Stop Crying and Admit It: Breaking Benjamin are One of the Best Bands of All Time

I’m here to educate you jabronis about all the great hard rock music of the world. In my Overground series, I will attempt to convert all of you corpse paint-wearing, cassette tape-playing, closed-minded freaks into active rock radio extraordinaires. Join me as I speak to you from the comfort of my gold plated jacuzzi.

I get it. You’re still mad at your dad after all those years of missing your soccer games and school recitals. It hurt even more when you found out he was at the bar down the street with his secretary.

Instead of confronting your pain directly, you made a pact with yourself. You would only listen to extremely heavy music for the rest of your life. Why? Because you wouldn’t have to address any of the lingering emotions about your dad wanting to spend time with Linda (who, by the way, had great cans) instead of coming to your sporting events and plays.

Since then, you have spent your days bashing bands who have the ability to tear down your firewall of toughness and actually make you feel some emotion. You’re afraid to cry… just admit it, you little bitch! Get it all out of your system so you can begin to accept some of the good rock music that the world has to offer.

The truth is, it takes way more skill to write a chart-topping rock anthem than it does to write the same generic metal song over and over again. That includes all your trendy sub-genres too. It takes dozens of songwriters to put together a chart-topping hit, but for one band, this is a feat they are able to accomplish entirely on their own.

Breaking Benjamin have mastered the art of writing great albums; they have yet to put out an album that sucks. Dating back to 2002, when they released Saturate, singer/songwriter Benjamin Burnley has been cranking out hit after hit, and to date he has written all of the band’s music himself. That’s a fucking mind blowing feat, given the fact that the overwhelming majority of chart topping artists have a team of writers strategically curating their music for them.

As testament to his immense songwriting abilities, Burnley replaced the rest of the band in 2014 (after a prolonged legal dispute and hiatus) and still released a #1 album the following year. How many other bands can replace their entire lineup without flinching, then come back stronger than ever?

When Breaking Benjamin was ready to return, he had enlisted an army of veteran musicians to travel the world with him. Most importantly, the new additions to the band were friends of Burnley who cared much more about the music than they did about the business side of things. This is something that anyone who has seen them live recently can attest to.

I get it. You feel really cool when you make fun of hard rock bands because you have a sub-culture that not everyone participates in, making it seem inherently smarter. “whatevr brian kill urself breaking benj sux ass HAHA LOSER!” The truth is, it takes a stronger person to be willing to try something new and cultivate knowledge of different cultures beyond your own sad, pathetic existence.

Breaking Benjamin are one of the last few bands in existence that don’t let their laptop play the show for them. Everything you hear on stage is being played by the people on stage without any automation. Drummer Shaun Foist is the only time keeper they need, as he is essentially a walking metronome with great hair.

Hard rock isn’t dead, at least as long as Breaking Benjamin are around. They’re still putting out larger than life records and entertaining audiences by the tens of thousands. They’re true professionals who treat their fans like gold, have the respect of extremely jacked and good looking male model celebrities like me, and make great music that you can enjoy for years to come. If you’re a fan of Breaking Benjamin, gimme a “Hell yeah, daddy.”