Evanescence
Evanescence

THE REVIEW

After a production period less troubled than usual, which only led to a change of producer during the process and a year's delay compared to the initial plans that had predicted the album's release in the fall of 2010, Evanescence finally sees the light in October 2011 with a new producer and an identical lineup to the one Our band had when they said farewell to the general public in 2007 (not counting the two brief appearances in 2009, which also featured a slightly different lineup that did not include Troy McLawhorn on guitar).

Evanescence is the band’s third official album and world production (not counting the limited production work Origin), an album that had a rather long gestation period and was announced as one of the most anticipated albums of 2011 after the absence of Evanescence from the scene had become decidedly embarrassing, and after the negative vicissitudes of the record company and a cryptic interview by Amy herself, in which she declared she was working on a solo album, had led many to believe that the Evanescence project might be shelved for much longer.

Yet, the third album is in our hands, and the cover features the band’s name and its eponymous title, a decision I find happy to open a new "Era".

Evanescence, a band founded in 1995 and initially composed of the duo Amy Lee and Ben Moody, to whom keyboardist Hodges later joined, made waves worldwide in 2003 with the famous Fallen, a hugely sold album that remains an unsurpassed success for the band to this day.
The basis of this success lies in elements that literally drove fans crazy at the time: a truly unique voice and look of the singer, sounds mixing electronics and metal guitars together with that post-grunge taste and pop influences that captivated the general public, unforgettable melodies, and lyrics that remain great classics today (just think of Bring Me to Life and My Immortal).

Three years later, but especially after the departure of Ben Moody, who constituted 50% of Evanescence, Lee was called to the incredibly challenging task of replicating a global success.
The Open Door is an album on the verge of a concept album, where the universally appealing lyrics of Fallen are replaced by life stories, many of which are surely inspired by direct events experienced by Lee herself, all well-packaged and enhanced by the ballad Lithium, the album’s second single and probably one of The Open Door's best songs.
But when it comes to the music, it becomes clear right away that something has broken, or at least changed: Ben Moody, whose guitar work and sensitivity were palpable in Fallen, is replaced by the much more conventional, though not bad, guitar of Terry Balsamo. The stylistic choices are profoundly different, and in general, the idea is more of a shift towards rock in the simplest sense of the term, rather than the elaborate electronic bases, which are replaced here by a skilled effect work, but on which guitars are decidedly predominant.
The album is still a success, despite evident cracks during the process, starting with the promotion of Lithium, the first single that did not achieve the expected success, and the departure of two other almost original members of the band (LeCompt and Gray), who later rejoined Moody in We Are The Fallen.

After a very long tour that concluded in December 2007, the band, now composed of three members plus two guest members from Dark New Day (nonetheless now considered full-fledged members of Evanescence), took a long period of rest, during which Amy devoted herself to some solo work, some sporadic appearances, and two concerts in Brazil in 2009.

As fans hoped, however, the third album gradually comes to light: initial interviews talk of a different album, a choral album, an album similar to Portishead, rumors of its release follow one another, and hypotheses regarding its sounds abound. Everything leads to a massive return to electronics, and everyone expects to have the CD in their hands in 2010, but the well-known events push everything to 2011.

The result is a work decidedly less experimental than The Open Door, but also less conventional: on one hand, the guitars are now played more incisively, heavy and enjoyable, recalling those of Fallen. On the other hand, the decision was to abandon, now definitively, any electronic aspirations (to which the old producer probably referred).

Evanescence is indeed a rock album, and it is one hundred percent: it does not have Fallen's electronics, it does not have The Open Door's experimentation, but Lee's voice is accompanied by a classic band that, it must be said, has no more anchor points with the past, but is composed of members from The Open Door onward.
This is noticeable if you listen to all three albums: each has a different lineup, message, and sound. On one hand, this is certainly an excellent work of musical variety, but on the other, those who have followed the band from the beginning will surely notice that this constant change has also led to flattening those voice and melody interweavings that were a hallmark of the band.
In this new work, only the ballad My Heart is Broken (a decidedly rock ballad) or the moving Never Go Back are inspired by those elements. Songs like Erase This, Sick, and End of the Dream, however, venture into almost metal territory, where Amy sings in a decidedly unprecedented way in terms of vocal power and strength. Made of Stone, The Other Side, and Oceans are instead manifestos of the band's new creative trend, Swimming Home is an electronic song that probably belonged to what now is only a parenthesis, up until the sixteenth track Secret Door, which reveals a truly unprecedented Amy and a creative and melodic capability not present throughout the album.

Because that is precisely the point: on one hand, the rock choice paid off, gifting us with an excellent album. On the other hand, melodic originality is decidedly missing in many and too many passages, and the feeling, as in The Open Door, is that Moody's compositional ability, with which Lee somehow complemented, and upon which the Evanescence project was based, has never been completely filled, despite the efforts and results being significant nonetheless.

If the production of this album is almost perfect, and even puts Fallen's to shame on this (the means back then were lesser) and overshadows the experimentation of The Open Door, the songs, starting from the first track and the initial single, lack at times the true evanescent strength that was surely expected after such a long wait.

Evanescence is a work of courage, devotion, the tale of a new Era and the evolution of the Evanescence project, describing the current Evanescence, in which pain is still at the center of the lyrics and the music, which have Amy's voice as their strong point. However, it is difficult to determine the true value of this new record: a work undoubtedly directed at fans, much less so at newcomers or those unfamiliar with the band, because the elements of strength have been shelved in favor of a more conventional sound.

Nonetheless, it's a great work, perhaps better than The Open Door, equal to Fallen in terms of impact, if not even better in this aspect, definitely lesser in music and melodies, surely unique for Amy's use of her voice.

8 / 10