Albums

• Fallen

1. Going Under
2. Bring Me to Life
3. Everybody’s Fool
4. My Immortal
5. Haunted
6. Tourniquet
7. Imaginary
8. Taking Over Me
9. Hello
10. My Last Breath
11. Whisper

Fallen is the debut album by American rock band Evanescence. The album was released in 2003 and it had been a long time coming; pianist, songwriter and singer Amy Lee had met lead guitarist and songwriter Ben Moody almost a decade earlier.  A flurry of demo CDs & EPs had gradually been released and Evanescence started to get a reasonable reputation, and in 2003 their band line-up would be completed.  Meanwhile, they had signed to record label Wind-up.

My main problem with Evanescence is that the musical side of things is a little too artificial for my liking (as is most music of this ilk). Amy Lee has a powerful voice, full of range and capable of exhibiting assorted emotions, but it’s a pity that it is usually matched to unnecessarily heavy rock guitars which only seek to tarnish the overall sound and image of this band.  So in my opinion, the best songs amongst the set are the ones which concentrate on being piano-led ballads… of which there is one.

Second single and first track on the record, Going Under, attempts to start things off with a bang.  Give me those power chords, baby! Actually, please don’t, they’re awful.  Amy Lee has gone on record saying to MTV that ‘the song is about coming out of a bad relationship, when you realize you cannot carry on in the same way, something has to give’.  I don’t doubt this at all, but it is very misleading of her to say in the same breath ‘it’s a very strong song’, which it absolutely is not.  On the contrary, it stinks something rotten and seems to embody everything I hate about the music industry into three and a half minutes of revolting, nauseating, self-indulgent, insincere, careless song writing.

Bring Me to Life was overwhelmingly successful when released as a single in 2003; it reached number 1 in the UK Singles Chart and seemed to be everywhere you went.  Far better than Going Under, Bring Me to Life succeeds primarily off the back of the vocal sparring between Amy Lee and Paul McCoy (lead singer of hard rock band 12 Stones).  Amy Lee directs all of her frustration into the chorus and she vents it in an inspiring vocal performance, “Wake me up inside, wake me up inside, call my name and save me from the dark!”

Hands down, My Immortal is the best song on the album.  It is a tender piano ballad, in which Lee’s vocals bring with them a new level of emotion and an unadulterated sense of desolation. “These wounds won’t seem to heal, this pain is just too real, there’s just too much which time cannot erase,” Lee sings with anguish, “when you cried I’d wipe away all of your tears!”  Very beautiful, very genuine, very sad, but most of all, it is very touching.

It’s a shame about the majority of what’s left though.  And where better to start denouncing Evanescence’s name than with the baffling mess which is Haunted.  Feeling far longer than its three minutes running time, it seems to go from bad to worse; the dire introduction is further dragged down by the same guitar work which ruined Going Under.  It even comes complete with intermittent machine gun drumming *vomits*.   Tourniquet implements the use of distortion effects on Lee’s vocals during the introduction and it doesn’t add anything positive to the proceedings, it only seems to make it worse than it already is.  It’s not a complete write off though, as the start of the chorus is well thought-out and is at least memorable for all the right reasons, “My God, my tourniquet!”

One has to admit that Imaginary is pretty darn good, with particular kudos going towards the excellent string section and acoustic guitar playing.  It doesn’t hurt to put into practice the occasional bit of diversity on the record, does it?  Everything doesn’t have to be turned up to 11 throughout the entire album, Evanescence. Listen to Uncle Dan and you shall be set free!   Honestly right, this album really is starting to anger me now.  Taking Over Me starts with a simply wonderful piano introduction and for a moment I thought I was going to get another My Immortal.  How wrong was I?! The song is good for precisely the first 10 seconds during the introduction, but then the shoddy heavy guitar riffs fly in from every direction and ruin everything.

The album closes with Whisper.  Anything but a whisper, as Lee is given one last chance to expel her personal demons.  Now, it follows the exact same template which ended up ruining 75% of the record, but it partially succeeds because of the immense guitar riff which pops up now and again and the eventual string section.  So, it shows if nothing else, that heavy rock can be done right by Evanescence; it’s just a shame that they are usually too preoccupied with frustrating me with their generic song writing.