebody you kind of have to sound like them for it to really gel, so they really altered, I guess their personality." Bruch added, "It's things like inflection, and vibrato, and making sure you bring it the same."[10]

Music

For Dark Before Dawn Burnley was the primary songwriter, the singer stating that "I don't want to reinvent the wheel. [...] I think fans are noticing that the band hasn't changed, because I'm the main songwriter, I always have been, and my process — it's not gonna change."[11] The album has primarily been described as hard rock,[8][12][13][14] alternative metal,[12][14] and post-grunge.[13] M.K. Sealy from MusicSnake said of the music, "For those who have enjoyed Breaking Benjamin's previous albums, the sound of Dark Before Dawn will be unsettlingly familiar. As a whole, Dark Before Dawn feels and sounds as if the band has fine-tuned Phobia, some of the instrumentation making the listener pause and consider if they've heard the song on a previous album. Regardless of its familiarity, Dark Before Dawn offers [listeners] an incredible, lyrical journey, and the album is thoroughly enjoyable."[15]

Promotion and release
"Failure"
Sample of the album's lead single "Failure" as released on March 20, 2015.
Problems playing this file? See media help.

On March 18, 2015, both the album and its lead single "Failure" were announced for release on June 23 and March 23, respectively.[16] The album's second and third singles, "Angels Fall" and "Defeated", were released on April 14[17] and May 12,[18] respectively. Prior to the album's release, in April 2015, the band went on a short North American tour with English alternative rock band Young Guns, who were also promoting their 2015 album Ones and Zeros.[19] The album was streamed early on June 16 via iTunes First Play.[20]

Reception

Critical response

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
About.com[14]
AllMusic[13]
Alternative Addiction[21]
The Citizens' Voicepositive[22]
Melodic[23]
Revolver3/5[24]
SF Weeklynegative[25]
Ultimate Guitar Archive7.6/10[26]
Punk News1.5/5[27]

The album received generally positive critical reception, with many critics praising the band for staying true to their usual sound, though others have criticized the album for being too similar to their previous work. It received a positive review from AllMusic's James Monger, noting that "as thick, smartly-produced, largely inoffensive blasts of generic hard rock go, you could do a lot worse, and longtime fans will appreciate the fact that Burnley and his new shipmates stay true to the band's unwavering allegiance to all things late-'90s/early-2000s post-grunge/hard rock", but also adding that "it's hard to conceal the fact that most of these songs are nearly interchangeable with the band's older material."[13] Tom Spinelli at Melodic praised the album as staying true to the sound of their previous material, stating "Overall this album is everything you would expect and more from the band. Breaking Benjamin is one of those bands that shouldn't really change their sound, they don't need to."[23]

The Citizens' Voice writer Kristen Gaydos gave the album a positive review, stating that "Dark Before Dawn falls in nicely with the band's back catalog, laying the groundwork for the band's second era."[22] SF Weekly writer Matt Saincome gave the disc a negative review, saying, "The only reprieve on this album comes in the form of track 10, "Ashes of Eden," an acoustic love song that is functional, palatable, and proves that it's the stylistic choices that make the rest of Dark Before Dawn unbearable to anyone with a halfway decent music taste."[25]

Commercial performance

Dark Before Dawn debuted at No. 1 on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 141,000 equivalent album units in its first week of release. 135,000 of that total were pure album sales. It is the first Billboard 200 chart-topping release of the band's career.[12] By March 2, 2016, Dark Before Dawn had sold over 325,000 copies in the United States.[28]

Track listing

Writing credits adapted from album booklet liner notes.[7]

No. TitleWriter(s) Length
1. "Dark"  Jasen Rauch 2:10
2. "Failure"  Benjamin Burnley 3:34
3. "Angels Fall"  Burnley 3:48
4. "Breaking the Silence"  Burnley 3:01
5. "Hollow"  Burnley 3:51
6. "Close to Heaven"  Burnley 4:09
7. "Bury Me Alive"  Burnley 4:04
8. "Never Again"  Burnley, Rauch, Keith Wallen 3:43
9. "The Great Divide"  Burnley 4:12
10. "Ashes of Eden"  Burnley 4:53
11. "Defeated"  Burnley, Rauch 3:25
12. "Dawn"  Rauch 1:52
Total length:
 42:42[29]

Personnel

Personnel adapted from album booklet liner notes.[7]

Performing musicians
Management
  • Rich Egan for Hard 8 Management
  • Jordan Feldstein, Adam Harrison, and John Scholz for Career Artist Management
  • Matthew Bonney and Maggie Cusimano for Citrin Cooperman – business management
  • David Byrnes for Ziffren Brittenham LLP – legal
  • Andy Somers for APA – booking
Production
  • Benjamin Burnley – composer, producer, digital editing, engineer, orchestration
  • Jasen Rauch – composer on "Dark", "Never Again", "Defeated", and "Dawn"
  • Keith Wallen – composer on "Never Again"
  • Dave Eggar – orchestration on "Ashes of Eden"
  • Chuck Palmer – orchestration on "Ashes of Eden"
  • John Bender – engineering, digital editing, recording
  • Dan Korneff – engineering, digital editing
  • Jim Romano – engineering, digital editing
  • Ben Grosse – mixing for "Dark", "Breaking the Silence", "Hollow", "Close to Heaven", "Bury Me Alive", "The Great Divide", "Defeated", and "Dawn"
    • Paul Pavao – additional assistance
  • Chris Lord-Alge, Keith Armstrong, Nik Harpen – mixing for "Failure", "Angels Fall", "Never Again", and "Ashes of Eden"
    • Adam Chagnon – additional assistance
  • Ted Jensen – mastering
Artwork
  • Tom Jermann for t42design – art direction and design
  • Nicole Napier – cover art and interior photography

Charts

Chart (2015) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[30] 11
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[31] 49
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[32] 113
Canadian Albums (Billboard)[33] 1
Dutch Albums (MegaCharts)[34] 66
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[35] 34
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[36] 11
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[37] 66
UK Albums (OCC)[38] 34
US Billboard 200[39] 1

References

  1. ↑ Sisak, Michael; Gaydos, Kristen (August 2, 2011). "Breaking Benjamin broken over song dispute". The Citizens' Voice. Times–Shamrock NEPA. Archived from the original on June 30, 2015.
  2. ↑ Sisak, Michael (August 3, 2011). "Judge moves Breaking Benjamin dispute to arbitrator". The Citizens' Voice. Times–Shamrock NEPA. Archived from the original on April 5, 2015.
  3. ↑ Childers, Chad (April 20, 2013). "Breaking Benjamin Frontman Benjamin Burnley Retains Rights to Band's Name". Loudwire. Diffuser Network. Archived from the original on June 26, 2015.
  4. ↑ Schoof, Dustin (March 23, 2015). "Breaking Benjamin releases first single in more than four years; listen to 'Failure' here". Lehigh Valley Live. PennLive LLC. Archived from the original on June 23, 2015.
  5. ↑ Trunk, Eddie (June 23, 2015). Breaking Benjamin LIVE Chat on YouTube Space NY featuring host Eddie Trunk from "That Metal Show" (interview video). YouTube Space, New York City: YouTube. Event occurs at 13m12s. Archived from the original on July 1, 2015.
  6. ↑ "Full Metal Jackie" (April 9, 2015). "Breaking Benjamin's Ben Burnley Talks 'Dark Before Dawn', New Lineup + More". Loudwire. Diffuser Network. Archived from the original on July 1, 2015.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Dark Before Dawn (booklet liner notes). Breaking Benjamin. Ocean City, New Jersey: Hollywood Records. June 23, 2015. D002142492.
  8. 1 2 Wiederhorn, Jon (July 1, 2015). "Breaking Benjamin Battle Mystery Illness on Painful Road to Number One". Rolling Stone. Jann Wenner. Archived from the original on July 4, 2015.
  9. ↑ Trunk, Eddie (June 23, 2015). Breaking Benjamin LIVE Chat on YouTube Space NY featuring host Eddie Trunk from "That Metal Show" (interview video). YouTube Space, New York City: YouTube. Event occurs at 19m03s. Archived from the original on July 1, 2015.
  10. ↑ Trunk, Eddie (June 23, 2015). Breaking Benjamin LIVE Chat on YouTube Space NY featuring host Eddie Trunk from "That Metal Show" (interview video). YouTube Space, New York City: YouTube. Event occurs at 24m13s. Archived from the original on July 1, 2015.
  11. ↑ KSHE Staff (April 16, 2015). "Breaking Benjamin issues new song called 'Angels Fall'". K-SHE '95. Emmis Communications. Archived from the original on May 18, 2015.
  12. 1 2 3 Lipshutz, Jason (July 2, 2015). "How Did Breaking Benjamin Sell So Many Albums Last Week?". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Archived from the original on July 4, 2015.
  13. 1 2 3 4 Monger, James (June 23, 2015). "Dark Before Dawn - Breaking Benjamin Overview". AllMusic. All Media Network. Archived from the original on July 1, 2015.
  14. 1 2 3 Marsicano, Dan (June 23, 2015). "Breaking Benjamin Dark Before Dawn Review". About Entertainment. Archived from the original on July 1, 2015.
  15. ↑ Sealy, M.K. (July 22, 2015). "Breaking Benjamin: 'Dark Before Dawn' Album Review". MusicSnake. Archived from the original on June 27, 2015.
  16. ↑ KSHE Staff (March 18, 2015). "New Breaking Benjamin album out in June; single coming next week". KSHE. Emmis Communications. Archived from the original on March 27, 2015.
  17. ↑ Childers, Chad (April 14, 2015). "Breaking Benjamin releases new song 'Angels Fall'". Loudwire. Diffuser Network. Retrieved April 18, 2015.
  18. ↑ Childers, Chad (May 14, 2015). "Breaking Benjamin Unveil New Song 'Defeated' Ahead of Album Release". Loudwire. Diffuser Network. Retrieved May 14, 2015.
  19. ↑ http://www.redbull.com/us/en/music/stories/1331716265561/listen-young-guns-daylight-song-premire-interview
  20. ↑ Childers, Chad (June 17, 2015). "Breaking Benjamin Streaming ‘Dark Before Dawn’ Album Ahead of Release". Loudwire. Diffuser Network. Retrieved June 21, 2015.
  21. ↑ "Album Review of Dark Before Dawn by Breaking Benjamin". Alternative Addiction. June 23, 2015. Retrieved June 30, 2015.
  22. 1 2 Gaydos, Kristen (June 18, 2015). "Album review: Breaking Benjamin sticks to signature sound on "Dark Before Dawn"". The Citizens' Voice. Times–Shamrock NEPA. Retrieved June 21, 2015.
  23. 1 2 Spinelli, Tom. "Breaking Benjamin - Dark Before Dawn". Melodic. Retrieved June 23, 2015.
  24. ↑ Borjon, Jeremy (June 16, 2015). "Review: Breaking Benjamin – Dark Before Dawn". Revolver. NewBay Media. Retrieved June 30, 2015.
  25. 1 2 Saincome, Matt (June 17, 2015). "Stuck in Traffic with Breaking Benjamin". SF Weekly. San Francisco Newspaper Company. Retrieved June 21, 2015.
  26. ↑ http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/reviews/compact_discs/breaking_benjamin/dark_before_dawn/index.html
  27. ↑ http://www.punknews.org/review/13694/breaking-benjamin-dark-before-dawn
  28. ↑ Brown, Matt (March 2, 2016). "Metal By Numbers 3/2: Can you dig it?". Metal Insider. Retrieved March 2, 2015.
  29. ↑ "iTunes - Music Breaking Benajmin - Dark Before Dawn - iTunes". iTunes. Retrieved June 23, 2015.
  30. ↑ "Australiancharts.com – Breaking Benjamin – Dark Before Dawn". Hung Medien. Retrieved June 27, 2015.
  31. ↑ "Austriancharts.at – Breaking Benjamin – Dark Before Dawn" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved June 27, 2015.
  32. ↑ "Ultratop.be – Breaking Benjamin – Dark Before Dawn" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved June 27, 2015.
  33. ↑ "Breaking Benjamin – Chart history" Billboard Canadian Albums Chart for Breaking Benjamin. Retrieved June 27, 2015.
  34. ↑ "Dutchcharts.nl – Breaking Benjamin – Dark Before Dawn" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved June 27, 2015.
  35. ↑ "Longplay-Chartverfolgung at Musicline" (in German). Musicline.de. Phononet GmbH. Retrieved June 27, 2015.
  36. ↑ "Charts.org.nz – Breaking Benjamin – Dark Before Dawn". Hung Medien. Retrieved June 27, 2015.
  37. ↑ "Swisscharts.com – Breaking Benjamin – Dark Before Dawn". Hung Medien. Retrieved June 27, 2015.
  38. ↑ "Breaking Benjamin | Artist | Official Charts". UK Albums Chart Retrieved June 29, 2015.
  39. ↑ "Breaking Benjamin – Chart history" Billboard 200 for Breaking Benjamin. Retrieved June 27, 2015.
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