issue 27 // vol 44

Phe Rw AA CO

Heavier, melancholier, but definitely
still Breaking Benjamin

> ‘Ember’ album review

Caroline Ho
Arts Editor

kkk

Ben Benjamin’s new album Ember
isn't the most innovative record
they've ever released, but long-time fans
of the hard rockers will find comfort in

 

their characteristic grungy intensity.
Ember is no magnum opus, nor
is it the triumphant return after a six-
year hiatus and major lineup change
that 2015's Dark Before Dawn was. Yet
it is powerful and emotional, with its
heavy songs hitting harder and deeper
than before, with its softer sounds
attaining a greater poignancy, to create

one refined, well-assembled record.

The album has a total run time
of 38 minutes and 45 seconds over 12
tracks, including one brief instrumental
intro track and a slightly longer outro.
Of the 10 remaining songs, most of
them delve deeply—thematically and
lyrically—into the self-reflective angst
that one expects from Breaking Benjamin.
However, whereas previous records
invoked a sense of gritty resilience in the
face of devastation, this one resonates
with a more sombre, desolate note.
Unfortunately, the message and musical

imagery get a little repetitive by the end.
“Feed the Wolf,” the first track

after the intro, is a powerful, heavy-

hitting start, with a strong riff and a

chorus that overlays frontman Ben

Burnley’s melodic, clean vocals with

Podcasts, bad dreams,
and murderous schemes

> ‘Nutshell’ novel review

Ethan Gibson
Contributor

krekenkn

Ave: have given us countless
interesting, loveable, despicable,
or otherwise beguiling narrators.
Often, an intriguing narrator is what
draws us towards a novel in the first
place. I found that to be the case with
Ian McEwan’s 2016 novel Nutshell.

It’s essentially a modern-day
retelling of Shakespeare's classic tragedy
Hamlet, but with an intriguing twist:
The novel is narrated by a fetus. He
learns, through eavesdropping (he can
do little else), that his mother and his
uncle are plotting to kill his father.
Those familiar with the original play
will already see the parallels, but others
will, I think, enjoy it all the same.

It has all the power of Shakespeare
combined with the incredible
storytelling skills of McEwan, who is
best known for the novel Atonement,
which was later adapted to film.

McEwan’s narrator is no

 

raw, forceful growls—a vocal balance

that carries throughout the album.
Burnley’s screams are particularly
strong in lead single “Red Cold River”
It’s clear that family has become a big
deal for Burnley, whose first child was
born in 2014, since the music video for
this single shows a father searching
desperately for his missing daughter. The
bandleader’s devotion to familial bonds

imbues the track with utmost intensity.
Some of the tracks off Ember
sound naggingly familiar to a listener
who knows Breaking Benjamin’s prior
catalogue. “Tourniquet,” “Psycho,”
“Down,” and “Blood” sound almost like
direct, derivative, heavier continuations
of the band’s two previous albums.
“Tourniquet” especially is reminiscent of
“Bury Me Alive” from Dark Before Dawn,
both sonically and thematically, with
the same subject of being smothered
beneath an antagonist (whether an

inner demon or a toxic lover).

“The Dark of You,’ in the middle of
the track list of Ember, is a refreshing
change of pace as a softer, slower-paced,
resonantly melodic tune. The chorus’
mellow, yet intense “Fade away to the
wicked world we left” is chillingly moving,
yet this song’s balladic quality doesn’t at all

detract from the momentum of the album.
One of the strongest tracks is “Torn

in Two.” Although its introduction

sounds almost identical to “Breaking

the Silence” off Dark Before Dawn,

“Torn in Two” swiftly makes up for it

ignorant child; he already has a fully-
formed, intelligent personality. The
protagonist’s vocabulary is endlessly
impressive, and he’s equipped with

a dry wit which lends the novel a
superbly dark sense of humour.

The novel opens with the following
exposition: “So here I am, upside down
in a woman.” Frustrated by his lack of
agency, yet relentlessly opinionated,
the narrator is one of the most
memorable I have ever encountered.

Nutshell is also packed with
suspense—it’s a psychological thriller
unlike any other. Despite being
inspired by one of Shakespeare’s
most famous tragedies, Nutshell still
manages to surprise and delight.

For those who look to novels for
social commentary, Nutshell won't
disappoint. The unborn narrator has
learned about the world around him
(our world) from news broadcasts and
podcasts—the same ways that many of
us receive information. He has a lot to
say about the issues we currently face,
and, as eager as he is to join the world,
he is also filled with trepidation. News
of the refugee crisis, climate change,

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through verses sung with a touch of Just close your eyes.” Comparatively
cynical acrimony, a syncopated rhythm cheery, but it’s an unexceptional
that begs revisiting on replays, and ending as a lead-in to the minute-and-
lyrical harmonizing in the chorus. a-half-long instrumental finale.
“Save Yourself” is another swift, Ember brings a solid sound,
driving track that embodies the record’s but regrettably, nothing from it
grim resignation toward a bitter end. particularly stands out—on the album
Angry, grow1-filled verses jump keys itself, or from Breaking Benjamin’s
into the unexpectedly energetic, lilting established repertoire, aside from the
chorus. The track flows smoothly into stepping up of heaviness. However,
“Close Your Eyes,” which is similar the slight derivativeness of their
in quick tempo but one of the most songs also makes them infectiously
positive tracks on this darker record, catchy, so repeated re-listens may
with a final promise of “Hold on / just churn up a deeper appreciation.
hold on / I will keep you here inside /
THE NUMBER
ONE BESTSELLER
and other global crises
fill him first with dread,
and then with defiant
optimism. He remarks
that “pessimism is too
easy, delicious even,
the badge and plume of
intellectuals everywhere
... We'll always be
troubled by how things
are—that’s how it stands ‘HILARIOUS... MORDANTLY ENTERTAINING
with the difficult gift AND EXHILARATINGLY INTELLIGENT
of consciousness.”
We might be able
to learn something from
this innocent narrator, .
who describes himself as a a 3
a “blank slate.” Nutshell g
is entertaining, but it 8
also imparts a valuable =
message about tragedies £
in fiction and reality. 3
When the news acts as .

a constant stream of

grim pessimism, when we feel that the
world is broken, we're tempted to look
away, to give up. Novels like Nutshell
remind us not to lose hope, and to

act when we can, if we can. McEwan’s

narrator might be powerless, but we
are not. As an update and adaptation of
Hamlet, Nutshell reaffirms the power
of stories to influence each other,

to be told and retold, and to help us
understand our tempestuous world.