Dear Agony

Dear Agony is the fourth studio album by post-grunge/alternative metal band Breaking Benjamin. It was released on September 29, 2009 on the Hollywood label. A Best Buy edition, Japanese import version, and Zune exclusive version were also released, all of which feature bonus content. It is the last album released by the band to feature lead guitarist Aaron Fink and bassist Mark Klepaski.
Breaking Benjamin began writing for Dear Agony during 2008. The recording process began in September, leading to its release one year later. The cover of the album is an MRI scan of frontman Benjamin Burnley's head. Burnley has cited Dear Agony as the first album he has written sober. After the album's release it entered the Billboard 200 Chart at #4 selling roughly 134,000 copies in its first week, slightly more than Phobia. It also topped the iTunes download charts in the first week of its release. As of February 16, 2010, "Dear Agony" has been certified Gold by the RIAA and sold over 700,000 copies. "Lights Out" was used to promote the game Halo: Reach.
On September 23, 2009, Breaking Benjamin released an online browser game constructed from Adobe Flash which is a 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 Benjamin Burnley and the three bosses are each other member of the band respectively. The game also features the debut of the songs "Fade Away" and "Crawl".
Limited edition copies of Dear Agony purchased at Best Buy also included a bonus DVD that features the band's six music videos, including a previously unreleased version of the video for "I Will Not Bow". The version on the DVD is of the band only and does not contain any footage from the feature-film Surrogates, unlike the main version released online.
On September 29, 2009, "I Will Not Bow" was released as a downloadable track for the video games Rock Band and Rock Band 2. On February 16, 2010, "Give Me a Sign", "Until the End" and "Sooner or Later" were released as downloadable content for Guitar Hero 5.
"I Will Not Bow" was released for sale on August 31 as the album's first single. It was released to the radio and the band's MySpace page on August 11, 2009 instead of the planned date, August 17, 2009 due to a leak by their hometown radio station, WBSX. This single is featured in the film Surrogates, with the music video containing scenes from the movie. On November 13, 2009, the official music video for "I Will Not Bow" was released on YouTube. This version, however, did not contain scenes from the movie Surrogates.
"Give Me a Sign" was released as a radio single on January 5, 2010. The music video was released on March 10, 2010 through the band's MySpace website and also on Vevo.
According to AOL Radio Blog and Rawkpit.com, "Lights Out" was announced as the third single and it went to radio on June 15, according to All Access.
The Zune exclusive version of the album includes "Blow Me Away" which, though not officially part of the album, was released as a single in 2010. It is listed as "Blow Me Away (Soundtrack Version)" on the Zune version.
Breaking Benjamin:
Benjamin Burnley - lead vocals, rhythm guitar
Aaron Fink - lead guitar
Mark Klepaski - bass
Chad Szeliga - drums, percussions
Additional musicians:
Rachel Golub - violin on "Anthem of the Angels" and "Without You"
David Eggar - cello on "Anthem of the Angels" and "Without You"
Jonathan Dinklage - violin, viola on "Anthem of the Angels" and "Without You"
Production:
David Bendeth - producer, Mixer
Dan Korneff - engineer, digital editing
Ted Jensen - mastering
Jon D'Uva - digital editing, engineer
John Bender - digital editing, engineer
Kato Khandwala - digital editing, engineer
Michael "Mitch" Milan - assistant engineer
Jason Jordan - A&R
Florian Schneider - photography
David Snow - creative director