Review: Breaking Benjamin – Dear Agony

Sergio reviews Breaking Benjamin’s new release.

Artist Name: Breaking Benjamin
Album Name: Dear Agony
Year: 2009
Genre: Alternative Metal

I wasn’t a fan of Breaking Benjamin’s last album, Phobia. I know that many of you will probably argue that it was the band’s most mature release to date, but I just didn’t like it –one or two songs were great, but the rest were particularly average, in my opinion. It really disappointed me because I loved Saturate and We Are Not Alone, so as you can imagine, I’ve been anxiously awaiting the latest album, Dear Agony – hoping that BB rediscover their magic.

From the get-go, ‘Fade Away’ and ‘Crawl’ blow me away – it’s just so much heavier than anything I’ve ever heard from them. I didn’t really see the fascination in ‘I Will Not Bow’ – it’s an okay track, but sounds like it belongs more on a Sevendust album. Moving along, ‘Give Me a Sign’ is the mandatory radio-friendly slower song and ‘Hopeless’ begins to pick up the heaviness again. But suddenly, disaster strikes – ‘What Lies Beneath’ and ‘Anthem of the Angels’ are probably the worst BB songs I’ve ever heard!

‘Anthem of the Angels’ feels like a complete Skillet rip-off – look, you’re girlfriend might enjoy it, but I’ve heard better ballads in the last couple of months. And ‘What Lies Beneath’ just makes me want to snooze – kind of like Nickelback.

The first half of Dear Agony is definitely an 8/10, but the second half slows down the quality to about a 6. So to be fair, I’ll give the album 70%. Overall, not a bad album from Breaking Benjamin – but nowhere near the brilliance of their first 2 albums, but still slightly better than Phobia.

Best Tracks: ‘Crawl’, ‘Lights Out’, and ‘Fade Away’

70/100

- Sergio Pereira
sergio@musicreview.co.za