Review Summary: Fear of Something New
Breaking Benjamin officially made it on August 8, 2006. This is the day when their third studio album, Phobia, was released. It sold 131,000 in its first week, and debuted at number 2 on the billboard 200. Its not Breaking Benjamin’s best album, and they had already build a considerable fan base before Phobia came out, but its when this album landed that they became as close to worldwide superstars as they can be.
Fueled by the success of singles, ‘Diary of Jane’ and ‘Breath’, Phobia gets off to a flyer. ‘Dairy of Jane’ was the lead single, and featured a bit of a departure for the band, as they incorporated a more nu metal sound. A soft catchy riff starts us off before leading into a heavy drum beat and then the distorted guitars come in, as the song really takes off. Benjamin Burnley delivers a very aggressive performance, and also proves he can carry a melodic chorus easily.
‘Breath’ is another simple radio rock track, starting off with a short acoustic intro before erupting into a mid-tempo rock song. The verses are sung to a softer guitar background, and then they gain momentum for a catchy chorus. It’s not really that amazing of a track, but it keeps it simple so it works well. ‘You’ is a surprisingly strong track, with a soft drum and guitar intro and introspective lyrics, and an emotional chorus.
‘Evil Angel’ is a great rock track. It follows the typical Breaking Benjamin formula, and it contains all of their typical verses like ‘spreading the cancer’, but here they combine perfectly. The production, for the whole album actually, seems to be more focused on winning the loudness war so a lot of the songs come sounding similar and a bit brick walled.
‘Topless’ and ‘You Fight Me’ are the weakest tracks on the album although their not really bad just bland. They follow the aforementioned formula, heavy intro – melodic guitar for verses – heavy for chorus, just the chorus or the simple riff are not quite good enough this time.
‘Dance with the Devil’ has a memorable distorted guitar intro, and some decent drum work. The pre-chorus and chorus are both good enough too. ‘Here We Are’ is also a highlight, and the acoustic guitar is actually used effectively here, as it really adds something to the verses. The chorus is good, but again they decide to just too just brick wall it for the chorus instead of actually trying to use some imagination.
‘Unknown Soldier’ is the best song on the album. The intro sounds like a helicopter landing, and after that it gets heavy like expected. The difference with this song is that the lyrics and chorus are damn near perfect! Burnley carries the verses well, and they seem quite deep, although taken at face value to be simply about war but at a closer look they seem to be more about suicide. The chorus is something out of heaven too.
Phobia is an album that doesn’t really do anything wrong. It’s pretty safe, and that unfortunately is its biggest problem, with the exception of a track or two, there really is nothing amazing or really worth listening to here. Now, 6 years later, Phobia has already drifted out of most rockers memory.
Still it beats Dear Agony by a landslide.
