Breaking Benjamin - Ember (2018)

[Blzer]

To my surprise, this released yesterday. I'll be picking it up today. Trying to avoid hearing any of the tracks before I get it. Supposed to be heavier than their previous albums, but still maintain their sound.

Interested to hear impressions on this one.

[doubledeuceR6]

Re: Breaking Benjamin - Ember (2018)

To my surprise, this released yesterday. I'll be picking it up today. Trying to avoid hearing any of the tracks before I get it. Supposed to be heavier than their previous albums, but still maintain their sound.

Interested to hear impressions on this one.

I really like it, definitely a bit darker/heavier feeling than previous stuff but you still know it's breaking benjamin. Always been a big fan of them, probably my second favorite band behind Chevelle.

[Blzer]

Re: Breaking Benjamin - Ember (2018)

So I've given this a week and at least like twenty play-throughs (sometimes on shuffle). I've also read along to the lyrics of the songs from the booklet (the second line in the song Blood is missing, and sporadically throughout the album there are some words that I am convinced don't match what Ben is singing).

Knowing it was heavy to begin with was a good thing. It got me in the right mood and not sitting there wondering what other kind of song I should be getting here and there. Even somebody who hates things like mainstream FM radio will sometimes pine for that one "radio-friendly single" that helps sell the album for the non-BB heads (think something like Give Me A Sign), but when one didn't really show up in this one I was more than okay with it.

This album is loud, and you're rewarded when you play it loud and on a good sound system. The instruments come in nice and clearly, and the new band members really got to play with their instruments more, specifically the drummer and bassist. I believe they were a part of the songwriting process this time around, so when they catch the light they are pretty cool moments and would be awesome to hear live.

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Let me get my tiers out of the way, not regarding the overall quality of the songs themselves to other music anywhere, but just in the album.

My favorite songs on this album are: Lyra + Feed the Wolf, Tourniquet, Psycho, Torn In Two, Close Your Eyes (without Vega)

Close behind those are: The Dark of You, Down, Save Yourself

Two that haven't totally grabbed me yet are: Red Cold River, Blood

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I have some negatives from this album though, and I’ll kind of just ramble about them:

Spoiler

- Many of the songs don't find their unique chord in the beginning, differentiating themselves from the others. At times I sit there wondering which song it is I am jumping into. I know that several of the songs have something that does distinguish it just based on the way it literally begins, but the main head-banging riff just sounds like the same ol' instruments and notes in a way. Not only that, but there are some songs that I say I know I like, but if somebody asked me "how it goes," I actually might be hard-pressed to come up with a general part of the song in the verses or chorus. Some of them I'm fine with, others not so much. Finally, if I were to bet my life on somebody playing a random ten second soundbite from any one of these songs and asking me which it was, I may end up dying as a result. The songs are good, but not yet incredibly memorable.

- Just like Dark Before Dawn, it has an intro and outro track. Thankfully this time, they actually connect with tracks #2 and #11. But when playing this on shuffle, unless I merge them together (which I can't on their CD), then I won't be able to hear one stem from the other if I don't "unshuffle" it, or I'll get Feed the Wolf without that badass opening of Lyra and then I'm just stuck. But it also just pains me to expect I'm getting twelve tracks out of my CD and then find out that I'm once again duped with only ten in reality, again just like DBD. Anyway, Vega is kind of nice when listening to the album as a whole and having it finish things off, but when played simply alongside Close Your Eyes, I'm actually preferring CYE alone rather than adding Vega to it.

- I’m not really referring to the mix when I say this, but rather the song arrangements (and this kind of ties in with what I noted to begin with): in an auditory sense—both instrumentally and vocally—this album is severely lacking dynamics. Most songs are just incredibly loud. It doesn’t allow the transition from verse to chorus always be a very memorable one. Only some songs make such a distinction, and it tends to pay off well for those that do. This was the problem with Alter Bridge’s most recent album, whereas a song like My Champion (although lyrically a bit bland) should have sent chills down my spine by the time that the chorus would rise up to sheer epicness. These songs really just hit the wall at you and don’t give those layers. Most of my favorite Breaking Benjamin songs really hit that dynamic flow well. For a band that features three guitars, use maybe just one of them during verses (two if you really have to), and then let all three go during those choruses! I think Blood would fare better if its entire chorus had all three guitars at once, but one of them waits out the first couple of lines and then jumps in.

- As far as the mix goes, there are just too many layers and filters. It just sounds very produced, and will not replicate the same way live. There is Ben singing on top of himself a lot, either by harmonizing, going into falsetto (where some of it sounds angelically wonderful and I actually prefer it), screaming behind it, or singing a different set of words entirely. Then there will be Ben moments where he puts his voice behind unnecessary filters. It is just overused, and the natural version of his voice will often just sound much better. Going back to Blood, he sings the chorus fine, but then when he screams “blood” it goes behind a filter and is just an inconsistent sound. Ben is a good screamer, but man sometimes he has to find the right place to do it and the right way to go about including it, and it just didn’t work here all the time. Sometimes I feel he screams just to scream, and the song could fare a lot better without it. The Dark of You has too many voices going on. I know that he is doing a duet alongside a guy who covered Ashes of Eden, but they both sound nearly the same already and it didn’t seem to add too much to it. Ashes of Eden—on the other hand—is mostly just him and a guitar with maybe a violin and some drums. He doesn’t need to repeat that, but he also doesn’t need to change it just for the sake of changing it.

- He’s kind of running out of things to talk about. How many times does he need to say he’s turning into a monster, or rhyme with the word “behind”? Heck, two songs that are three apart from each other in the album have “Hold on… hold on” in the choruses (I love both songs, but it’s like ‘whoops’ lol). Psycho’s chorus is a direct rip from DBD’s Never Again in several ways. Plenty of phrases are far too familiar from other BB songs. Personally, I’m okay with it; I’m probably one of the only people in the world that don’t care if they don’t evolve too much, if at all. That’s why I like them. I’m just having more trouble this time around figuring out how to know the words and riffs of these songs when they can all have a same-y sound to each other or previous BB works. And boy, talk about a missed rhyming opportunity in the beginning of Feed The Wolf when he rhymes the words “within,” “violence,” and “again” (trust me, they all sound the same when he sings it) but puts those up against the word “myself” when he clearly could have just used the phrase “my skin” like he always does, and it would have been just fine! There is another song from a band that whiffs on that when they have the word “silence” and “memories” in a perfect spot where they could have used the word “violence” and all would have fit just fine, haha.

Anyway, I hate to sound like I’m ranting with this album, but these were just too easy to spot and point out. I do really dig this album, and it has been playing in my car for every trip as well as in my home theater setup.

My favorite album of theirs is still Dear Agony followed by Phobia, but with the mix of these tracks this one escalates it really high up there, at least past Dark Before Dawn and Saturate. Definitely a head-banger and something for mighty fans of BB. I don't think this will convert many people though, but the fact that they have stayed away from becoming more rock-pop or something is just excellent within itself. I'm a major fan of theirs and of Ember, and I just hope I can cling onto these songs more in uniquely identifying and recalling every instance of them.

[doubledeuceR6]

Re: Breaking Benjamin - Ember (2018)

Man that is quite the dissection. I'm not nearly intelligent enough to have noticed most of what you pointed out. I'll notice a few similarities here and there sure but nothing to that extent.


Blood is probably my favorite track followed by Save Yourself, Dark of You, and Feed the Wolf.

[Blzer]

Re: Breaking Benjamin - Ember (2018)

Man that is quite the dissection. I'm not nearly intelligent enough to have noticed most of what you pointed out. I'll notice a few similarities here and there sure but nothing to that extent.


Blood is probably my favorite track followed by Save Yourself, Dark of You, and Feed the Wolf.

Haha I'm not a big musically-gifted mind or anything, I've just heard the album plenty of times over so far. It's pretty good and worth still playing.

Save Yourself was in my upper-echelon list, but I figured it felt better to narrow it down to only five and Tourniquet slowly passed it after the past few listens. I do think Save Yourself will come back up the ranks again soon though. I guess I'm just not in love with the verses, but that chorus is fantastic. I also love that little twang right before the choruses.

I don't like how they went back-to-back songs with SY and CYE where neither had a bridge, but just a break between the second and last choruses.

[doubledeuceR6]

Re: Breaking Benjamin - Ember (2018)

Haha I'm not a big musically-gifted mind or anything, I've just heard the album plenty of times over so far. It's pretty good and worth still playing.

Save Yourself was in my upper-echelon list, but I figured it felt better to narrow it down to only five and Tourniquet slowly passed it after the past few listens. I do think Save Yourself will come back up the ranks again soon though. I guess I'm just not in love with the verses, but that chorus is fantastic. I also love that little twang right before the choruses.

I don't like how they went back-to-back songs with SY and CYE where neither had a bridge, but just a break between the second and last choruses.

Yeah I listened to all weekend while I worked in my yard, you're right about the choruses, they are quite catchy. I think that's why I like Blood so much.

Not sure if you're into A Perfect Circle but their new album just released today. I'll be giving it a listen this weekend.

[Blzer]

Re: Breaking Benjamin - Ember (2018)

^ I'll check them out. I think they may have had some songs on Guitar Hero or Rock Band, but they never really won me over.

Anyway, the three biggest highlights of this album for me are:

- Ben's falsetto in the chorus of Feed the Wolf. Makes my nipples hard man.
- Main riff of Psycho (after the 16x SportsCenter-sounding intro riffs). That is heavy as ****. I also love the bass that rips hard before Ben cries "Psycho!" both times in the final chorus.
- The outro of The Dark of You. "Save this selfish world." Chills.

[doubledeuceR6]

Re: Breaking Benjamin - Ember (2018)

- Ben's falsetto in the chorus of Feed the Wolf. Makes my nipples hard man.

Annnnd that'll be my new signature.