Dark Before Dawn

Dark Before Dawn is the fifth studio 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, with many critics praising the album for staying true to the group's established sound, although others criticized it for sounding derivative and formulaic. Burnley described that he did not want to "reinvent the wheel" with the album. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, the group's first in their catalog, earning 141,000 album-equivalent units in its first week, making it heretofore the group's most successful sales effort. The album was released to much greater international chart success than previous albums; until Dark Before Dawn, the band had never charted outside North America or New Zealand. 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 guitarist Aaron Fink and bassist Mark Klepaski. 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.