For all their nu metal riffs and black nail varnish, Evanescence are essentially a pop band at heart.
After all, lead singer Amy Lee’s musical roots lie not in the animalistic grunts of metal nor the bloody wrists of Goth but in youth club piano renditions of bloated tearjerkers such as Meat Loaf’s ‘I’d Do Anything for Love’.
And then there’s former guitarist/ songwriter Ben Moody (replaced here by ex-Cold axeman Terry Balsamo following the effects of an alcohol and cocaine addiction) who now earns his living as a kind of rent a writer for such pop luminaries as Avril Lavigne and Kelly Clarkson.
Of course, as proven by their 14 million selling major label debut Fallen, it is the band’s keen pop sensibility that has endeared them to so many, attracting a mishmash audience of angsty teenyboppers, pseudo Goths and sweet toothed metal heads.
The Open Door is Evanescence’s long awaited follow up to Fallen and arrives after a series of life and career threatening incidents – as well as Moody leaving, his substitute Balsamo suffered a stroke in 2005 and Lee is currently in the throes of a messy lawsuit with her former manager.
“The making of this record has been really intense, but I’ve come out feeling purified,” Lee has said. “I’ve grown so much since Fallen, and Terry is the perfect writing partner – I feel like I’ve been lifted up to a whole new level of inspiration and possibilities.”
They say:
Kerrang!: “Moody buggering off was perhaps the best thing that ever happened to this band.”
Blunt Magazine: “There’s a lot to admire here… on balance though, The Open Door is a disappointing follow up.”
We say:
The Open Door is awash with many interesting ideas as Lee (free from the constraints imposed by the more commercially minded Moody) sets her sights on exploring dank corridors haunted by Portishead electronic nuances and creepy Nightwish choir arrangements, and where broken hearts plot their revenge, which is a refreshing change from Fallen where she was only too happy to play the victim card and wallow in her own self pity. But as she sings on the thunderous opener ‘Sweet Sacrifice’, “Fear is only in our minds.”
Unfortunately, her fellow bandmates lack both the courage and insight to follow her – Balsamo in particular plays it safe, regurgitating the same Pantera lite chugging riffs ad nauseam.
Only on ‘Lacrymosa’ do the band sound like they’re reading from the same page, a four minute mini epic where Mozart’s Requiem and forceful guitars bleed into one another to produce a spectacular Wagnerian soundscape of dark, Danny Elfman like opulence.
Therefore, while The Open Door is a heavier beast than its predecessor, it is generally the quieter moments where Lee and her piano are the main focus that shine the brightest.
‘Lithium’, for example, which could be regarded as the album’s ‘My Immortal’, displays a newfound maturity and richness in her quasi operatic vocals until they’re buried under a mound of generic guitar, while the gorgeous ‘Good Enough’ sees her riding a wave of strings and gentle piano, effectively ending the album on an uplifting note. This is Amy Lee older and wiser. If only the same could be said of her musically challenged buddies.
Like this? Try these:
Portishead – Dummy
Deftones – White Pony
Sarah McLachlan – Fumbling Towards Ecstasy
RELEASED
2nd Oct ‘06
LABEL
Columbia
POSTED...
Fri 29 Sep 2006 at 5:08pm
