Breaking Benjamin
Saturate
Hollywood
Another hard rock/nu-metal act poised somewhere between Deftones and Korn, but arguably, a wee bit more interesting than most similarly styled acts. Obviously, they do follow the formulas laid down by just about every US metal act fore the last five years, but there is some undefined “it” to much of the material that singles Breaking Benjamin out from the rest. Perhaps it’s the pure craftsmanship, the regularly impressive melodies teaming up with quite nice and aggressive riffs to make something a bit special. Or it may be vocalist Ben Burnley, who has a rather splendid voice for this type of material, coupled with the band’s tendency to throw in some off-kilter lines to make their songs a little less predictable than what we’ve come to expect lately.
In any case, we get the fine single “Polyamorous,” already receiving some pretty intense radio attention. “Skin” couples immediate pop sensibilities with a furious punch and pulls it off, while “Water” diverges into classic metal territory. There’s plenty of filler material on here, mind – or what with the dull and overdone “Natural Life” and “No Games” – but all things considered, this is a convincing display of talents, all to rarely witnessed in “contemporary” metal.
Breaking Benjamin: http://www.breakingbenjamin.com
