"Breaking Benjamin's" album "Phobia" was released on August 8, 2006, and the celebration is quite gloomy we must admit...
Exactly according to the name of the album so does its cover, its content and everything that goes around it, everything speaks the same language about phobias and fears, but that is precisely what makes this album so special.
The fact that the band is the essence of Benjamin Burnley, is not new, he is the band leader and has the main rule in lyrics and music writing. Now imagine a person who has been addicted to alcohol for several years in such a severe way that it has created in him a chronic disease of headaches, nausea, and other symptoms, so severe that sometimes he even fails to function. In addition to this difficult physical condition, he developed various and strange anxieties such as fear of death, fear of the dark (yes, yes there is that for adults as well), hypochondria, and fear of flying. Sounds delusional to impossible but it is true, several times Burnley has shared the difficult situations and adversity he is going through as a result of these anxieties and this is of course also what strengthened his addiction to alcohol. All of these caused him to get into stressful situations, nervous breakdowns, and situations of mental and physical distress.
(Photo: YouTube.com)
This album reveals Burnley's wounded soul, his coping, his internal mechanisms, his distress situations, and everything to do with his fears. Aside from the band’s powerful and all-too-familiar melodies and riffs we also get Burnley’s voice in an extraordinary way here. His voice is sometimes pleasant and caressing and sounds optimistic but he often, screams and cuts until you feel the distress penetrating through the eardrum. There are undoubtedly gloomy and dark lyrics (sometimes a little optimistic), and sentences that will make your spine shiver, and all of these are combined with the musical power of the band creating a very strong package of powerful sound.
To complete the music inside, the album cover features a figure hanging in the air with angel wings above a flight path, the contrast of the flight path is a symbol of Burnley's fear of flying, and the angel wings are a symbol of hope, create a kind of reflection here. The album also opens and ends with two musical pieces with the sounds of an airport terminal in the background. Again a display of one of Burnley's great fears just to put us in the mood for the album.
A number of very successful singles have come out of this album, which to this day are the band's hallmark like "The Diary Of Jane" which is one of the band's most famous songs, "Dance With The Devil", "Breath" and "Until The End". By the way, there is a Best-Buy version and a Japanese version of the album which has song number 14 which is an acoustic rendition of the song “The Diary Of Jane”.
This is the band's third album and one of their best, for those who do not know the band we recommend starting with this album.
Listen to the album on: Spotify, Apple Music
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