The Strange History of BREAKING BENJAMIN (so sad...)

you've had some issues going on whatever whatever you read on the internet which is what I've read it's all true because it's the internet some yes most everything on the internet's true Breaking Benjamin has quietly become one of the most influential bands in rock and metal I'll admit that I initially wrote them off as just another generic Radio Rock Band back when they came out but in hindsight I couldn't have been more wrong and if you're not familiar they sound something like this something way bre and as far as their impact the numbers don't lie they've hit the Billboard top 10 four times and have gone Platinum three times in an era in which rock was much less popular and selling a lot less albums than it used to and you'll hear them mentioned as an influence by many of this generation's most important bands like motionless and white star set and Of Mice and Men among just a few and so despite being l labeled as basic Radio rock or maybe even butt Rock the truth is that they are one of the biggest Gateway bands that you'll hear people site as their entryway into Heavy Music In general introducing literally millions of kids to the genre many of which went on to get into more obscure underground stuff so yes the Breaking Benjamin to Lorna Shore to infinite annihilator pipeline is real but the question is how do they do it how did four guys from a small town in Pennsylvania go on to become one of the biggest rock bands of the 2000s that is the question that I will try to answer in this video listen up football fans this is the last weekend of the year to get your football bets in I've teamed up with DraftKings and right now is the perfect time to get your shot at the crown DraftKings is giving all new customers $200 in bonus bets instantly when they Place their first $5 bets on anything there's no time like the present download the DraftKings app now and sign up using my promo code punk rock that's right new customers who bet just $5 will get $200 in bonus bets 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that mostly played covers from bands like Weezer and the Beatles this lineup disbanded after he moved to California but after returning to Pennsylvania with their drummer Jeremy hmel Benjamin formed a new band called plan n and eventually this new band reverted back to the name Breaking Benjamin partly due to the simple fact that Benjamin still had some stickers with that name on it which is kind of funny but to be fair you can't really blame them right stickers are expensive and on September 15th of 2002 they released their debut album saturate and the album didn't exactly put them on the track to start them but it did get some traction and show that they were on to something it debuted at number 136 on Billboard and number two on the heat Seekers chart which all things considered is pretty damn good for a new band and sonically you can hear the foundation for what they would later go on to become this album has a little bit more of a new metal sound compared to their later stuff but it still has that kind of post-grunge sense of ability and those distinctive vocal patterns that would go on to be one of the most copied templates in all of modern metal but more on that [Music] later after a bit of touring they returned to the studio again in October of 2003 to record the followup to saturate and the next summer they released what would go on to be their breakout album we are not alone show me how it end all right and unlike the first album right from the get-go this album was a massive success it debuted at number 20 on Billboard it went on to be certified gold a few months later and then eventually went platinum the following year in this album not only put them on the map commercially but it's also really where they came into their own sonically for one the songs became more memorable and just in general harder hitting but at the same time it also showed what differentiated them from all the other mainstream Radio rock bands of the time that were part of that whole post grunge thing for one their songs sounded a lot more dark and Moody compared to a lot of the other bands in the genre like say Three Days Grace or Skillet and to be fair those bands weren't exactly writing happy songs either but by comparison Breaking Benjamin did put more of an emphasis on that dark atmosphere compared to most of the other bands in a few months later they released another single called Blow Me Away which got them even more traction largely because it appeared in Halo 2 which at the time was one of the absolute most popular video games on the planet show only the will but with that being said even though we are not alone was the album that put them on the map their real breakthrough moment was about to come 2 years later in August of 2006 they released their biggest album yet phobia something's getting in my way something's just B it debuted at number two on Billboard sold almost triple what the previous album did in the first week and ended up getting two Platinum singles and one gold single and on top of that the lead single the Diary of Jane was at the time the fastest added single to radio playlists in the entire history of Hollywood Records it was really just all around a Smash Hit for the band and I think there's a few factors to why that happened for one I think this is easily just the catchiest material they've put out up until this point you can put it on and even you know your sister-in-law that doesn't even listen to music will enjoy it breath another fact is the overall theme of this album which is phobias which is a pretty relatable topic for just about anybody I mean we're all afraid of something right and so it's one of these albums where you can sort of see yourself in it almost no matter who you are for example the cover of the album shows a man with wings over a highway which represents Benjamin burnley's fear of flying and to use another song as an example example Unknown Soldier seems to be about the fear of just being forgotten but with all of that being said even with the Smashing success of phobia things weren't all great in the Breaking Benjamin Camp the main reason for that being to put it bluntly Ben's alcoholism pretty much from the beginning of the band up until this point he was a very very heavy drinker up until the point where he went on a 3-day Sleepless Bender of just non-stop drinking which was kind of his Rock Bottom moment where he made the choice to get sober no but you know I just basically suffered some mental um illnesses from drinking and physical ailments from drinking and it kind of stepped in and said look made it really apparent to me that if I was to keep drinking then I wouldn't be here and that was the reality and the sad thing is is years and years ago that's what I wanted it just came at the at the wrong time it came a little late and this addiction and overcoming it would end up being the theme for their next album Dear Agony which came out in September of 2009 I will not I not and this was once again a massive success it debuted at number four on Billboard went gold a year later and eventually platinum in 2015 and like I mentioned the overall theme for this was Ben's alcoholism and him struggling to overcome it well Dear Agony is the first album that I've ever written and recorded completely sober so it was kind of uh new adventure for me definitely a challenge because I relied heavily on alcohol for influence and inspiration and stuff for example the album cover itself is Ben's brain scan when he was still going heavy on the alcohol and on the one hand this is a very relatable topic because almost all of us have either gone through that ourselves or know somebody who has but on the other hand it's also a risk because there's this sort of tradition of artists getting sober and then writing an album about it and their sober album unfortunately tends to not be great and so a lot of artists are almost afraid to get sober because they're worried that it's going to make their music suck you know Dear Agony I think is more personal because of the clarity of Being Sober it kind of really made me Focus especially lyrically in making things vague but at the same time making them make more sense than in the past I can't get away with anything I can't drink away any inadequacies in the lyrics you know so before it be if I was unhappy with line I'd just take a shot and I'd be fine with it and so they're sort of caught between a rock and the hard place where on the one hand they want to get sober because they know they need to but on the other hand they're afraid of ruining their career and often times they feel like they have no good choices but fortunately that wasn't the case for Breaking Benjamin this one in particular I can't really compare it to ones in the past so I think in the past anything that really kind of made sense thematically was was a coincidence more so than anything else and this one is definitely focused and definit Ely has vague subject matter in it musically they picked up where they left off on phobia but because of the theme of this album the lyrics are much more triumphant and uplifting compared to what was on phobia fight after the release of the album they toured with bands like three days grace thousand foot crutch and Sick Puppies until Ben decided to put the whole band on Hiatus due to some health issues specifically even though he had gotten sober he developed something called the wariki kosikov syndrome essentially it's when your body still behaves as if you're using alcohol but without actually getting drunk so you get the headaches and dizziness things like that Steve Harwell of Smashmouth I think had the same thing and it can be absolutely debilitating but in spite of all that in March of 2010 Hollywood Records asked the band to make two new songs as well as a greatest hits album they also wanted to release a new version of the song Blow Me Away with Sydney Duran of valora in May of 2011 two of the other members of the band agreed to do this for $100,000 which Ben didn't like because in his view this was the two band members kind of going rogue acting on their own without informing or Consulting him or the band's management and keep in mind that Breaking Benjamin is pretty much Ben's band he is the sole songwriter and founding member as far as I'm aware so to be honest it's kind of understandable that he would feel that way I'm the primary writer in the band so I've pretty much written all the albums myself though I have collaborated on a few things but for the most part it's been pretty much just me and and he subsequently fired both of them via email and demanded at least $250,000 in compensatory fees and exclusive rights to the name Breaking Benjamin but even with Ben opposing it the label released a greatest hits album called shallow bay in 2011 while all of this drama was going on behind the scenes the whole thing resulted in a lawsuit that spanned several years which ultimately got resolved in April of 2013 with Ben winning and retaining the full rights to the name Breaking Benjamin the band's official statement went as follows the dispute between Benjamin Burnley who is the sole founder primary musician singer and songwriter for the band Breaking Benjamin and two of the band's ex-band members has been resolved Benjamin Burnley retains his right to use his band name and Breaking Benjamin will continue while Ben himself had to say I am pleased to finally put this matter behind me and focus on the future for Breaking Benjamin I wish to express by never-ending love and gratitude to the best fans in the world for their undying love and support words cannot express my love to all of you thank you and in 2014 the band announced that they would officially be returning with a new lineup they had played some acoustic shows as well as a few regular shows on the east coast and in March of 2015 they released their first new single called failure which was their first new piece of music since 2009 feeling L It Go and shortly after that in the summer of 2015 they released their next album called Dark Before Dawn Bren and this was really a triumphant return after all these years off and after all the stuff that have been going on behind the scenes with the legal battles and Ben's health and all of that fans understandably wondered if the band still had it and this album answered that question with a resounding yes it debuted at number one on Billboard for the very first time in the history of the band and went on to become certified gold a year later and musically it's really as if they took the sound that they had on phobia and just fine-tuned it to quote Ben himself I don't want to reinvent the wheel I just want to write good music that's going to stand the test of time and I try to do that I think fans are noticing that the band hasn't changed because I'm the main songwriter I always have been and my process it's not going to change and so basically if you liked Breaking Benjamin's old stuff well you're probably going to like this stuff too because like he said really it's still the same band and then a few years years later in 2018 they released at least as of the time I'm recording this video their latest album called [Applause] Ember which once again was a massive success it debuted at number three on Billboard and number one on the rock albums chart and musically it was really a refreshing change of pace for the band unexpectedly for a band that at this point was 20 years deep into their career they went in a much heavier Direction compared to their past material It Was a Very Fresh take on their sound and on top of that it's really just honestly some of the best material they'd ever done which is incredibly impressive for a band that like I said was over 20 years deep into their career at this point the list of bands that pull that off is very very small Red Hot Chili Peppers Green Day maybe there's not a whole lot and after that in January of 2020 they released a compilation album with reimagined versions of some of their older songs as well as one brand new song and I [Music] am when the broken and as of the time that I am recording this video their most recent release is a collaboration with starset which if you're not familiar is basically one of the biggest Radio rock bands of this generation almost like the new Breaking Benjamin the atere which brings us to the final question of this video what is their lasting impact and Legacy the first thing that comes to mind is that even though you don't necessarily hear their name brought up all the time the fact of the matter is that they are one of the biggest Gateway bands in this entire generation of rock and metal especially for people of a certain age like how many people got into this kind of music because you randomly downloaded some anime music video off of lime wire in 2007 and it happened to be using a Breaking Benjamin song and that was the moment that you got into this kind of music right Sasuke versus Naruto featuring trapped and you are not alone I will bet you a lot of money that a huge chunk of your favorite bands that came out in the last 10 years or so got into this stuff at least in part thanks to Breaking Benjamin the other thing that I mentioned earlier in this video is Ben's particular vocal style he's just got those specific kind of vocal patterns that as soon as you hear them you go oh that's Breaking Benjamin which I think a lot of modern bands heard and said yeah let's do that too the most obvious example of that would be one of the biggest bands in metal right now motionless and white who definitely has their own sound I'm not taking anything away from them and they're obviously much heavier than Breaking Benjamin and would fall under more of the metal core category but they've said many times before that they were influenced by Breaking Benjamin and you can certainly hear that influence so how do I am and with all of that being said despite coming out over 20 years ago Breaking Benjamin is still relevant today and they've had an incredibly long and successful career despite all those ups and downs with the legal battles and Ben's health and everything else that they've been through and so I don't know when they'll ultimately decide to hang it up but when they do I can guarantee you that they'll be remembered as one of the most important and influential bands of their Generation all right my friends that does it for this video as always let me know what you think in the comments and also I would like to thank everyone who supports me on patreon especially those of you who support at the true cult level or above patrons get all my videos early there are members only channels on my Discord I do q&as and there is also a way to have me review your music so if any of that sounds cool hit the link in the description of this video and with that I'm going to sign off for now but I will see you next time

Channel: The Punk Rock MBA

Views: 157,968

Keywords: benjamin burnley, breaking benjamin, breaking benjamin diary of jane

Id: t-aR8hv0VtI

Length: 17min 49sec (1069 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 08 2024