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Lately I have been listening to:
I for one, hope that this promising freshman band will stick around. You probably know the band for their hit "Bring me to Life" from the Daredevil soundtrack. I didn't see the movie nor do I have MTV, so my first exposure was while listening to local station 98KUPD. I immediately knew that I had to find out more about this band, "to the internet!" A quick search later and I had found the answer from dozens of fan sites that had already sprung up on the 'net. Little Rock Band founders, Amy Lee and Ben Moody, describe their music as "rock ... But the twist is that the band's music is epic, dramatic, dark rock." While they don't achieve the dark drama of Black Sabbath's "Headless Cross", they come very close given the processed sound that the major record labels currently produce. Fallen's songs are largely concerned with "dark" topics such as death, betrayal and loss; but some songs hold glimmers of hope as in "Bring Me to Life" and "Tourniquet." The latter is an interesting dark metaphor equating Christian salvation to a tourniquet, something of a spiritual last resort. I should note that Lee and Moody do not see Evanescence as a "Christian Band" and indeed there is not the evangelical feel of, say Stryper, when listening to the album. For my part, many of the songs seem concerned about loosing oneself in another as in "Going Under," "i'm going under / drowning in you / i'm falling forever / i've got to break through" and in "Haunted," "watching me / wanting me / i can feel you pull me down." One of the songs that I enjoy the most is "Imaginary." As a lit person I can appreciate the introspective viewpoint this song is written from: "i linger in the doorway / of alarm clock screaming monsters calling my name / let me stay / where the wind will whisper to me / where the raindrops as they're falling tell a story". Clearly there is an escapist element where the outside world is chaotic and harsh. What really makes this song for me is the careful ebb and flow of tension with the release given by the harmonies. One thing I noticed while listening to Fallen is that some of the rifs, movements and phrasings reminded me of other songs. This is not necessarily a bad thing, it shows their influences, but the group may not be to the point where they are stealing instead of borrowing, if you know what I mean. Although they don't list Queensryche as an influence, I hear similarities between "Whisper" and Queensryche's "Suite Sister Mary" not only in the choral presence but even the tenor of the lyric and guitar rifs. Again, that isn't a real criticism of the album, which I think is extremely enjoyable and well done. Give them a listen. Update: I just saw Evanescence in concert. They gave an energetic performance that had a real sense of spontaneity. For example, since this is their first tour they only had a limited repertoire of songs to choose from and they supplemented those with a couple of well known covers, "Zero" by Smashing Pumpkins and about half of Metallica's "Enter Sandman". To give you a sense of how this went down, Ben, a Metallica fan, started playing the famous opening chords to "Enter Sandman" and Amy laughed saying she didn't know all the words so the crowd would have to sing them. About halfway through the song, Amy held the microphone up to Ben suggesting he sing and the song abruptly stopped. They had a good laugh and Amy asked if they could play one of their songs. I thought Amy's voice held up pretty well even though she appeared to be struggling with the Arizona heat (it was still 100 during the concert). Evanescence Home page - Audio/video clips |
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| Page Contact: bhm@asu.edu | Last Update:
April 24, 2005
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