Breaking Benjamin’s Most Memorable Guitar Riffs

Breaking Benjamin is one of the biggest names in post-grunge, and they're really one of the pioneers of the genre. Even though they came a bit later than some of the first big bands known in the post-grunge movement, they were kind of the second wave of the genre, with Breaking Benjamin finding their success just a few years after bands such as Shinedown, Seether, Foo Fighters, Creed and Nickelback, who broke first.

Post-grunge isn't a genre known for its wild guitar soloing. That really belongs to the hair metal world. But, post-grunge is certainly known for its incredible guitar riffs.

According to Live About, "Post-grunge is a form of hard rock that first flourished in the mid-1990s in response to the popularity of Seattle grunge bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam earlier in the decade. But where grunge took inspiration from darker genres, like punk and metal, post-grunge transformed the thick guitar sounds and candid lyrical themes of the Seattle bands into an accessible, often uplifting mainstream aesthetic."

So, those thick guitar sounds mentioned by Live About mean that this genre is brimming with great guitar riffs. In honor, let's look at some of Breaking Benjamin's best guitar riffs.

Breaking Benjamin formed in the late 1990s, and they dropped their major-label debut in 2002, Saturate. That album was packed with meaty guitar riffs, but it took a while for Breaking Benjamin to really get hot. Their next big milestone was in 2004, with We Are Not Alone, which was Breaking Benjamin's breakout album. Song such as "So Cold" and "Sooner or Later" solidified the band as one of the kingpins in post-grunge and nu-metal.

"The Diary of Jane"

One of Breaking Benjamin's most popular songs is "The Diary of Jane," and one of the reasons is for its recognizable, high-octane guitar riff. If there was one song and riff to explain Breaking Benjamin's sound, it would be the powerful guitar riff on "The Diary of Jane." It really represents the band's post-grunge and alt-metal style of playing.

"Blow Me Away"

Here's a slightly lesser-known Breaking Benjamin song, but this one is just as important. "Blow Me Away" really represents Breaking Benjamin's alt-metal side, with a super aggressive and powerful riff that takes no prisoners.

"So Cold"

"So Cold" is another one of Breaking Benjamin's biggest hits. Even though who don't know that band would likely recognize this riff if it happens to be playing on the radio. What's so cool about the guitar riff in "So Cold" is that it's hard and heavy yet melodic, setting it apart.

Speaking with Tina Whelski in 2005, vocalist Benjamin Burley talked about how "So Cold" is the song that got them to a point where they had major success. "It's a known thing, but it only takes one song to get you anywhere and 'So Cold' is what did that for us," he said, adding that they "were just glad to get our foot in the door."

He continued, stating, "We got a gold record from pretty much one song and now hopefully it's going to place platinum. It's just a thrill ride and we’ve been enjoying it."

Breaking Benjamin's guitar riffs even go over well when played by an orchestra. Something Breaking Benjamin did with their 2020 compilation album, Aurora, was reimagine their most popular songs, such as the tracks mentioned above, and adding orchestration.

"The base of that record is acoustic instruments in a studio environment, (and) adding the orchestration just made sense after that," the band told Montreal Rocks in a 2020 interview. "If you took the acoustic instruments and the orchestration away, the songs are exactly the same as how we play them live."

In a 2015 interview with Cryptic Rock, Burley talked about how "grateful" he is to be able to do his art and make guitar-driven music. "I am just glad I am able to continue, express my art, and do it in a way that kind of shows people what the band is, and what the production behind it always was, because this does not sound different to anything that I have done before as far as a music quality standpoint is concerned," he said at the time. "Hopefully it will show people that this is what makes the band what it is" all about.

Even though guitar riffs are important to Breaking Benjamin, Burley says that the meaning of the songs also matter, although he doesn't like to spill the beans on the meaning behind his songs. "Well, I kind of take a page from the book of Nirvana, in that I don't really talk about too much what the meaning or the planning of stuff is, because I love for people to draw their own conclusion, and that to me is part of the fun of doing all of this," he told May the Rock Be With You in 2015. "It could be taken as you've got to go through the band to get to the good, or there's two sides to everything, and you can't have light without dark, all of those kinds of things that it can hark into, but I don't want to say that that's it and all that it is, you know what I mean?"

Burley also opened up about touring in 2017 during an interview with Cleve Rock. "We just came off a big run with Korn so we already did the bigger places and we wanted to do the smaller ones, too," he said, adding, "because it doesn't matter, for us, no matter what, even if we are fortunate enough to sell out arenas in every single city that we go to, we still always do smaller places like House of Blues and places like that because we love the vibe. We love the intimacy of it."

So, there's a lot to Breaking Benjamin's music, from their memorable guitar riffs to those dark themes. In the end, it's all in the name of rock 'n' roll.