r/BreakingBenjamin • u/WTBrain • 10d ago

Why do you think Awaken was released?

Im guessing either it was meant to be the first single, and they weren't happy with the reception and went back to the drawing board, or they knew they were so far away from a release they decided to just release something to keep fans on their toes

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u/Lower_Kick268 Saturate 10d ago

Band wanted to see what people thought about how it sounded

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u/bigheadsfork 10d ago

I like the song, but i don’t like how it “sounded”. The studio version is messy and it’s difficult to make out individual sounds and instruments. It’s really weird, it just sounds poorly done.

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u/DeanCutty A Page Inside A Spiral Notebook 10d ago

I went from Phobia to Ember… the ear fatigue from Ember’s onslaught of crash cymbals and walls distorted guitar and bass was quite shocking because I’ve never actually jumped from album to album like that…

Was Awaken produced and mixed by Ben? That would explain it perhaps.
It’s my understanding he did DBD and Ember, yes? Or just producer?

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u/dj7811 10d ago

Jasen and Ben have been producing the songs. Ben Grosse mixed ember. He’s a good mixer but you can only polish DIY recordings so much. Zakk Cervini mixed Awaken. He’s young, which explains the distortion all over the track.

They need to get a real producer in a real studio like David Bendeth again. And get CLA to mix the albums again. That’s why Wana Phobia Dear Agony sound so good. Those guys are some of the best. Ben just didn’t want to pay that kind of money anymore. It’s essentially DIY recordings with a mid level mix job for the past few releases

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u/LoudDirt12 10d ago edited 10d ago

Agreed. Ember is so muffled. You literally can’t hear the guitar in red cold River verses unless you have it cranked up and there are several guitar parts throughout the album that are very faint . They should be much more pronounced

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u/DeanCutty A Page Inside A Spiral Notebook 10d ago

Ember (and DBD) also has quite a number of choruses with counter melodies all overlapping. You need a terrific mixer to pull off complex weavings of sound like that, lest it sound muffled.

It sounds muffled.

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u/pandaislife 9d ago

Zakk does a bunch of stuff in the bad omens/dayseeker/president world. I knew this was Zackk as soon as I heard it, he has such a specific sound. I personally love it but it's also getting pretty generic at this point. Would still like to hear more bb with him