Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, USA (1998 – present)
Formed in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, USA in 1998 by vocalist Benjamin Burnley and drummer Jeremy Hummel, Breaking Benjamin quickly garnered a strong local following. 1st Studio Album [2002] - Saturate
The band signed to Hollywood Records in 2001 after the success of an independently-released, self-titled EP, which sold all 2,000 copies that were manufactured. Hollywood Records released their full-length, major-label debut, Saturate, on August 27, 2002. The album’s first single, “Polyamorous”, received a fair amount of radio play, although it failed to reach mainstream audiences.
Biography
1st Studio Album [2002] - Saturate
The band signed to Hollywood Records in 2001 after the success of an independently-released, self-titled EP, which sold all 2,000 copies that were manufactured. Hollywood Records released their full-length, major-label debut, Saturate, on August 27, 2002. The album’s first single, “Polyamorous”, received a fair amount of radio play, although it failed to reach mainstream audiences. A video was released in two different versions for Polyamorous: one that had all live-action footage, and one that had footage of the video game Run Like Hell. The following single “Skin” was also released from Saturate, although it fared worse than “Polyamorous” and received even less airplay. “Skin” was also performed live on the Jimmy Kimmel Live show. “Medicate” was also released as a single, to little commercial success and airplay. Saturate has gone on to sell over 300,000 copies.
2nd Studio Album [2004] - We Are Not Alone
Breaking Benjamin released their second album, We Are Not Alone, on June 29, 2004. The album featured the lead off single “So Cold”, which reached number two on the United States Billboard Mainstream Rock chart. The band had two music videos made for the song, one of which was a promotional video made for the movie Hellboy. The commercial success of “So Cold” led to We Are Not Alone achieving platinum status in late 2005. Also released as singles from the album were “
Sooner Or Later” and a re- recorded version of “Rain”, which was featured on later pressings of the album. While the former again got the band as high as number two on the Mainstream Rock chart and featured a music video, the latter garnered little radio play and had no video created for it. Another song off “We Are Not Alone”, “Sooner or Later”, had a video created for it and got a fair amount of radio play. Later in 2004, the band released the So Cold EP. The EP contained live recordings of We Are Not Alone’s “So Cold” (an acoustic recording), “Breakdown”, and “Away”, as well as studio recordings of “Blow Me Away”, a song that was featured in Bungie’s video game Halo 2, and “Lady Bug”, an early fan favorite of the band’s.In September of 2004, drummer, and founding member of Breaking Benjamin, Jeremy Hummel was relieved of his duties in the band. Subsequently, on September 28, 2005, Hummel filed a federal lawsuit against the remaining members of Breaking Benjamin, as well as its management, claiming he was not paid for songs he helped write. Hummel’s lawsuit asked for more than $8 million in damages. A message was released October 25, 2006 on the bands official website stating that the band and Hummel had come to agreement on the lawsuit.
3rd Studio Album [2006] - Phobia
In the fall of 2006 the band began a tour opening for Godsmack for the IV tour, hitting up mostly eastern and Ohio Valley venues, and soon moving out west, still in support of the Phobia album, released on August 8 that year. Several of the shows had been canceled, or turned into Breaking Benjamin headliners due to scheduling conflicts. Many of Breaking Benjamin’s tour dates from December 3rd have been rescheduled due to illness in the band’s ranks. All dates were rescheduled as the band announced another headlining leg before going on a nationwide tour with Three Days Grace and Nickelback.
On March 4, 2007, HDNet premiered a one-hour show of the Breaking Benjamin concert in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania at Stabler Arena. This is also the concert that was included on the Phobia re-release DVD in April of 2007, advertised as “The Homecoming”. Footage of the band’s live Stabler Arena performance of “Breath” comprises the song’s music video[1].
On April 17, 2007, Breaking Benjamin re-released the album Phobia. The album featured a DVD with about an hour of their Stabler Arena concert footage.
4th Studio Album [2009] - Dear Agony
On the 29th of September, 2009, Breaking Benjamin released their 4th studio album, entitled “Dear Agony”. Some of the tracks on the album, were co-written by Jasen Rauch, from the Christian-metal band Red.
On September 23, 2009, Breaking Benjamin released a flash video game parody of Altered Beast, aptly titled “Altered Benjamin”. The game contains three levels and plays the same as the original, except the player controls vocalist Ben Burnley and the three bosses are each other member of the band respectively. Altered Benjamin is still available through the band’s website, and their MySpace page.
