Evil Angel –
Breaking Benjamin
(Not my video I just love Assassin's Creed so I used
This fan-made video)
* The official date I started reviewing was July 5th 2011, the date I started typing this review, July 9, 2012 I’m four days late but hell at least I remembered… I honestly thought I started in August which was when I planned on making these anniversary reviews for the majority of the month. Oh well maybe I’ll be on time next year. *
I spent quite a while wondering what song or band I should review for my anniversary. I thought about a follow up Assemblage 23 review since I’ve been dying to review a song by A23, but that went nowhere. So I put my IPod on shuffle and the first song that it picked I would review (unless I ready reviewed it,)
Lucky for me it randomly landed on “Evil Angel” by my favorite band (right next to Soil and Eclipse and Wumpscut) Breaking Benjamin.
I have a lot of history with this song. It got me addicted to Breaking Benjamin, it inspired a fan fiction which turned into four book series I’ve been working on since the summer of 2008, they’re the reason I got into the Halo games, Ben’s a gamer and they have a song on the Halo 2 soundtrack, (it’s supposed to be in the game as well but Halo 2 hates my computer’s graphics card) and it also gave the determination to own a guitar and (borrow) a drum set so I can learn this song on both instruments, however neither of those things have happened yet, but I have a snare drum, it counts for something…
Breaking Benjamin currently composed of two members, Benjamin Burnley and Chad Szeliga, formed in Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania around 1998. The lineup consisted of Ben Burnley and Aaron Fink, (Wikipedia claims that two other guys named Nick Hoover and Chris Lightcap were also in the band but since their website is down I can’t really confirm it.)
Before he formed Breaking Benjamin or Plan 9, Ben earned money as a solo artist playing cover songs. In 1998 Ben moved to California with Aaron, Nick and Chris to try new material and went under the name of Strangers with candy. That didn’t work out at all and Ben moved back to Pennsylvania and formed Plan 9 without Nick because he asked to leave the band after Mark was brought in to play bass. Aaron and Nick were already in a band called Lifer and would have Plan 9 open for them and somewhere along the line they decided to stick with Ben and after a supposed incident where Ben broke someone’s microphone (in an attempt to imitate his lifelong idol Kurt Cobain of Nirvana) the owner supposedly said “I’d like to thank Benjamin for Breaking my fucking microphone,” it gave Ben the idea to claim the name Breaking Benjamin as their band name.
In 2002, the Breaking Benjamin EP sold all 2000 copies and got Hollywood record’s attention leading to the release of Saturate a year later. We Are Not Alone came out in 2004 and had three songs with Billy Corgan’s name attached to it. Ben teamed up with Billy of Smashing Pumpkin’s fame and those three songs he helped write are “Rain,” “Forget it,” and “Follow.” However all was not good in the world of Breaking Benjamin, their current drummer at the time, Jeremy Hummel had left the band for personal reasons (but then came back for a brief amount of time) only to be fired a short time later. He then sued the band in 2006 because he claimed he did not receive any payments for making We Are Not Alone. The lawsuit didn’t drag the band down however, they had a guy named Kevin Soffera fill in for Jeremy while he was on leave for his personal reasons, and then when he was fired. Kevin’s duties as replacement drummer came to an end when they hired another Ben nicknamed B.C. Vaught to fill in until they hired Chad Szeliga.
Phobia, the album that introduced me to Breaking Benjamin if my memory is correct (Firefly and Polyamorus are on the game Smackdown Vs. Raw the 2004 game, I don’t remember when I first played it but I never really paid any attention to the game music but I remember enjoying Firefly.) Since I never really cared for the game music it’s safe to say that Phobia was my first real taste of the band and I loved it. This album was the first of a few albums I had in the beginning of my alternative rock phase of music in my life.
*Random side note it also came out around the time I was in middle school…*
The two singles off the album, Diary of Jane and Breath were my favorite two songs for a while, and since I’m slow it was at least a year after owning the album that I actually listened to the whole thing. My life changed forever after hearing the awesome that is Phobia. Breath was their first number one single on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks and the music video for it is a live concert at the Stabler Arena in Bethlehem Pennsylvania. The album went RIAA platinum on May 21st 2009.
Phobia received the name of Phobia due to front man Ben Burnley’s long list of phobias. Ben is scared of just about everything and one of those fears is flying and that’s why the “Intro” song features sound effects of an airport. The album was re-released in 2007 and reentered Billboard 200 at 38. There’s a Collector’s Edition DVD released in 2007 as well which contains their performance at the Stabler Arena.
Fun Facts time!
According to Wikipedia, Evil Angel was one of the first songs Ben wrote for the album and the song Topless (another song I might review) has been a fan favorite since they formed. Originally titled “Top of the World,” it was written and performed before Breaking Benjamin released Saturate. Diary of Jane and Breath were covered by The Vitamin String Quartet (an awesome Los Angeles band known for their tribute albums for Rock and Pop acts. They’re really good.)
So a few paragraphs ago I mentioned the band has two members now. Phobia had four, we are not alone had four as well as Saturate. Well the other members were fired. After Phobia another album called Dear Agony was released and this was also the time period where Ben finally sobered up for good in fact he wrote the whole album sober, but he has long lasting damage from the drinking. (Ben worked with Jasen Rauch from Red on this album, he helped with “I Will Not Bow,” “Hopeless,” “Lights Out,” and “Without you.”) I will Not Bow is in the movie Surrogates (which I haven’t seen yet but I will soon) and for touring they did a short tour of half the united states and then joined Thee Days Grace’s tour with Flyleaf. (It was my first Breaking Benjamin Concert. It was the best thing ever.)
Then their greatest hits album happened and shit went crazy.
Ben’s a perfectionist in my opinion, if it’s not good enough it probably won’t make it on to the album, although he did say in an interview I watched “if I’m not happy with a lyric I’d take a shot and I’d be okay with it” (on the topic of drinking and how it affected his work or something of the sort.) However, on The Shallow bay: The Best of Breaking Benjamin album there’s a remix of Blow me away by some girl named Valora. It was released on June 7th 2011 and Ben wasn’t too happy about it. He wasn’t happy because the remix was terrible and he was never approached about approving the remix which he wouldn’t have in the first place because it’s horrible. Aaron Fink and Mark Kelpaski as well as some people from the label decided the song was great and put it on there anyway. Ben promptly fired Aaron and Mark and then sued them for 250,000 in damages and exclusive right to the Breaking Benjamin name. I don’t know why he didn’t sue Valora either because she obviously didn’t have the full band’s permission to touch the song…
So that’s what happened to the other two members of Breaking Benjamin. They’re on hiatus until the lawsuit ends and he finds two new members for the band.
(Personal letter to Ben Burnley:
If you ever do stumble upon this or someone shows it to you, first off I’m a huge fan. I owe you a hug for your awesomeness and I’m sure all of the fans miss your forums as well as the fan club. I really do hope to meet you some day to tell you in person how much you’ve made an impact on my life. Keep being the amazing rocker that you are and I hate the remix of Blow me away just as much as you do.)
I’ve put off the review for about six pages now. I’ve wanted to review this song since I started reviewing, so I shall move on to the fifth track from Phobia, “Evil Angel.”
*Fun Fact time:
The song is in ¾ time signature and I didn’t realize it until I got to high school and learned how to figure out the time signature for a song. *
Verse one:
“Hold it together, birds of a feather,
Nothing but lies and crooked wings.
I have the answer, spreading the cancer;
You are the faith inside me.”
I review songs that I love, and I love this song, but I dreaded finding something to say about it because I honestly have no idea what I’m going to say so I’ll wing it from here on out. It’s not Ben’s fault I just suck at coming up with something to say so if I sound like I know what I’m talking about maybe other people will believe me. That’s usually how I get through all my reviews, most of them anyway, but this song is different. It means a lot to me and I am going to actually try to find something to say other than it’s good and nitpick at something to try and be funny. The only thing I can comment on would be the “birds of a feather,” line. I wasn’t sure what “Birds of a feather” meant so I Googled it and it means those with similar tastes congregate in groups. In other words it means that people who have similar likes stick together.
Verse two:
“No, don't
Leave me to die here,
Help me survive here.
Alone, don't remember, remember.”
That verse right there (and the other verse similar to it and the chorus) inspired what became my tribute fan fiction turned book series Evil Angel. I’ve heard the song could be about death and in the music video for Give Me a sign there’s a man walking around a hospital to all the dying patients and he’s the guy on the album artwork for Phobia and it’s rumored he’s the Evil Angel from Phobia. So basically it’s about death, speaking in terms of the album revolving around Ben’s various phobias, Ben has said he doesn’t believe in a person’s time to die and he is somewhat scared by the thought of dying. Then the song makes slight sense but that’s kind of a stretch.
First Chorus:
“Put me to sleep evil angel.
Open your wings evil angel.”
There’s a scream after those two lines. It seems weak at first but trust me it gets better. (I’ll add it here that I am deeply saddened by the fact there isn’t an official music video for this song. It deserves one and maybe someday they’ll make one for it but I doubt it.) But like I mentioned before this seems weak but it’s really not, the full effect of the chorus doesn’t happen until later on in the song.
Verse 3:
“I'm a believer,
Nothing could be worse,
All these imaginary friends.
Hiding betrayal,
Driving the nail,
Hoping to find a savior.”
Verse 4:
“No, don't
Leave me to die here,
Help me survive here.
Alone, don't
Surrender, surrender.”
This is where the part of my brain that makes these elaborate situations for music videos kicks in and epicness happens. That’s probably why I used this song for my tribute to Breaking Benjamin. The original plot was to write about a character with some sort of mental disorder trying to adjust to life after being diagnosed with it and stuff like that… but over the course of time and rewrites I changed quite a lot of plot but kept a lot of the original elements. Ben’s voice in this song is completely different from the others on the album. It’s softer than the other songs but remains as intense as always.
The song sounds like a cry for help. Someone’s dead and trapped somewhere and they’re not happy with where they’re at and the ‘Evil Angel’ left them there. The middle of the song filled with a drum and guitar solo signalizes the panic the person feel once their situation fully dawns on them and then this part happens.
Second Chorus:
“Put me to sleep evil angel.
Open your wings evil angel.
Oh.
Fly over me evil angel.
Why can't I breathe evil angel?”
That repeats once and then the song ends. That right there is what makes the song the amazing thing that it is. What does it mean in context of what I said before about the cry for help, I have no idea and I’ll probably never figure it out only Ben knows the true meaning of the song and he doesn’t like to talk about what the songs mean, he thinks it’ll ruin the experience if he comes out and says it so he lets the fans come up with song meanings. I like his thinking but knowing what he was going for with this song might have helped review it, but that didn’t stop me from reviewing “Breath of Ghosts” over a year ago, and it won’t stop me now.
I have to say something meaningful about the song; I can praise it until I turn blue in the face but if I can’t comment on the lyrics what’s the point. It is clear there’s pain occurring in some form. It’s a song about being hurt and possibly a cry for help from being hurt, maybe a misleading promise lead to something disastrous. I’m not the only one who thinks that because skimming through some comments on songmeanings.net, I seem to be on the same train of thought as some other people. I doubt it’s about a broken relationship or anything truly religious; I can’t really picture Breaking Benjamin writing religious oriented songs. Another comment I noticed is that it’s about Ben’s Alcoholism… which sort of makes sense if it’s about an addiction… actually it makes a lot of sense… If the Evil Angel isn’t a physical person, it’s the temptation of alcohol or any other addictive substance. The song meaning might not be clear at all, but it’s an interesting song from a great album and the world needs to listen to it… not that a significant amount of people even read my reviews but I hope to spread word of this song to as many people as possible.
Hope you enjoyed the first part of my anniversary reviews.
~Pugsly~
No comments:
Post a Comment