Breaking Benjamin released “Awaken” on October 16, 2024, beginning their recording partnership with BMG after more than two decades with Hollywood Records. The single introduced music the band had continued developing between tours, with singer Benjamin Burnley determined to give each song enough time to feel complete.
Their previous album of new material, Ember, had arrived in 2018. The 2020 collection Aurora revisited older songs and included the new track “Far Away,” so the intervening years had included both recording and touring. “Awaken” nevertheless marked a substantial change in how their music reached listeners. Released through Benjamin Burnley Recording under an exclusive license to BMG, it followed the announcement of their new label agreement the previous day.
Burnley described some of the reasons behind the wait in an October 2024 interview with 93X’s Pablo. Although he habitually saved musical fragments on his phone, he had found the pandemic creatively unproductive. Touring presented another obstacle: when he was on the road, writing lyrics and instrumental parts did not come naturally. Work had to fit into the time away from shows, and he wanted every song to receive the same attention.
That patience extended to the arrangement of “Awaken.” In 2025, Rauch told Billboard’s Behind the Setlist that “Awaken” underwent changes to lyrics, key and tempo, with its verses written twice. Burnley, Rauch and guitarist Keith Wallen shared songwriting credits. Burnley and Rauch also produced the recording, with Zakk Cervini handling mixing and mastering.
Burnley described experimentation as part of the band’s regular process, including changes in amplifiers, guitars and recording methods. He recognized that listeners wanted different things from Breaking Benjamin: some valued familiarity, while others wanted a larger departure. His approach was to keep writing naturally and work through those choices within the songs. By the time “Awaken” was released, he felt they had exhausted what they could do to improve it. As he told Pablo, “it was absolutely our best effort.”
Finishing the recording did not eliminate the nerves surrounding its reception. Speaking with ABC Audio in January 2025, Rauch described releasing the single as “pretty nerve-racking.” Commercial performance was only part of his concern. He wanted listeners to form the kind of attachment they already had to favorite Breaking Benjamin songs, then feel compelled to share the discovery with friends. Support based solely on the band’s name would not have satisfied that ambition.
The radio response followed quickly. “Awaken” became Breaking Benjamin’s eighth No. 1 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart in December 2024. It remained at the top for four weeks, giving the band a chart leader with its first BMG release.
