Breaking Benjamin - Phobia

Blurb
They have an excellent live act, and do some good work on their albums. The first couple of times I went around this album it did little for me. However, beyond the mainstream singles 'The Diary Of Jane' and 'Breath', there are a couple of songs that dig deep into the BB sound - 'You' and 'Topless' are excellent tracks.

I hate saying the phrase "obligatory ballad", but since every band these days throws in a sprinkling of these I am left with little choice. In this album it's 'Here We Are'. I'm really glad leadman Ben now actually sings versus his previous mumbling and/or screaming. This shows up in 'Dance With The Devil'. 'Evil Angel' is a song that typifies BB's crunching guitar sound.

This is a good mid-career album, always looking forward to more from this band. They toured with Godsmack this last summer, which sounds like a big step-up for BB; along with Three Days Grace they remain one of my favorite radio-friendly unit-shifter nu-rock bands.

Track Listing
1. Intro
2. The Diary of Jane
3. Breath
4. You
5. Evil Angel
6. Until the End
7. Dance with the Devil
8. Topless
9. Here We Are
10. Unknown Soldier
11. Had Enough
12. You Fight Me
13. Outro

Overall Rating
They could always do worse, or better for that matter. This is a good listen, and for that they get a middle of the road 7.5/10.