Alternative rock band, The Killers, released their fourth studio album, “Battle Born,” last month after a year-and-a half hiatus.

Eight years have passed since the release of their first album, “Hot Fuss,” and the band’s sound has truly progressed.

The Killers’s sound has evolved from the punk-pop feel of “Hot Fuss,” to the straightforward country rock of “Sam’s Town,” to the electropop feel of “Day & Age” to a final combination of the three that encompasses the sound of “Battle Born.”

After completing “Day & Age,” the band experienced tragedies that would later affect the sound of “Battle Born.”

The Killers’s frontman Brandon Flowers’s mother died from a two-year battle with brain cancer. In April 2012, Tommy Marth, a saxophonist that they had worked with for their previous two albums, committed suicide.

These deaths had an obvious impact on the sound of The Killers and caused it to be somewhat more emotional and melancholic than previous albums.

There’s a notable lack of fast-paced catchy-pop tunes that riddle their previous albums, and is instead composed of songs that start with a slow tempo and leads into a louder, more emotionally powerful chorus.

This type of song, which is naturally called a power ballad, is the new realm of possibilities that The Killers are exploring, and it’s a welcome change from their incohesive third album, “Day & Age.”

The album opens with “Flesh and Bone,” which welcomes the listeners with synth keyboard notes and leads into echoing harmonies and the deep resonating vocals that Flowers is known for.

The album then features their earlier released single, “Runaways,” which plays up the band’s guitars, keyboard synths and Flowers’s voice in the chorus.

The next song, “The Way It Was,” takes a somber turn and introduces a slower tempo interlaced with intense lyrics that leave the listener emotionally exhausted.

The Killers embrace this in the next four tracks and create a continued heavy-hearted tone that confronts and exhibits their coming-of-age, from the unapologetic pursuers of popularity when “Hot Fuss” was released to a band that openly displays and reveals their doubts.

Many of these songs deal with the sad, unavoidable truths of life: heartbreak, loss, regret, and naivete.

In the fourth track, “Here With Me,” Flowers pines about seeing a past love at a restaurant. Being unable to bring himself to go up to her he sings, “But I saw you in a restaurant, the other day/and instead of walking toward you/I ran away.”

On the whole, this album is both better put together in terms of structure and is more real, more relatable, and more passionate than any of their previous albums.

Individually, the songs are tame, but when combined they create an impact that stirs the listeners.

“Battle Born” exceeds the listeners’ expectations of The Killers and is perhaps the discovery of the fully realized sound and tone of the band.

Follow Joshua Gu on Twitter @ guraffe

Rating: 3 out of 4 guitars