Six years have passed since BREAKING BENJAMIN released their last album—2009’s Dear Agony—but one listen to their new album, Dark Before Dawn, and it becomes clear that time away from the music world hasn’t caused them to lose a step. Upon release, Dark Before Dawn debuted #1 on Billboard’s Top 200 album chart, a first for the multi-platinum band, while their first single “Failure” spent 8 consecutive weeks at #1 at rock radio. The band’s sound is noticeably more invigorated, energetic, and purposeful than ever and marks a new era as founder/frontman, Ben Burnley, worked with guitarists Jasen Rauch (RED) and Keith Wallen (Adelitas Way), bassist Aaron Bruch and drummer Shaun Foist (Picture Me Broken.) The result is simultaneously vintage BREAKING BENJAMIN and yet decisively more cohesive.
Over the past decade BREAKING BENJAMIN has achieved worldwide success through their chart-topping music, their electrifying live performances and in the process amassed a sizeable and diehard fan base (over 5.7 million likes on Facebook, 220,000+ followers on Twitter.) And, it’s the fans that ultimately fuels Burnley. “The band has always really been about the fans to me,” says Burnley. “That’s who comes first to me, and that’s what it’s all about. There’s nothing that matters any more than that to me, and so I’m just happy I’m able to give them the best they can possibly get.”
BREAKING BENJAMIN’S discography includes 2002’s Saturate, 2004’s We Are Not Alone, 2006’s Phobia, and 2009’s Dear Agony. The second two—We Are Not Alone and Phobia—yielded spectacular results with each being certified Platinum. We Are Not Alone spawned a pair of No. 1 radio hits (“So Cold” and “Sooner Or Later”) and sold 2.3 million units (albums and digital tracks). Phobia debuted at No. 2 on Billboard’s Top 200, hit No. 1 on the Rock Album Chart and was one of the top 50 selling rock albums of 2006. It featured one No. 1 and two Top 5 rock radio hits (“Breath,” “Diary of Jane” and “Until The End”) and sold 2.8 million units (albums and digital tracks). 2009’s Dear Agony debuted #4 on the Billboard Top 200 chart on one of the busiest release days of the year and #1 on the iTunes Rock Album Chart. Dear Agony also spun off the platinum selling and #1 song Active Rock single “I Will Not Bow” where it stayed #1 for five weeks straight while the album itself was certified Gold, selling over 500K copies.
