AR - Ember

The first album review from "Underexposed" goes to an album that was released back in April 2018. That album is "Ember", by Breaking Benjamin.

Breaking Benjamin is a rock band hailing from Wilkes-Barre, PA and has been around since 1999. "Ember" is their sixth album release and yet another great album to add to their collection.

The opening track "Lyra" is simply a short thirty second intro to set up the track "Feed the Wolf". Putting this track as the first true song on the album was a great move by Breaking Benjamin. This dark and up tempo song sets the tone for the album right off the bat up and gets the listener prepared for a hard hitting thirty seven minutes. The pace does not slow at all rolling into the next track which is the first single off Ember, "Red Cold River". I was very excited for this album when Breaking Ben initially released this track. I knew that if this was the direction that the band was going to take, we were in store for a great album.

The next track, "Tourniquet" which just got a music video last week, is yet another hard hitting track. This song is actually one of my favorites off the entire album because of the catchy little guitar hooks found throughout the verses. Not to mention, Ben's vocals are phenomenal, especially in the bridge.

After an insanely fast paced tempo set by the first few tracks, "Psycho" finally slows things down a bit. This track is another typical track that you would expect from them. This is a track that I could easily have seen coming off "Dark Before Dawn". "Psycho" is followed up by another slower track in "The Dark of You". I appreciate this track a lot because it scales back on the hard hitting guitar and drums and focuses more on Ben's vocals and is comparable to "Ashes of Eden". When the track "Down" started, I thought I was in store for another slow track. After a thirty second intro, the pace started to pick back up. "Down", ultimately sets the stage for the second single off the record "Torn in Two", which is my favorite track off the entire record. Between the bass and the catchy guitar riffs, its hard not to like this track.

"Blood" follows "Torn in Two" coming in as the ninth track out of twelve. This song is quite catchy and has some great screams from Ben coming in the chorus of the track. The tenth track "Save Yourself", is a solid track that has a slower vibe like the previous tracks but yet has screams from Ben which is something I enjoy. The last true track off the album is "Close Your Eyes", which is a great way to end the album. It brings the album to a close in a way that only Breaking Ben could. From talking to others about the album and other reviews I have seen, this track doesn't get the amount of praise that it should.

In typical Breaking Ben fashion, the album closes with an instrumental track titled "Vega". Not much to say about this song.

When looking at the album as a whole, it is yet another great record by Breaking Benjamin. This album is what you would expect them to come out with. One of the things that I think makes this record different from their other records is the complexity of the songs. Not to discredit previous songs in any means, but the tracks on Ember bring about more complexity than I am used to seeing from Breaking Ben.

Official Score: 7.2/10

You can listen to "Ember" here: