The hard rock band Breaking Benjamin earns its first No. 1 album on Billboard

Breaking Benjamin celebrates its first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart — and their best sales week ever — as Dark Before Dawn arrives in the top slot. The set moved 141,000 equivalent album units in the week ending June 28, according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 135,000 were pure album sales — the group’s best week ever.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week based on multi-metric consumption, which includes traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA).

Previously, Breaking Benjamin’s best sales frame came when its last studio effort, 2009’s Dear Agony, bowed at No. 4 with 134,000. That wasn’t their highest charting album, however, as that honor had fallen to 2006’s No. 2-peaking Phobia (though it started with a smaller sum: 125,000).

Dark Before Dawn is Breaking Benjamin’s first studio album in nearly six years, and first with an almost all-new lineup. Now a quintet, only its namesake lead singer, Benjamin Burnley, remains from its previous incarnation as a quartet. (Two members of the band departed in 2010 after legal and contractual disputes, while another member left in 2013 due to creative differences.)

In May, Dark Before Dawn’s lead single, “Failure,” became the act’s third No. 1 on Mainstream Rock Songs. The track is currently in its eighth week atop that airplay list — the group’s longest chart-topping run (surpassing the seven weeks at No. 1 for 2007’s “Breath”).

In addition, Breaking Benjamin becomes the first rock act on Hollywood Records to score a No. 1 album. The label – which is part of the Disney Music Group – is likely best known for its soundtracks and albums from pop stars like Miley Cyrus and Demi Lovato. Still, Hollywood has been home to a number of rock acts, ranging from Plain White T’s and Queen to Atreyu and Fastball.

Source: Billboard
Image credit: http://breakingbenjamin.com