Wednesday, February 17, 2010

A short musical interlude

I am going to type up a non gaming post here so be warned!

This post is about music. To be precise Breaking Benjamin's new release Dear Agony.

That Lights Out song on the new BB album to me most shows what I like about the band, unfortunately its the 8th song in. The new album is growing on me but that song sticks out as what they should release as the next single. Instead they released Give Me A Sign which is ok but kinda pussifies them on the radio. You see this happen a lot particularly with bands like Shinedown where they don't release their most rocking songs for fear of not having a broad audience. This is something I just do not get. The entire Breaking Benjamin album goes in a decent sequence although I am not a big fan of the theme song from the movie Surrogates that they did.



If you look back on their past albums it seems they have mellowed out quite a bit compared to early releases like Saturate and We Are Not Alone. Back then they caught some flak for sounding like other bands but I think that the lead singers voice and range does enough to separate them now. They have certainly acquired a new type of sound but some songs on the new album harken back to the heavier days (for instance Lights Out). The new album flows better than Phobia, their previous release, only we don't get such a standout tune like Diary of Jane of this new effort.

Overall I will give the album 3 1/2 out of 5 stars. This album is much easier to listen to than Phobia which broke up its own flow by putting an odd mix of songs on it in a bad order. I am able to just put Dear Agony in the player (or iPod as you kids call it) and just let it go through the whole album. On Phobia there were certainly songs I would skip. I really wish the band would go back to their roots and put forth an effort like we saw on Saturate, but I also understand that bands change over time and that is just the way the industry works. Their heaviest album is still We Are Not Alone. However on the music scene today you are forced to adapt as many bands start to sound alike. Even Chevelle, on their new album Sci Fi Crimes, really stretches the sound of their music.

1 comment:

  1. I think that every band kind of changes over time. They always get the 'you sold out' but I see it more of a maturing, developing their sound as well as a realisation of getting your lyrics/point across to a bigger scope of listener.

    Talking about music I'm going to see The Lostprophets in Edinburgh this Friday. Woooooo!!!!11!!!

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