Evanescence
Evanescence (EP)

THE REVIEW

Very first work by Evanescence, dating all the way back to '98 with songs written from the band's foundation. Therefore, a fundamental work to understand the band now so often criticized for being commercial, but which truly went through a commendable apprenticeship.

But let's proceed in order. The album, more of a demo than an actual work, is extremely rare to find as it was distributed and sold out the very night of a live performance. The first track is Where Will You Go, a song immediately difficult to classify but with an interlude that captivates you, moves on to Solitude, the first ballad by Evanescence, challenging and demanding to listen to, but appreciable once you fully understand it.

The third track is Imaginary, not yet the version from Fallen but obviously a demo, from which you discover how old this song is and how intimate it is in its poetry, but immediately after, it moves to Exodus, in my opinion, the true yet underrated masterpiece: a repetitive, perhaps banal yet superb piano background serves as the framework for lyrics that talk about visions of everyday life in an unexpectedly melancholic key (Amy manages to make even a "twenty bucks should get me through the week" dark), to then cap it off in the mad, in the "I know who you really are", in the untranslatable "where true meaning lies". Why was this song then completely ignored?

Fifth track, So Close, also never picked up again, a tapestry of arpeggios underlays a composed and desperate wailing, and ever so pleasant in its structure, that urges you to listen without boring you for a second. Sixth track: the hallucinatory Understanding, with almost doom and engaging soundscapes, filled with more laments from Lee and a choir voice to give the whole a shiver. Surely, something practically never heard before, listen to believe.

Last track. Track? The one listed as track seven, which goes by the name of The End, is anything but a track: a drone of metallic guitar brutally mixed with Lee's choir voice, all intertwined with completely mind-blowing filler effects. A metaphor for the prevailing chaos?

Unfortunately, this demo ends here, which laid the groundwork for the sound of Evanescence, today perhaps more overshadowed by that extra veil of tunefulness, but which gave rise to their personal interpretation of gothic rock and metal that is now used with ease by all the major representatives of the genre.