Breaking Benjamin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_Benjamin
http://www.facebook.com/BreakingBenjamin

Of late, I have discovered a new favorite band. Breaking Benjamin is crawling their way the number one spot on my music list. Why? Well, I think we have Pandora to thank for that! For those of you that have not heard of Pandora, it is "Internet Radio" that plays songs that it thinks you might like. You just type in a song or an artist and it finds relevant music. It's all part of their "Music Genome Project". Personally, they're doing a hell of a good job!

But back to the point of this entry...

Pandora brought up Hopeless by Breaking Benjamin. As part of their Genome Project, they assigned this song a particular set of characteristics that they believe exemplify the structure and overall body of it, including "hard rock roots, a subtle, use of vocal harmony, mild rhythmic syncopation, thru composed melodic style, minor key tonality, [and] an aggressive male vocalist." I'm no music major, so I don't really know how to pinpoint a lot of these characteristics in the song. I can hear the vocal harmony and an aggressive male vocalist though! I could probably attribute that to my background in vocal arts... or maybe it's just blatantly obvious. From there, I started to look more into the band I liked what I saw. They have similarities to Three Days Grace, Chevelle, Seether, Trapt and Crossfade, among others. I either music by one of these artists or heard them on Pandora. They are all great and sound fairly similar. My exploration, at this point, is getting into finding more of Breaking Benjamin's music.

So that's really how I got started. So what are my opinions on Breaking Benjamin?

First, I think that most of their music has meaning beyond what the lyrics say. I found this heavily with Hopeless. I could analyze the song... but that was the issue with my last post.

Second, they have a darker outlook on the world than some other artists. The titles of their songs are evidence for this. Though, personally, I have no problem with the darker outlook. I have long had an outlook on life were the people of the world only had the intention to hurt. My mentality was, "grow up as fast you can because it's better to strip your own innocence away than to have it ripped way from you." Hopeless reminds me of this mentality and helps me realize how badly that affected my life.

Third, an perhaps most important, they have talent. The subtle vocal harmony with a dash of scream-o is an "it's not too hot, but not too cold" experience for me. It's just right. On a side note, I do not think of music that is purely scream-o or otherwise to be a genre of music. I understand that the point is to convey anger, but I think that they could do it in a manner that everyone else can understand and NOT require the lyrics to do so. Love me or hate me for saying it, it matters not. I've said it. And that's that.

Finally, there's a fluidity to the music, like a caress that traces, gently, a sensitive part of the body and lingers long after its gone. It's a good feeling. It's a feeling that most musical artists cannot bring upon me.

That's it for this entry.

Thanks people!