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12-06 Breaking Benjamin debut Far Aw
10-28 Breaking Benjamin Acoustic LP
12-14 New Breaking Benjamin video
04-06 Breaking Benjamin's 5th single
03-23 Breaking Benjamin go 'Psycho'
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In late 2000, guitarist Aaron Fink and bassist Mark James Klepaski made a surprising and unexpected decision:theyleftLifer,analternativemetal bandthat was signed to Universal and was gaining commercial acceptance. Fink and KlepaskidepartedLifer(whichwasoriginally calledStrangers with Candy) sothat they could join forces with singer Ben Burnley and drummerJeremyHummel andformBreakingBenjamin. Whywould Fink and Klepaski leave a bandthat had a contract with Universal to form anewalternative rock band that,atthe time,was unsigned?According to Breaking Benjamin's press releases,the ex-members of Li ...read more
In late 2000, guitarist Aaron Fink and bassist Mark James Klepaski made a surprising and unexpected decision:theyleftLifer,analternativemetal bandthat was signed to Universal and was gaining commercial acceptance. Fink and KlepaskidepartedLifer(whichwasoriginally calledStrangers with Candy) sothat they could join forces with singer Ben Burnley and drummerJeremyHummel andformBreakingBenjamin. Whywould Fink and Klepaski leave a bandthat had a contract with Universal to form anewalternative rock band that,atthe time,was unsigned?According to Breaking Benjamin's press releases,the ex-members of Liferhad so muchfaith in Burnley'ssongwritingtalentsthat they werewilling to take a gamble and uproot themselves. So in late2000,Breaking Benjamin gotstarted with a four-man lineupthatconsisted ofBurnley on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Fink on leadguitar, Klepaski onbass, and Hummel ondrums. BreakingBenjaminwasn'tthe firsttime that Fink had worked with Burnley; he hadknown the singer since high school. Allfour membersof the band arefromWilkes-Barre,asmall town in northeastern Pennsylvania.(Philadelphia and its suburbs are consideredsoutheasternPennsylvania.)When Breaking Benjamin started playing around Wilkes-Barre, they were far from a carbon copy of Lifer -- instead, they favored aradio-friendly post-grunge approach that was aggressive and forceful yet melodic. The band's various influencesinclude,amongothers,Live,Bush,Pearl Jam, Stone TemplePilots, and Nirvana. Burnley has been quoted as saying that at age 14, hetaughthimself toplay guitarbylistening toNirvana's seminal 1991 releaseNevermind over and over. Korn and Tool have also beencited asinfluences, butunlikeKorn,BreakingBenjamin doesn't have strong hip-hop leaningsand isn't quite alternative metal --hard alternative rock,certainly, butnotquitealternativemetal. However, that isn't to say that Breaking Benjamin hasn'tbeeninfluenced by certain aspects ofKorn'ssound.ThePennsylvanians doincorporate the sort of choppy, downtuned guitars that arequite prevalent inalternative metal, andeventhoughBreakingBenjamin has a lotin common with post-grunge bands like Creed,Default, Cinema8, and Third Eye Blind, theytend to beabitheavier.In 2001, Breaking Benjamin's Wilkes-Barre gigs caught the attention of a local radio DJ named Freddie Fabbri, who was an on-airpersonalityatalternativerock station WBSX-FM. Fabbri put their song 'Polyamorous' in rotation, and he also financed the recordingoftheirself-titleddebut EP-- which, in 2001,ended up selling about 2,000 copies in and around Wilkes-Barre. It was also in 2001thatBreakingBenjaminsignedwithHollywood Records, which unitedthe band with Ulrich Wild (a busy producer/engineer who hasworkedwithPowerman5000,StabbingWestward, White Zombie, Static-X, Pantera, Slipknot,and quite a few others). Wild servesas both producerandengineeronBreakingBenjamin's first full-length album, Saturate, which Hollywood releasedin August2002. We Are NotAlonefollowedtwoyears later,complete with a few collaborations with Billy Corgan; the band landed aprimo spot on theEvanescence tour insupportoftheeffort, as threeof the album's singles made their way onto the Billboardcharts ('So Cold' and 'Sooner or Later' bothpeaked atnumbertwoinMainstreamRock).Breaking Benjamin issued their third album, Phobia, in August 2006 before heading out on nationwide headliningdateswithEvansBlueandDroppingDaylight in tow. The album featured new drummer Chad Szeliga and was spearheaded by the single'TheDiary ofJane',whichquicklyheated up airwavesand helped the album debut at number two on the Billboard charts. Phobiawasreissued thatfallwithadditional bonustracks, while the bandcontinued touring alongside Godsmack. After the tour, BreakingBenjamin doveback intothestudio tobegin work on theirfourth full-length. The resultingDear Agony, fueled by the firstsingle 'I Will Not Bow', arrivedinthesummer of2009. « hide |
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