Post by Josh McLaughlin on Apr 14, 2018 0:23:15 GMT -5
Breaking Benjamin are back with their brand new album, the first new release since 2015's Dark Before Dawn. This also marks the first release of the band where the new lineup have written together, as the previous album was created almost entirely by singer/guitarist Ben Burnley. To describe myself as a Breaking Benjamin fan would be an understatement (my two Breaking Benjamin tattoos would attest to that) so I was beyond excited heading into this album!
After a short intro, the album opens with "Feed The Wolf", a hard-hitting rocker. The guitar and musicianship is good in this one and Ben's vocals are powerful and haunting. A very solid opening track and one of the better songs on the album, but I'm not quite convinced it lives up to the previous few openers (Failure and Fade Away).
The album's first single "Red Cold River" follows it up. Melodic haunting vocals begin the track, building into a heavy rock riff as Ben Burnley screams "RED COLD RIVER!" leading into the chorus. A good, solid track. If I had any bones to pick so far, it would be the lyrics, which sound almost recycled from the other songs from their past few albums.
"Tourniquet" follows it, with much less generic guitar and drum tracks. The song builds well to a very heavy chorus that I really enjoy. Three songs in, I feel that it is very solid so far, but not exactly any songs I'd rush to put onto a Breaking Benjamin greatest hits album. Track four, "Psycho" opens with a Tool-esque instrumental styling. Very cool sounding and you can feel the influence bands like that had on Breaking Benjamin. Once again though, It's almost hindered by generic, recycled lyrics. The chorus is slightly more catchy than the previous three, but once again, not the level of past Breaking Benjamin.
Following that is a strange one, but in a good way. "Dark of You" is a song featuring Derek Hough, a singer and dancer mostly known for Dancing With The Stars. Odd right? But this song finally stands out from the almost generic hard rock before it. It's haunting and spacey. I really enjoy this track. The next song "Down" brings back the hard rock, but with more original instrumental work and an awesome catchy chorus. Better, closer, warmer to the old Breaking Benjamin. "Torn In Two" sounds almost exactly like the first few songs. Decent, but very uninspired. Nobody will listen to this song and think it's one of their best songs.
"Blood" is more hard-hitting and aggressive. The vocals are good, but I must say for a third time that they sound almost cut-and-paste from the previous few albums. Nevertheless, this is a very solid track. The chorus is fairly catchy and the musicianship is good. Not bad. "Save Yourself" is up next and there isn't anything new I can say about it, because there's nothing new in the song. "Close Your Eyes" is a bit better. Still generic to me, but the vocals are catchier and cut through more. Decent closer, followed by a short instrumental outro.
All-in-all I would class this as a solid album. But at the same time, if you had asked me to make a 20-track album of Breaking Benjamin's best songs, I'm not really sure a single song from this album would make it onto that list for me. The musicians in this band are fantastic, coming from two other bands I really enjoy in Red and Adelitas Way, yet the majority of this music sounds like a jam session. The riffs are mostly generic, and nothing stands out in the way past songs like Diary of Jane, Blow Me Away, So Cold did. This is a decent album, but easily the least enjoyable in their history in my opinion.
Highlights: Down, Red Cold River, Feed the Wolf
6/10.