Breaking Benjamin is gearing up to release their next album, which will mark their first project of 5 years. The last time the band, which currently consists of members Keith Wallen, Jasen Rauch, Aaron Bruch, Shaun Foist, and Benjamin Burnley, dropped a collection of all-new material was in 2018 with Ember.
While speaking with Radioactive MikeZ, host of the 96.7 KCAL-FM program Wired In The Empire, Breaking Benjamin guitarist Wallen confirmed that he and the band are crossing their fingers that new music will be out in the next 12 months.
“One hundred percent, yeah. We’ve always been kind of writing and kind of chronicling some ideas over the past few years — through the pandemic, all that stuff, we’ve always been writing,” he explained. “But, here, recently, it started to pick up a little bit. So I’m hoping — hoping — there’s gonna be some new music out sometime within the next year.”
“That’s a nice, safe answer. I could say a month, I could say two months, but I’m gonna say a year, just because it’s been so long,” he continued. “I don’t wanna screw ourselves somehow; I don’t know.”
Adding to that hype, Wallen noted that the band has already completed a number of tracks in the studio. So much so that some of the songs are already ready to go.
“We’ve got some stuff in the works,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of music recorded. Ben (the band’s frontman) just posted yesterday — he just tracked some vocals for a song. So, yeah. We’re getting there. We move at our own pace here, much to the dismay of a lot of people, I’ve noticed, online. It’s awesome. It’s exciting. And man, I can’t wait to get it out there finally.”
The latest news comes after Breaking Benjamin’s Rauch also shared excitement about working with the band on new material.
“We are working on music,” he told Michigan’s 97.9 WGRD earlier this year. “ We’ve been writing for quite a while. And regardless of whether we were able to record anything or not, we’ve been writing for a little over a year, I would say.”
Jasen Rauch also went on to say that the group took a variety of directions, experimenting with new sounds, as they continue to “keep the bar pretty high for ourselves as far as the standard is moving forward.”
“So, yeah, we’ve been in the studio,” he assured. “We did some in Nashville. We’ve done a lot of stuff remotely. Ben and I have dozens and dozens of voice memos going back, ‘Hey, try this. Try this.’ And we’ll record something and send it back and forth. But, yeah, we’re looking forward to it. And hopefully, we’ll have something out soon for everybody to hear.”
Indeed, Breaking Benjamin has a lot to live up to since their previously released, Ember, enjoyed success. The album produced two No. 1 hits on Active Rock Radio. They included “Red Cold River” and “Torn In Two.” The album also marked Breaking Benjamin’s fourth Top 5 debut on Billboard’s Top 200 chart, debuting at the No. 3 spot.
New music aside, Breaking Benjamin recently completed a headlining tour alongside Bush. The trek launched on April 26, in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and wrapped on May 27, in Knoxville, Tennessee. The band has continued to stay on the road, playing shows with Disturbed, as part of their 36-date Take Back Your Life North American tour, which began on April 27. Breaking Benjamin is featured on select dates of the tour, which wraps up on Sept. 2 in Noblesville, IN.
