Review Summary: Who is Evanescence again?
For many males, female fronted rock bands are guilty pleasures. For just a moment, let’s pretend that isn’t true. Imagine a world where you could blast an album out of your 92 Subaru with no social stigma attached to it... And I mean really blast it. Would you? Well, probably not. The singsong style of every track becomes tedious and borderline painful to listen to. That’s fine for high school girls and men trying to impress said school girls. It may be hard to wrap your head around, but some people may want a little more from their music… Enter, The Letter Black.
Without question, Amy Lee did huge things for the ladies of Rock. She made it acceptable for talented, semi-attractive women to front a band full of unattractive men covered with tattoos. Whether or not this is a good thing, remains to be seen. The bottom line, she served her purpose.
As you might have surmised, The Letter Black has a female vocalist. Unfortunately, people focus on that fact and forget the rest of the band. TLB are not tech, nor do they claim to be. What they do, they do well. While possibly overproduced, the layering of distorted electrics, clean acoustics and occasional violin and piano… Well, you get the idea. They haven’t reinvented the wheel, but they may have smoothed down the rough edges.
In the percussion department, there’s nothing groundbreaking to report. Mat Slagle executes his duty of backing the band like a human metronome. This is where the album truly flops. After a listen or two, even a blind man could find the holes. The opportunities for intricate fills were missed and replaced with a smack of the snare and a tom roll.
Just like Evanescence, the standout performance comes from the vocals of Sarah Anthony and her brother Mark. They may beat you over the head with Christian values, but at least they sound good going it. Look past it, if you can. If you can’t, avoid this album like AIDS and obesity. Sarah has amazing vocal potential, even though it’s only 63 percent realized on this album. She elected to stay in her safe zone, rather than do something special. In this particular niche of music, that IS the deciding factor.
Sadly, this album only has six or seven plays in it. It’s very catchy, but eventually runs dry. It’s better than anything Evanescence has put out, but not by much. Enjoy it with your Bible thumping girlfriend for a bit, and then let it collect dust on your shelf until you feel nostalgic. 2003 is dead.
