Review Summary: Evanescence is inspired and the best Christian rock band ever.
From the time, they form the band, a star-is-born, it is Amy Lee, of course, and she writes most of the songs. Much of the credit goes to her. Ben Moody and Amy Lee are the founding members of Evanescence. They met at church camp. John Lecompt, the guitarist and Rocky Gray, the drummer later join the band. They are a force to be reckoned with. After the "Fallen" disc is multi-platinum, the Arkansas-based band is a stealth success. They worked on the album for so long, it seems it took them forever. They form as a Christian rock band, and they stick with their roots. They sound like metal and Goth rock mix with pop.
Bigwig Enterprises release their first album, called "Evanescence EP" December 1998. The tracks include "Where Will You Go, Solitude, Imaginary, Exodus, So Close, Understanding," and "The End (Outro)." Then they released the second album, "Whisper EP/Sound Asleep EP" in August 1999. It is mostly instrumental. The version of "Whisper" on this CD is different from the album. "Origin" is released before the most acclaimed "Fallen" It seems every "Whisper" song is different from every album.
Amy Lee, a songwriter and front woman is largely an amazing songwriter. She does not miss a beat when she goes on the stage performing live. She might get tired and her voice starts to jerk and tremble, but she keeps up herself in her expression and movement.
Evanescence's material stirs fluently from classic orchestral hope to understudy. It is moody piano arrangements and hip-hop-laced alternative sound. With the talented lead guitarist, Ben Moody and the haunting vocal of Amy Lee, the band is dark and full of emotional.
"Everybody's Fool," A nice little quirky upbeat rhythm starts this song off which breaks out with lyrics, "Perfect by nature, icons of self indulgence, just what we all need, more lies about a world that. Never was and never will be, have you no shame don't you see me, you know you've got everybody fooled" then it rocks in the chorus, harder and softly departed. It is really all about taste.
"Going Under" is rude and loud in the beginning. "Now I will tell you what I've done for you 50 thousand tears I've cried, screaming deceiving and bleeding for you." Take from Evanescence's disc, the breakthrough hit, "Bring Me to Life" is rock and metal. It is high spirit song, energetic and full of emotion. Nowadays, rock bands are adding rap in the songs. In "Bring Me To life", Paul McCoy of 12 Stones sings the rapping lyrics and he sounds good. The lyrics on the album are interesting, literate, and urbane.
"Tourniquet" is the highlight of the Goth metal rock song for me. It is upbeat. Amy sings, "My God, my tourniquet, return to me salvation." It gets unsettling for some. And it gets upsetting for some. If you believe in God, and faithful, you listen to the point, it gets louder and angrier, to me, but it is just words that not worse than you’ve read the articles in the newspaper. It is from the album "For the Incomplete" released by the band, Soul Embraced. One of the tracks is "My Tourniquet" written by the band Soul Embraced.
The "Imaginary" song has the interesting orchestration from the beginning. "I linger in the door way. Of long night, monster calling..." "In my field of paper flower and candy clouds of lullaby." It is an interesting lyrical imagination. I can imagine if in a long sleepless night, a monster calling me that is very scary, just like I might dream but the dream is over. I hope I do not have those nights when I cannot fall to sleep, and have a dream is better. But it sounds pretty darn cool.
"Taking Over Me" song lyric goes, "I have to be with you, to live, to breathe, you’re taking over me. I look in the mirror and see your face. If I look deep enough. So many things inside that are just like you are taking over."
"Haunted" is the song, "Long lost words whisper slowly to me, still can't find what keeps me here... watching me wanting me, I can feel you pull me down." It starts with the loud guitar and strikes me and Amy's voice kicks off, it is angry and deceiving. It is clearly her style of Goth rock and Christian rock or confronts Satan. It is about feeling the loneliness inside her, and the challenges in front her. We deal with at some point of our lives the life.
"My Last Breath" has an interesting mixture of heavily produced guitar chords. It rocks. "Holding my last breath, safe inside myself." "I'll miss the winter, a world of fragile things. Look for me in the white forest, hiding in a hollow tree."
"Hello," the song is slow.
"Playground school bell rings again
Rain clouds come to play again
Has no one told you she's not breathing?
Hello I'm your mind giving you someone to talk to
Hello
If I smile and don't believe
Soon I know I'll wake from this dream
Don't try to fix me I'm not broken
Hello I'm the lie living for you so you can hide
Don't cry
Suddenly I know I'm not sleeping
Hello I'm still here
All that's left of yesterday"
"Whisper," a song is inspiring and moving. "Shall I give in, upon my end shall I begin, forsaking all I've fallen for, I rise to meet my end"
After listening to the CD again, come back the same songs again, I listen, and I still love it. What I like about the band is that all songs from evanescence make you think your CD is skipping at one point. It comes from the rhythm and melody. The heavy distortion of the guitars very much covers the entire album. The melodies are heavy at times, it might not sound good for younger age children listener, but are still listener-friendly, for adults who love classical music or pop, and country.
Some have already heard of the song, "Missing" before you found out the song from their latest release, "Anywhere but Home." It's a great song, it is similar to "My Immortal" but not the new band version, and it is slow and graceful. The "Missing" lyrics include, "Isn't something missing? Isn't someone missing me?" And the chorus goes, "And if I bleed, I'll bleed, knowing you don't care. And if I sleep just to dream of you." It is breathtaking and it is whole new material.
Evanescence's line up:
Amy Lee, vocal, John Lecompt, guitar, William Boyd, Rocky Gray, the drum, Terry Balsamo, and Ben Moody, lead guitar and David Hodges, Keyboards and piano.
