#so y e a h happy birthday to the full release of this beautiful song and to the 0.2 opening on youtube thanks for giving me life and purpos

[perishsongchatot]

TODAY IS A NATIONAL HOLIDAY HOLY SHIT

[benyavin]

your favorite breaking benjamin album!!

MARIA!!! How dare you??? (I love this I love you but w h y would you EVER ASK ME?? TO C H O O S E ?????? Between ALL SIX (((SIX!! There’s a new one!!))) BEAUTIFUL BREAKING BENJAMIN ALBUMS WHEN LITERALLY ALL OF THEM ARE SO BEAUTIFUL WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME)

Clearly you must have known you were asking for an essay on Breaking Benjamin albums. So I shall humor you, as there is nothing I love to talk about more.

Saturate - 2002Okay okay okay if I had to pick a /least/ favorite it’s probably this one. BUT THAT DOES NOT MEAN I DO NOT LOVE IT OR THAT IT ISN’T AMAZING. Ahem. Disclaimer over. This was the first album, figuring stuff out and getting their name out there. It doesn’t have the polish of more recent recording techniques or the wisdom from years of experience of what’s going to resonate with people. It’s young. It’s raw. It’s reckless and edgy in that I’m-in-my-early-20’s-and-trying-to-be-grown-up way. It’s mouthy and sexual at times (Shallow Bay, No Games). It’s strange and weird at some points. (Skin, Sugarcoat, Natural Life, Polyamorous, I’m looking at all of you). But it has a lot of strength. From | out of the ground, I rise to grace; nobody knows it’s just a phase | to | come and take my breath away, look me straight in the face | to | what I want from this world, what I want to resolve: well, I want you to stay, so I want you to wait | to | you said you’d love to see the end; the long, hard road that I have been | to that soaring triumph at the close of shallow bay, | you live, you learn, you’ll live | as the guitars fade and the strings sing for the last few seconds. The building rumble and screeches and melody of Natural Life. The long slow hand drum intro to Phase. The cheery pace and melody of Skin. The stripped back, questioning, Forever. There’s a lot of bright moments and beautiful details, but the biggest thing about it is all the potential it reeks of. It’s a solid album and deserves more love. 7/10

We Are Not Alone - 2004FORGET IT!!!! EVERYONE STOP WHAT YOU’RE DOING AND GO LISTEN TO IT IT’S SO BEAUTIFUL!!!A more than satisfying successor to Saturate’s potential, WANA showcases the maturity Ben’s songwriting has achieved in just two short years. Every song was written with the same amount of intent - he doesn’t write singles and then filler, he writes every song to be single-worthy and then cherry picks the singles out of the bunch, and the quality-centric approach is evident. The cold selfish rage of Believe, the detached broken-heartedness of Break My Fall, Sooner Or Later, Away, the soft folded up sadness in Forget It and Rain, the driving desperation of So Cold, the self-deprecation of Firefly….| Cold am I; I’m beside myself because there’s no one else | | I’ll be there for you till my heart is black and blue | | is it you I want, or just the notion of a heart to wrap around so I can find my way around? || and now I find you’ve left me behind, I don’t know what to say, so never mind || never mind, forget it, there’s nothing to lose but my mind and all the things I wanted |It’s very good and very solid. A lovely album. Not quite through with it’s mouthiness, the sexual edges toned down a bit more, everyone knew they were going places with this album. As a whole it has a coldness to it. It’s a dark picture of life it paints, but it does so in beautiful, if sometimes somewhat sloppy, strokes. And, well. To be human is to be messy. WANA is, at its heart, a very human album. 9/10

Phobia - 2006Their big break!! The album most fans discovered them through, many of whom swear they never have and never will top it. Phobia begins a recurring theme of touching on mythical ideas, sprinkling angels (evil ones, in this case) and the devil as characters in the familiar, gritty, determined narrative. Driving and melodic music and snappy drum tracks carry some of Ben’s best vocals yet along on a sweet sweet ride. It’s not as dark as WANA or as immature as Saturate, displaying a bit more hopefulness and intention to carry on despite the difficulty and pain, and the last bits of overtly sexual themes play themselves out in Topless, a song from 2002 that never made it onto previous records. It’s gripping and cohesive and sonically just a pleasure. The iconic The Diary of Jane and Breath, the steadfast Until the End and Unknown Soldier, the rage of Had Enough, the brokenness of Here We Are, You, and You Fight Me, the desperation of Evil Angel and Dance With the Devil. It’s a wonderful album and deserves all the love. | forgive me, my love; I stand here all alone and I can see the bottom | | hiding, betrayal, driving the nail, hoping to find a savior || so clever, whatever, I’m done with these endeavors || flat on my lonely face I fell, finding in the end, I live well || it only hurts just once; they’re only broken bones || I believe in you; I can show you that I can see right through all your empty lies |Fantastic 9/10

Dear Agony - 2009IT’S MY ALBUM!!! MY BIRTHDAY ALBUM, MY LOVE LIKE NO OTHER!!! (Okay so yes you could make an argument that this is indeed my favorite. And I would probably agree, but I’d feel really bad about it because all of them are good!!! Most flat out fantastic!!!! DA just holds a really special place in my heart that nothing can ever displace.)It’s tight, it’s sound, it’s cohesive and raw and all the growth of the previous albums honed to perfection. It’s a masterpiece. It’s beauty, rage, and heartbreak. It’s so cold and emotional. From the sharp anger of Crawl, Lights Out, and What Lies Beneath, to the hopelessness of Hopeless (hehe) and Fade Away and Dear Agony, the grief of Anthem of the Angels and Give Me a Sign, the indomitable will of I Will Not Bow and Into the Nothing, the catharsis and mourning of Without You. This one has it all.| falling forever, chasing dreams; I brought you to life so I can hear you scream || all in all, you’re no good; you don’t cry like you should || days go on forever, but I have not left your side; we can chase the dark together, if you go then so will I || stay with me, you’re all I have left, I know we can make it out alive || now you wanna take me down, as if I even care; I am the monster in your head ||no longer the lost, no longer the same || holding the hand that holds me down; I forgive you, forget you, the end | | carry me to heavens arms, light the way and let me go, take the time to take my breath, I will end where I began |In conclusion, go buy it and force it in your ears right now 11/10

Dark Before Dawn - 2015I waited FIVE YEARS for this. FIVE Y E A R S. And it was worth every minute. DBD has huge nostalgia/dream come true status for me that it will never lose. I was there for this one. I experienced everything going on around it and there’s nothing like the first time. It’s a solid album, the theme of the title played out wonderfully with the intro and outro tracks, Dark and Dawn respectively. This album incorporates a new element, a feeling in the music I can’t think of any other way to describe than as spiritual/uplifting. This element even gets lyrical recognition in the marked departure from their usual style, Ashes of Eden, as well as in The Great Divide and Defeated. The anthemic Failure, Angels Fall, and Never Again, the brokenness of Hollow and Close To Heaven, the pain of Bury Me Alive and the clunky, bright Breaking the Silence. It’s a lovely album given cohesion by the fine details. The intro track is a compelling slow song into soft moans and a trademark roar over echoey tapes of a man describing the human response to rage, fear, and pain. The outro track starts with the soft pattering of a recording of his infant son’s heartbeat, followed by gentle vocalization from Ben and his wife. The album art is a solar eclipse against an ocean, a tiny island barely visible in the crashing water; in the clouds in the dark where the moon blocks out the sun, you can see the outline of Ben’s son’s sonogram. It begins in a dark place and ends in bliss. It’s the happy ending we’ve all been dreaming of after a life of struggle. It’s full of love and beauty for all the pain in the music itself. It’s a precious thing.| I’m coming home; release me, my love | | we bury the sunlight || I’m chasing the righteous, becoming a part of you || never surrender, out of the embers, save a space inside for me || are you with me after all? Why can’t I hear you? || stay alive; heaven holds a place for us tonight | | divided, I will stand, and I will let this end || leave all the lost souls behind; show us we’re worth forsaking |Absolutely incredible 10/10

Ember - 2018Okay so I wasn’t so excited about this album for a number of reasons. One being I have been way too busy to pay a lot of attention and the songs they released before the album as a whole were good but not quite what I was hoping for, another being the betrayal and loss of a close friend and the association of her with the thing we both loved and became friends because of. So I judged it rather unfairly at first. BUT on hearing the album as a whole the first time all that was blown out of the water. It’s absolutely beautiful and it both breaks my heart and makes me stronger. The heartbreaking out of left field piano and thunder track, The Dark of You, moved me near to tears. Tourniquet and Down fill me up with rage and determination to conquer the things that have held me down these last months. The sheer desolation of Feed the Wolf and Red Cold River, the strangely optimistic Torn In Two, Psycho, and Open Your Eyes, the self-destructive Blood. Some people complain that it’s too repetitive in terms of things they’ve done before but I would like to again remind everyone that there are now, with this album, four people who are not Benjamin who are trying to write Breaking Benjamin songs. Of course they’re drawing off older themes. They’re trying to be true to the sound and they’ve done an amazing job and honestly all of you need to shut up and stop being so ungrateful. Give them some time to figure out how to be more “original” while keeping in line with the core of what Breaking Benjamin is. This album is still amazing and is one for the books.| and now the weak that fall, return to ash, defeated after all || I will fight this war for you, and let the dawn of love survive | | I can’t feel anything at all; this love has led me to the end || carry me o’er the ground, heavy won’t hold me down || love will tie the tourniquet and suffocate me || I am the warm embracing || and all that I regret, I have before, I will again || with my dying breath, I keep this prayer alive |Go buy it RIGHT NOW!!?!! 10/10

In conclusion: *screams endlessly into the void* I’M A MESS AND CANNOT MAKE DECISIONS. EVERYTHING IS AMAZING I AM JUST OVERWHELMED BY ALL OF IT. NEVER ASK ME THIS QUESTION AGAIN (unless you want another rant/review post, in which case, please do!)