My Amazon Reviews: Breaking Benjamin "Dear Agony"

Don't Want to Change the World, Just Want to Leave it Colder, 4 out of 5 Stars

One of the best of the current crop of hard rock bands, Breaking Benjamin pen another morbid love letter to "Dear Agony." After the platinum successes of Phobia and We Are Not Alone, most bands would try to keep cloning their past efforts and go for the big pop single. Fortunately, BB chart their own course. The lead release, "I Will Not Bow," may be tagged to a Hollywood blockbuster (Surrogates), but it's no sappy "Top Gun" type of ballad. It's all guitar crunch and minor key hook, with Ben Burnley scowling "fall" in that cookie-monster growl of his.

Burnley is also one of the neat things about BB. He's a lead singer that exudes charisma (the "I Will Not Bow" video really plays off his looks), and he offers the band his lyrical power. The man has some dark obsessions; as I noted on a review of "Phobia," there's a lot of death and dying in his defiance. Put Aaron Fink's rumbling guitar underneath that sentiment, and you get some bone-crunching music ("Fade Away").

That's not to say they aren't sensitive guys. They bring a string section on board for the "Anthem of The Angels" and closing "Without You." There's also the astonishing "What Lies Beneath." "Dear Agony" runs solid from thunderous beginning to string saturated end, an album you can play all the way through. It may be "Agony," but then again, there's no gain without pain. And Ben Burnley loves to bring the pain.