Tuesday 12 December 2023

The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg

 






The single's promotional image shows Eddie (the band's mascot) digging out the grave of Benjamin Breeg, whose tombstone states "Aici zace un om despre care nu se știe prea mult".

 This is a sentence in Romanian, which translates into "Here lies a man about whom not much is known." 

The identity of the character is being held secret by band members. Steve Harris, in an interview featured on the DVD (with special edition CD album), was quoted as saying: "Who is Benjamin Breeg? Ah, now that would be telling".

Just before the time of the single's release, a website was created containing a 'biography' of Benjamin Breeg. According to the website, the creator was a cousin of Benjamin's searching for him after he ran across an obscure photograph of his long lost cousin in a box of his recently deceased grandmother's belongings.



The 'biography' stated that Benjamin Breeg was born on 3 September 1939 (the date that France, the UK, New Zealand, and Australia declared war on Germany after their invasion of Poland, forming the Allied powers), in LondonEngland. Both of his parents died in a still-unexplained house fire in 1947, and Benjamin was sent to an orphanage

He was smart but very much a loner. Here he took up a fascination with religion and thought of becoming a clergyman. He was never able to settle in with any of the three families that fostered him, and after he turned ten began to experience nightmares.

 He began to show artistic talent and made many paintings which have since been lost; it is presumed that Benjamin destroyed them himself. His paintings were disturbing to others and when asked what inspired the drawings, he said he painted what he saw in his nightmares.

 He left the orphanage in 1954 and got a job engraving tombstones at a funeral home. He lived alone and by this time his interest in religion had become almost an obsession. Traveling the world from 1960 to 1970, he moved back to England in 1971. He took up a job at the International Institute of Paranormal Investigation, and over the next six years wrote at least four books on occult practices in countries he'd visited. 

He disappeared on 18 June 1978, and still has not been found. The cousin of Benjamin who created the webpage asked anyone who knew anything about his whereabouts to contact him, and, according to the final chapter of the story, one man did. The cousin arranged a meeting with the man that was set to take place on 14 August 2006.



Let me tell you about my lifeLet me tell you about my dreamsLet me tell you about the things that happenAlways real to me
Let me tell you of my hopeOf my need to reach the skyLet me take you on an awkward journeyLet me tell you whyLet me tell you why
Why should these curses be laid upon me?I won't be forgiven 'til I can break freeWhat did I do to deserve all this guilt?Pay for my sins with the sale of my soulDemons are trapped all inside of my headMy hopes are gone reach for heaven from hell
My sins are many, my guilt is too heavyThe pressure of knowing of hiding what I knowI'm able to see thingsThings I don't want to seeThe lives of a thousand soulsWeigh heavy down on me
I know they're crying for help reaching outThe burden of them will take me down as wellThe sin of a thousand souls not died in vainReincarnate still in me live again
Someone to save meSomething to save me from myselfTo bring salvationTo exorcise this hell
Something to save me from my hellA destinationAway from this nightmareSomeone to save meSomething to save me from myselfTo bring salvationTo exorcise this hell