The album's creation was heavily affected by the band's earlier rise to fame, complications, and struggles with depression.[4] The band received a quick rise to fame with the release of a Taylor Swiftcover of the song "Blank Space", followed by their debut album, Lifelines. However, in 2017, frontman Brian Burkheiser had a polyp in his vocal cords, halting their 2017 tour and momentum; this caused Burkheiser to spiral into depression. Despite the band almost breaking up during this time, they instead found inspiration to make an album around the concepts they had been struggling with.[5][4][6] The album's emphasis on mental health was also inspired by the death of Kyle Pavone of We Came as Romans, of which the band had toured with in 2017.[7] Guitarist Dylan Bowman outlined the album in comparison to Lifelines:
"Lifelines was about what happens in the wake of getting popular off of the cover we released on our current album. Lifelines is a continuation of that, and how it affects our lives. Trauma is more along the lines of the things that have happened since we have been touring and relationships that have been severed because of our lifestyle and how we’re away from home. A lot of people don’t realise how hard it is to keep a relationship when you’re gone nine months out of the year."[6]
The band spent 10 months of 2018 recording the album.[7][8]
Sound and composition
Band member Eric Vanlerberghe described the band's approach to the album:
This is probably the most eclectic we could've sounded on a record. We don't want to scare people away and say, 'It doesn't have metal on it, it doesn't have rock on it.' But with all these musicians and artists saying rock and roll and metal is dead, we just wanted to write a record that was a big middle finger to them all... not every song is gonna be a riff-driven song, but we didn't just drop all the rock out of it and go to a pop record. We wanted to stay true to our roots, but experiment and evolve...don't say rock is dead because there are ways to make rock fresh and different.[5]
He also said that the band was entirely in control of the album's sound and direction unlike their prior album, Lifelines, which the band felt received too much outside input on its direction.[5] The band sought to create a more original sound after the common criticism that the band's talents were squandered under the "cookie-cutter", generic sound of Lifelines.[9] Guitarist Dylan Bowman described the approach as pushing the limits of the band's sound in two directions, both as its most poppy, and its most heavy.[6]
Release
On February 19, 2019, the band announced that their forthcoming album was called Trauma.[10][11] Three songs and music videos were released in advance of the album: "Breaking Down" and "Bow Down" in February, and "Paranoid" in March.[12] The album was released on March 29, 2019.[13] It debuted at number four on the BillboardTop Album Sales chart. It placed at number 14 overall on the Billboard 200 chart, which factors in music streaming and album equivalent units.[14] As of March 2020, the album has earned 181,000 album equivalent units.[15]
A music video for "Hurricane" was released shortly after the album's release as well.[16]
The album was generally well received. Wall of Sound praised the band's efforts to "push musical boundaries", praising the album for instill[ing] a newfound appreciation of how absolutely talented these guys are because the way every song manages to stand so well on their own has to be highly praised. I Prevail have definitely outdone themselves, redefining their sound.[20]Loudwire named the album one of the best rock albums so far in a mid-year review of 2019.[21]
