Ember (album)

After a string of successful platinum-selling albums in the US throughout the 2000s, the band went into a hiatus shortly after their 2009 album Dear Agony while frontman Benjamin Burnley dealt with a recurring, long-term illness.[2][3] The break ended up being an extended one, with Burnley later taking former band members guitarist Aaron Fink and bassist Mark Klepaski to court over making unauthorized decisions without his consent on the band's 2011 greatest hits album Shallow Bay: The Best of Breaking Benjamin.[4] Burnley won the case, retained the rights to the band and its namesake, and later reformed the band in 2014.[4][3] Material for the band's next album, which was 2015's Dark Before Dawn, was written almost entirely by Burnley, who, towards the end, reformed an entirely new lineup for the band – Jasen Rauch (guitar), Keith Wallen (guitar), Aaron Bruch (bass), and Shaun Foist (drums).[5] Towards the end of the sessions, the band decided to collaborate on a song, which ended up becoming the track "Never Again".[5] The collaboration ended up being such a positive experience that Burnley decided to involve the entire band in the writing process for their next studio album, Ember.[5]

Writing for the album began in 2016, with recording primarily happening in 2017[5] and with Burnley producing.[6] In August 2017, Burnley and Foist announced that the album had been recorded and submitted to their record label, with its release date pending the label's feedback.[7] Dancer and actor Derek Hough (who had previously covered "Ashes of Eden" in a choreographed music video)[8] has an appearance on the album, saying that the opportunity was "a dream come true".[9] Burnley later explained that he reached out to Hough after seeing his cover of "Ashes of Eden", and that the song he features on is titled "The Dark of You".[10]

Burnley jokingly stated that the album was originally supposed to be titled Ass-End, a purposeful play-on-words of the word "ascend", but the record label expressed displeasure with his idea.[11]

Rauch has commented that the album pushes the boundaries with heavier material than the band's past albums, and that "playing-wise, it's the most difficult album".[7] He also noted that the album takes advantage of the three-guitar player dynamic, but still doesn't depart from the band's established sound.[7] Burnley stated that the album's sound moved into a heavier direction, something that was inspired from fan demand for a heavier album, a direction the band was happy to move into anyway.[7] He later described it as an album of extremes, stating that "the heavy side is really heavy" but that "the softer side on this album is really soft" as well.[12]

Burnley first mentioned Ember as the album's name in October 2017,[13] with a more formal and widespread announcement, along with a tentative release date of the second quarter of 2018 occurring in December 2017,[14] later confirmed to be on April 13, 2018.[12] The album's first single, "Red Cold River" was released on January 5, 2018,[15] with a music video later released two weeks later on January 18.[16] After two weeks, the song had peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot Rock Songs chart,[17] and number 21 the Billboard Mainstream Rock Songs chart.[18] The band released a string of promotional songs prior to the album's release, including "Feed the Wolf" on January 25, 2018,[12] "Blood" on February 22,[19] "Psycho" on March 23,[20] and "Save Yourself" on April 5.[21] "Torn in Two" was released alongside a music video on the album's release date, April 13,[22] and was sent to radio as the album's second official single on May 29.[23] On December 13, the band released their music video for the song "Tourniquet". On December 18, 2018, "Tourniquet" was released as their third single.[24]

To promote the album's release, they embarked on a North American tour with Avenged Sevenfold and Bullet for My Valentine in early 2018.[25] They followed up this tour by embarking on a co-headlining tour with Five Finger Death Punch, supported by Nothing More and Bad Wolves.[26]

Credits adapted from album's liner notes.[34]