Breaking Benjamin
Phobia


3.5
great

Review

by thejon93rd USER (28 Reviews)
September 30th, 2010 | 250 replies


Release Date: 2006 | Tracklist

Review Summary: Unable to keep up with its promising theme, Phobia is an otherwise strong studio-effort from Breaking Benjamin.

Phobia: a persistent, irrational fear of a specific object, activity, or situation that leads to a compelling desire to avoid it.

Standing up to your fears is one of the greatest accomplishments you could ever achieve in your life. Standing up to what you fear will make you feel strong and invincible. It allows you to look at life and be brave in living it the way you would wish to. It makes you remember that letting them remain would have left you regretting it for the rest of your life.

Phobia is the third studio-album from Breaking Benjamin and is what some claim to be their best. The album is solid. It features some of the band's very best tracks and is entertainingly catchy throughout it's duration. Diary of Jane is arguably the band's best song and opens the album strongly after the Intro. The song has a satisfying undertone of phobia, in not being able to satisfy someone, and makes for an engaging exchange between Ben and a woman who has forgotten to include him within the contents of something she left behind. The hooks come after you during the strong choruses of each song. You Fight Me has the strongest chorus on the album, there is a great sense of confrontation and retreat from humanity within the song.

The Intro, set within an airport terminal with the cool sound of guitars behind the somewhat haunting female voice over the intercom, is a strong build-up to many people's (including Ben's) fear of flying, but it ultimately leads to no resolution. Generic songs like Until The End and Here We Are take away from an otherwise perfect array of strong tracks all throughout the album. The lyrics are weak in each song (except one line from Until The End which is: "Alone I walk the winding way.") and Ben's vocals unfortunately sound very whiny. Thankfully Unknown Soldier follows Here We Are and is the best song on the release. Recalling the Intro of the album within it's own introduction, Unknown Soldier starts out with a glorious helicopter buzzing overhead and leads straight into the guitar blasting away (simulating an action-oriented battlefield). The track also contains a powerful vocal performance from Ben, who represents the soldier on a battlefield who's on his way to heaven. The song is tragic and heartbreaking in it's depiction of warfare and is satisfying as a track on the album as it recalls the fear of flying from the opening.

You and Evil Angel are the "one-two punch" songs of the album. They are by far the strongest pair of songs available in an album that takes a lot of time to showcase radio-singles that are and could have been. That is the major problem with Phobia as a whole, too much of it feels like obvious radio-play material and less connected to a theme that should have been maintained throughout (which is phobia). Phobia is a powerful subject that, in thinking about the word's definition, brings up a world of possibilities. You Fight Me feels like a resolution to a person's phobia, but it's not as satisfying as one may expect. As a song, it's great. In closing the album, it feels like it should have been placed in the mid-section or before a song that features more emotional-depth.

The album as a whole lacks consistency, especially in comparing to We Are Not Alone. Strong tracks jam-pack the CD and make it worth your while, but there's a part of you that may be left craving a little more content having to do with the phobia theme. Once again, there's so much that you can do with phobia. It's a word that speaks to people. Conquering it is a great achievement. Unfortunately, there's no sense of achievement, or even defeat, on this album altogether. There's only three less than a dozen tracks (not counting the Intro and the Outro) that are all engaging and make for some great repeats on your playlist.



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user ratings (2056)
3.5
great
other reviews of this album
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Comments:Add a Comment 
NeutralThunder12
October 1st 2010


8742 Comments

Album Rating: 2.0

solid review dude. Album isn't as horrible as some people say it is, but it's not good either. I used to be the biggest fanboy for the band. Have a pos by the way

cvlts
October 1st 2010


9943 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

no albums hellla good.

NeutralThunder12
October 1st 2010


8742 Comments

Album Rating: 2.0

its more like a 2.5 but ok haha

pizzamachine
October 1st 2010


27596 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

This needs a 3 review. [2]

bailar14
October 1st 2010


1603 Comments


zomg diary of jane

DinoX
October 1st 2010


3582 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

This is one of the first albums I ever liked

tiesthatbind
October 1st 2010


7441 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

This needs another 4 review.


I agree, guys! Good thing this is on my list of things I still need to review.



Great review, man. This is actually my favorite from BB, and Until the End is my favorite song here, but hey, great job backing up your opinion.

THIEF
October 1st 2010


240 Comments

Album Rating: 2.5

Painfully generic. Not the review, the album.

DeadStarShine
August 20th 2011


778 Comments

Album Rating: 3.0 | Sound Off

The album as a whole lacks consistency, especially in comparing to We Are Not Alone.




Seems like you didn't have anything else to say and decided to copy what other say. It's just you applied it in the wrong album as Phobia is a consistent album.



con·sist·en·cy   [kuhn-sis-tuhn-see] Show IPA

noun, plural -cies.

1.

a degree of density, firmness, viscosity, etc.: The liquid has the consistency of cream.

2.

steadfast adherence to the same principles, course, form, etc.: There is consistency in his pattern of behavior.

3.

agreement, harmony, or compatibility, especially correspondence or uniformity among the parts of a complex thing: consistency of colors throughout the house.

4.

the condition of cohering or holding together and retaining form; solidity or firmness.



Otherwise, you should explain why in your opinion it isn't. Good luck with that.

thatdudeud0ntknow
August 21st 2011


164 Comments


Deadstarshine: "Otherwise, you should explain why in your opinion it isn't. Good luck with that."

...He did:

"Generic songs like Until The End and Here We Are take away from an otherwise perfect array of strong tracks all throughout the album."

"The lyrics are weak in each song"

"there's a part of you that may be left craving a little more content having to do with the phobia theme."


DeadStarShine
August 21st 2011


778 Comments

Album Rating: 3.0 | Sound Off

^ Until The End is not a generic song. Even if it was, two less good songs don't make an album inconsistent. Lyrics are not weak imo. I agree with the third sentence.

thatdudeud0ntknow
August 21st 2011


164 Comments


Your opinion. But in his opinion, the lyrics are weak and Until the End/Here we Are are generic and therefore the album is incosistent, thus he did explain his point. That's all I'm saying.

DeadStarShine
August 21st 2011


778 Comments

Album Rating: 3.0 | Sound Off

That's what happens when we have different opinions. We argue. Haha.

Cryio
March 5th 2013


123 Comments

Album Rating: 2.5

@ Thunder: It's not horrid, it's exactly as you said. Just not good.

DegausserGuernica24
May 4th 2013


1134 Comments


PUT ME TO SLEEEEEEEEP EEEEVIL AAAAAANGEL

DrMaximus
May 4th 2013


12823 Comments


Good album

TheSpaceMan
May 4th 2013


13614 Comments

Album Rating: 3.0

i cant rate this because of nostalgia. its like so basic but very intimate with me as a kid

TheSpaceMan
May 4th 2013


13614 Comments

Album Rating: 3.0

yeah and breath. you fight me has some interesting guitar shit going on in the beginning

DrMaximus
May 4th 2013


12823 Comments


Agreed. Hence the generous +.5 I added to my rating.

TheSpaceMan
May 4th 2013


13614 Comments

Album Rating: 3.0

these guys have potential, but are too scared to try and use it all



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