Published Tuesday, September 27, 2011 By amanda_caines. Under CD Releases, Editor : Amanda Caines, News, Uncategorized, Writer: Amanda Caines Tags: Amanda Caines, Amy Lee, Evanescence, evanescence new cd, female-fronted rock, new cds, new music, Nick Raskulinecz, Previews, rock, Steve Lillywhite, Tattermask, Wind-Up Records
With a name that means “disappearing like a vapor,” Evanescence, it seems, almost begged to enact its name and fade into the night, especially after the heavy, consistent dosage of drama that plagued the band from almost day one. Five years have passed since the last Evanescence record came out, which gave fans, media, and critics plenty of time to create a cloud of rumors about break-ups and solo projects, but the band is more “truly a band now than ever before,” frontwoman Amy Lee proclaims. The band’s new album, simply self-titled, “Evanescence,” will hit stores in the U.S. October 11, 2011.
Evanescence Boots Steve Lillywhite
This new body of work comes only after a long, personal journey for the band, especially Amy Lee. She told SPIN back in 2008 that she was trying to break into movie scoring and that she was writing new music on her own that was “nothing [she] would categorize as Evanescence.” As of March 2010, Lee remarked that she had realized that “Evanescence is who I am,” and the band was supposedly headed in an “electro-pop” direction with producer Steve Lillywhite (U2, Dave Matthews, Rolling Stones) for the new record—a pretty risky change for a band that built global fame with gothic hard rock. Some rumors assert that Wind-Up Records, the band’s label, rejected the Lillywhite recordings with a request for the band to produce music more akin to their signature sound, while other rumors attribute the split with Lillywhite to financial issues for Wind-Up and the producer’s inability to pull the record together in a timely fashion.
An article from Billboard magazine indicated that going back to square one in recording this record was Lee’s decision, though the remarks the magazine quotes from the label’s president are a bit more ambiguous: “One thing we do at Wind-up is, we’re patient. It [sic] it’s not right, it’s not coming out,” Wind-Up Records president Ed Vetri states. “If it takes a year or four years, [we're] going to take the time it needs to write the right record.” (http://www.billboard.com/#/news/amy-lee-new-evanescence-album-is-much-more-1005230332.story)
Lee commented officially to Rolling Stone: “I’ve come to realize now I was making like a solo record, and if it was going to be an Evanescence record, we needed to come together and make it like a band.” Even though interviews back in March of 2010 indicated she had really found herself in the sessions with Lillywhite and with producer/programmer Will “Science” Hunt—not the same Will Hunt as is currently the drummer, by the way—Lee says things are panning out in a more cohesive way now: “That was a hard time for me. I thought I knew what I wanted and it sort of didn’t happen like I wanted it to…But I have to say I feel so strong about what we’re doing now…We still have some of the same songs from those sessions but we’ve made them about the band.”
Evanescence: It’s not just about Amy Lee anymore
Regardless of the reasons behind the sudden about-face in the making of the new record, the band has come away from their trials stronger as a whole, according to Lee. Despite overwhelming assertions that the band is more “about the band” than it is about Amy Lee, the press still seems pretty focused on Lee and nobody else. All of the interviews, photos, and videos related to the new album feature her prominently, if not exclusively. In the few moments the band has to speak in interviews, they do seem excited about their new album, which they’ve been pushing hardcore ever since they were sure it was going to get finished this year. They made a video this summer to promote the new single, “What You Want,” that is meant to tell the history of Evanescence, emulating the gritty rock club scene that birthed the band many years ago during the full-band scenes. I’m not sure the video screams “club scene” or conveys anything about the band’s history like they want it to, but making the video about the history of a band of which Lee is the only remaining founding member and featuring her almost exclusively in the non-performance scenes doesn’t seem very “about the band” to me, anyway. In her defense, though, Lee is a pioneer in female-fronted hard rock and her fronting the band sets it apart from many others in the rock genres, but having a fully collaborative writing style for this record promises to make it even more dynamic than previous records that were written just by Lee and one other writing partner. That was the reason given for making the album self-titled and using artwork for the cover of the CD that didn’t feature a picture of just the singer, as was done for the other two albums.
So… Wasn’t this a story about Evanescence’s new album?
I’m getting to that—like Evanescence, I had to get through the past first. During their recording sessions in Nashville’s Blackbird Studios with accomplished hard rock producer Nick Raskulinecz (Foo Fighters, Deftones, Alice in Chains), the band recorded a total of 16 songs—a good number—that can’t all be included on the final record… unless you pre-order the “deluxe version” on iTunes for $3 more, that is. Elements of the final product sound similar in some ways to the previous body of work from Evanescence, but some differences shine through as well. The new songs still have that dark, epic, full sound that defines Evanescence, yet there’s a new, raw edge to the guitar sound in some places—no doubt a product of the increase in writing influence from her metal-based bandmates: guitarists Terry Balsamo (Cold) and Troy McLawhorn (Seether, Dark New Day), bassist Tim McCord (Revolution Smile), and drummer Will Hunt (Dark New Day, Crossfade, Black Label Society). The track “Made of Stone,” available in full for listening at Evanescence.com, sounds a bit like “Pieces” by Troy’s former band, Dark New Day. Not all the songs are super-heavy, though: “Lost in Paradise,” a soft-but-powerful piano ballad that blossoms into a full-band creation, has a feel to it that’s not unlike their famous “My Immortal” from the “Daredevil” movie soundtrack. The last previewed track, “The Other Side,” has some R&B-style vocals over heavy guitars with an odd-but-nifty result. Vocally, it sounds like Amy Lee is pushing herself further than in previous records, and the band is displaying a level of writing maturity that makes the band’s debut record sound like nursery tunes. From the limited available previews of the new songs, it sounds like the rhythms of the songs are leaning towards a heavier metal sound while the vocals and some stylistic elements are going in a more 80’s-pop/R&B direction—resulting in some sort of hybrid “pop-metal.”
All that being said, I am a long-time Evanescence fan—anyone who’s heard my band, Tattermask, is not surprised to hear that, I’m sure—and, after hearing the previews of the tracks during the massive amounts of research I’ve done for this article, I’m insanely excited about this new album. I’m going to go pre-order the deluxe version right now.
