Breaking Benjamin is a band I adored from the second I started listening to them.
With their dark, almost gothic songwriting, heavy yet atmospheric sound, Benjamin Burnley's phenomenal vocals, and of course masterpieces like The Diary Of Jane, they proved to be possibly the greatest band to come from the post-grunge movement of the 2000's.
To be honest, because of their much darker feel in terms of sound and songwriting, I never really associated them much with the likes of Nickelback or Creed. They were much closer to bands like Evanescence and We Are The Fallen in my opinion. They were a band that I could see soundtracking a horror movie or game, especially with songs like So Cold.
Their unique blend of dark atmosphere, heavy instrumentation and vocals, and excellent songwriting all quickly launched Breaking Benjamin into being one of my all-time favorite bands.
It had been 5 years since Breaking Benjamin released the song Blow Me Away, the last thing they did before going on a half-decade-long hiatus.
In that time, the band has undergone a massive lineup change, with lead singer and frontman Benjamin Burnley being to only remaining original member.
But despite all that, I was still unbelievably excited to see Breaking Benjamin make a comeback when it was announced earlier this year, especially after hearing the fantastic lead single Failure, which especially pleasantly surprised me by actually making it onto the Billboard Hot 100. A hard rock/alt-metal song on the pop charts? Today, that's unheard of, and I was fucking overjoyed to see it there (even though it left the next week, but hey, what can you do). This album was clearly something big and it was going be amazing.
And was it worth the wait?
Well, yes... for the most part.
While Dark Before Dawn is nothing groundbreaking or massively different from the band's previous work, I still found it to be a fantastic record nonetheless and one absolutely worth checking out, especially for long-time fans.
Let's start with arguably the biggest deviation from previous records and the one that stood out to me the most: the shift in tone. Breaking Benjamin's music has often has a heavy atmosphere to it, more hopeless and dark, but the tone takes on a much larger scope, making the album have a much more epic and grand feel to it, exemplified through the heavy use of religious imagery, something Breaking Benjamin has always incorporated, but not quite to this extent.
And you know what? It really works.
An album with a grand scope and lots of mythological imagery and story-driven songwriting is always something I love, and Dark Before Dawn pulls it off really well, especially with some of the band's heaviest instrumentation to date, the guitars and drums in particular are so hard-hitting and have so much presence that it's hard not to just be totally into it the whole way through.
Another thing of note is the songwriting. Despite being drenched in grandiose religious epic storytelling, if you look through that, you'll find it's actually a very personal album for frontman Benjamin Burnley, speaking of his struggles in life especially after the band had its big falling-out back in 2010, going through struggles with his own emotion and how his legacy that he's left behind with his music could be finished forever, and that helps give the album a layer of real emotion and real power, especially on more somber songs like Hollow and Ashes Of Eden, two of the best songs on the album.
They were really smart when picking singles for this album, as the three they chose, Failure, Angels Fall, and Defeated, are three of the best songs on the album. In fact, Angels Fall just might be my favorite on the album overall, the excellent blend of synthesizers and electric and acoustic guitars and heavy drumming all blend together with what is possibly one of Benjamin Burnley's best vocal performances to date, it's just an absolute standout, fantastic work.
Defeated is another one I absolutely love, the heavy guitars and drums mixed with the brilliant songwriting about overcoming hardships and standing up to your problems, fantastic song and brilliantly misleading title.
If I do have one complaint, it's that some of the songs, especially near the middle of the album, did kind of seem recycled and, to be honest, filler. Breaking The Silence, Close To Heaven and Never Again in particular didn't really stick out to me, they really did nothing for me.
One track that really did do it for me was the aforementioned Ashes Of Eden, a 5-minute ballad that is unlike anything else I've ever heard Breaking Benjamin do. Clean vocals, light synth-driven production, very personal and intimate lyrics, and it's all fantastic. A heartbreaking and powerful song, one of the band's best songs to date period. In fact, I think Ashes Of Eden sums up all the great aspects of this album in general.
If you even remotely like Breaking Benjamin or any of their kin, you're pretty likely to love this album (I know I sure did). While not quite on the level of, say, 2006's Phobia (one of my favorite albums of all time), it's still a great record and, aside from a few filler tracks, and overall great experience musically.
BEST SONGS: Angels Fall, Ashes Of Eden, Hollow, Failure, Defeated, The Great Divide
WORST SONGS: Breaking The Silence, Closer To Heaven
With their dark, almost gothic songwriting, heavy yet atmospheric sound, Benjamin Burnley's phenomenal vocals, and of course masterpieces like The Diary Of Jane, they proved to be possibly the greatest band to come from the post-grunge movement of the 2000's.
To be honest, because of their much darker feel in terms of sound and songwriting, I never really associated them much with the likes of Nickelback or Creed. They were much closer to bands like Evanescence and We Are The Fallen in my opinion. They were a band that I could see soundtracking a horror movie or game, especially with songs like So Cold.
Their unique blend of dark atmosphere, heavy instrumentation and vocals, and excellent songwriting all quickly launched Breaking Benjamin into being one of my all-time favorite bands.
It had been 5 years since Breaking Benjamin released the song Blow Me Away, the last thing they did before going on a half-decade-long hiatus.
In that time, the band has undergone a massive lineup change, with lead singer and frontman Benjamin Burnley being to only remaining original member.
But despite all that, I was still unbelievably excited to see Breaking Benjamin make a comeback when it was announced earlier this year, especially after hearing the fantastic lead single Failure, which especially pleasantly surprised me by actually making it onto the Billboard Hot 100. A hard rock/alt-metal song on the pop charts? Today, that's unheard of, and I was fucking overjoyed to see it there (even though it left the next week, but hey, what can you do). This album was clearly something big and it was going be amazing.
And was it worth the wait?
Well, yes... for the most part.
While Dark Before Dawn is nothing groundbreaking or massively different from the band's previous work, I still found it to be a fantastic record nonetheless and one absolutely worth checking out, especially for long-time fans.
Let's start with arguably the biggest deviation from previous records and the one that stood out to me the most: the shift in tone. Breaking Benjamin's music has often has a heavy atmosphere to it, more hopeless and dark, but the tone takes on a much larger scope, making the album have a much more epic and grand feel to it, exemplified through the heavy use of religious imagery, something Breaking Benjamin has always incorporated, but not quite to this extent.
And you know what? It really works.
An album with a grand scope and lots of mythological imagery and story-driven songwriting is always something I love, and Dark Before Dawn pulls it off really well, especially with some of the band's heaviest instrumentation to date, the guitars and drums in particular are so hard-hitting and have so much presence that it's hard not to just be totally into it the whole way through.
Another thing of note is the songwriting. Despite being drenched in grandiose religious epic storytelling, if you look through that, you'll find it's actually a very personal album for frontman Benjamin Burnley, speaking of his struggles in life especially after the band had its big falling-out back in 2010, going through struggles with his own emotion and how his legacy that he's left behind with his music could be finished forever, and that helps give the album a layer of real emotion and real power, especially on more somber songs like Hollow and Ashes Of Eden, two of the best songs on the album.
They were really smart when picking singles for this album, as the three they chose, Failure, Angels Fall, and Defeated, are three of the best songs on the album. In fact, Angels Fall just might be my favorite on the album overall, the excellent blend of synthesizers and electric and acoustic guitars and heavy drumming all blend together with what is possibly one of Benjamin Burnley's best vocal performances to date, it's just an absolute standout, fantastic work.
Defeated is another one I absolutely love, the heavy guitars and drums mixed with the brilliant songwriting about overcoming hardships and standing up to your problems, fantastic song and brilliantly misleading title.
If I do have one complaint, it's that some of the songs, especially near the middle of the album, did kind of seem recycled and, to be honest, filler. Breaking The Silence, Close To Heaven and Never Again in particular didn't really stick out to me, they really did nothing for me.
One track that really did do it for me was the aforementioned Ashes Of Eden, a 5-minute ballad that is unlike anything else I've ever heard Breaking Benjamin do. Clean vocals, light synth-driven production, very personal and intimate lyrics, and it's all fantastic. A heartbreaking and powerful song, one of the band's best songs to date period. In fact, I think Ashes Of Eden sums up all the great aspects of this album in general.
If you even remotely like Breaking Benjamin or any of their kin, you're pretty likely to love this album (I know I sure did). While not quite on the level of, say, 2006's Phobia (one of my favorite albums of all time), it's still a great record and, aside from a few filler tracks, and overall great experience musically.
BEST SONGS: Angels Fall, Ashes Of Eden, Hollow, Failure, Defeated, The Great Divide
WORST SONGS: Breaking The Silence, Closer To Heaven
Final Score:
8.5/10
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