Formed in 1998 by vocalist Benjamin Burnley and drummer Jeremy Hummel, Breaking Benjamin quickly garnered a strong local following. In 1999, the band briefly renamed themselves "Plan 9." In late 2000, after various line-up changes, the band changed its name back to "Breaking Benjamin" and two friends of Burnley, Aaron Fink and Mark Klepaski, left their previous band, Lifer, and joined the ranks of Breaking Benjamin as guitarist and bassist, respectively. Lifer was a band that gained brief mainstream attention because of their part in an MTV cover band contest that resulted in a record deal with Universal Records.
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; both videos can be seen on YouTube. 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 Kimmell Show. "Medicate" was also released as a single, to little commercial success and airplay.
Breaking Benjamin released their sophomore album, We Are Not Alone, on June 29, 2004. The album featured the leadoff single "So Cold", which reached as high as 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. 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 the videogame 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.
The band released their third album, Phobia, on August 8, 2006; the album debuted at number two on the Billboard album charts. The first single, "The Diary of Jane" was released online on May 22, 2006 and later was released on the radio June 6, 2006. The music video for "The Diary Of Jane" premiered on Yahoo! Music on June 21st, 2006. The song has reached as high as number two on the Mainstream Rock chart. Frontman Ben Burnley indicated on RockLine that Phobia was written so that all the songs could stand as singles, each having an equal opportunity to be next. It has recently been announced on the band's Myspace page and during their live performance that "Breath" will be the next single.
In the fall of 2006 the band began a tour opening for Godsmack along with HourCast for the IV tour, hitting up mostly eastern and Ohio Valley venues, and soon moving out west, still in support of the Phobia album. Several of the shows had been cancelled, or turned into Breaking Benjamin headliner's 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.
Phobia was certified Gold by the RIAA in December of 2006 for shipments over 500,000 copies.
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