Breaking Benjamin released Dear Agony on September 29, 2009. Their fourth studio album marked a change in how Benjamin Burnley worked: it was the first he wrote and recorded completely sober. The band reunited with producer David Bendeth, and lead single “I Will Not Bow” introduced the record before its arrival through Hollywood Records.
In a 2010 interview with WatchMojo, Burnley explained that alcohol had been part of how he sought inspiration. Writing without it forced him to judge his work differently. A lyric that bothered him could no longer become acceptable after another drink. He felt the resulting album was more personal and focused, while still leaving enough ambiguity for listeners to find their own meaning.
His basic method began with chords and a vocal melody. Riffs and more intricate guitar parts developed around that foundation, with lyrics arriving last. Burnley distinguished the album's thematic focus from earlier records, where he felt connections between songs had happened more by coincidence.
He also found someone who understood the music with unusually little explanation. Burnley told The Weekender that RED guitarist Jasen Rauch had shared early material with him after their bands toured together. Rauch's ideas fit his approach, reducing the work of reshaping another writer's contributions. As Burnley put it, “we’re like the same person.”
Their work reached four songs. Rauch contributed the outro after the final chorus of “I Will Not Bow” and a riff and other material for “Lights Out.” He and Burnley also wrote “Hopeless” and “Without You” together. Those contributions put the partnership inside both the album's lead single and its closing song.
Bendeth provided continuity in the studio. Dear Agony was his third consecutive album with Breaking Benjamin, and he produced and mixed the record. At the House of Loud, Burnley had equipment available to pursue the sounds he imagined, but he placed the song itself ahead of those additions: it needed to work on an acoustic guitar before the studio embellishments mattered. The cover featured a scan of his own brain, another personal element of the release.
The album entered the Billboard 200 at No. 4. Its writing partnership also lasted beyond the recording: by the band's 2015 return with Dark Before Dawn, Rauch had joined Breaking Benjamin as a guitarist. The musician Burnley had welcomed as an outside collaborator was part of the rebuilt band.
The title song received a different treatment on Aurora, released January 24, 2020. Burnley described the project as an opportunity to revisit songs that mattered to the band and its listeners, encouraging fans to remember the circumstances in which they first heard them. Lacey Sturm joined him for an acoustic version of “Dear Agony.” In the release announcement, Sturm described connecting deeply with its lyrics when Burnley invited her to sing, calling the experience “revelatory and healing.”
