Fallen --- Evanescence --- 2003 (Wind-up)
Hard to know where to “pigeon-hole” Evanescence. They have progressive rock/metal influences, definite goth rock leanings, as well as a harder sort of emo vibe. “Fallen” was their debut, released in 2003, and took the album charts by storm, but since then they have only released one other studio album, and one part of the songwriting partnership and founder members has left the band. That leaves us with singer Amy Lee who, with guitarist Ben Moody, formed Evanescence (who must surely go down as the band most misspelled on paper!) and found huge success with this, their first album, selling over seventeen million copies worldwide. The sleeve of the album features a pale girl (presumably Amy herself) looking out at us like some sort of vampire or dead thing, with a half-frown, half-grin on her face. Quite spooky, and more than a little unsettling.
Their music definitely has a hard edge, mostly delivered on this album by Moody's fierce guitar, as in the opener, “Going under”, while “Bring me to life”, one of their most famous and successful singles, opens on gentle keyboard and piano, then the guitar kicks the track into life, with almost rap-style shout/singing by Moody. The song was used in the soundtrack to the film “Daredevil” (the only good thing about that movie, so I'm told!) and is a powerful slice of prog/goth metal, with passionate and desperate vocals from Amy, the melody dragging the song along by the scruff of its neck.
“Everybody's fool” continues in more or less the same vein, but halfway through it goes quite and a choir adds its voice to the song, which concerns the hero-worship youngsters attach to the latest opo sensations, dressing like them, talking like them, trying to be them. Quite an angry song, but the follower, “My immortal”, is a beautiful piano ballad, with Amy in much more relaxed form, her voice still strong and powerful but without the anger of the previous tracks. Shades of Edenbridge or Within Temptation about this one. Lovely string arrangement really makes the track; you can feel the pain in Amy's voice as she sings, and through it all is threaded the lonely, plaintive sound of her gentle piano.
“Haunted” is a scary-sounding song, with weird sounds and sort of skewed instrumentation giving the impression of being lost in a haunted house. Moody's heavy guitar returns, having been absent for the previous ballad, and goes to work with a will. “Tourniquet”, another heavy track, is concerned with the idea of suicide, and why it's still seen as a mortal sin to take your own life. Actually, not so long ago, it was a crime. How do you punish that? He killed himself: lock him in jail! Ridiculous! Anyway, the guitar growls away and keyboards keep the track bubbling nicely against Amy's distressed voice. Lovely, emotive synth ending.
“Taking over me” is something similar to “Bring me to life”, with gentle piano and snarling guitar, but things slow right down later for “Hello”, a simple piano ballad where again Amy's restrained vocal works just as well as, perhaps even better than the powerful siren of the faster tracks. Some truly expressive and emotional violin adds to this track, as if anything were needed, but it gives the song an extra dimension when it comes in.
I have to admit, from there it all starts to sound a little the same to me. The problem is that the fast tracks --- which very much outnumber the slower ones, as is in fairness usually the case --- with a few exceptions are hard to really sort one from the other. Kind of makes the album seem a little over-generic in places. It's a good album, but seventeen million copies? Don't really see it. I guess Evanscence must have been popular at one time though. Sort file under “occasionally” for my tastes.
TRACKLISTING
1. Going under
2. Bring me to life
3. Everybody's fool
4. My immortal
5. Haunted
6. Tourniquet
7. Imaginary
8. Taking over me
9. Hello
10. My last breath
11. Whisper