EVANESCENCE – Evanescence

The first time I ever heard of Evanescence was when I spotted their video for ”Bring Me To Life” back in 2003.  The song completely floored me and the next day I took a chance and bought their CD Fallen, just because of that song. But I didn’t have to worry, because that album was a complete killer, from first track to the last. Full of gothic, melodic hard rock with a slight twist of nu metal and singer in Amy Lee with a voice from heaven. The album became a huge success and that album spawned no less than three more hit singles. But all wasn’t well within the band because just after their tour, guitarist and main songwriter Ben Moodyson quit the band. And then everything became quiet. Frightening  quiet. For years.

And then all of a sudden, the band announced that they had a new album ready for release and shortly after that they released the follow-up The Open Door. This was in 2006. unfortunately, the album sucked. And of course, the album bombed. It seemed like without Moodyson, the band just couldn’t cut it in the songwriting department. Then it went quiet again!

Now when our calendar says 2011, Evanescence all of a sudden has a new self titled CD in the stores. And this time, they have actually managed to record a good album. Still, it couldn’t hold a candle to their debut, but that might be a little too much to ask for. The first single ”What You Want” is pretty good, without being the smash hit they surely need. It does have the Evanescence sound though. The same can be said about the ballad ”Lost In Paradise”, ”The Change” and ”Oceans”, all very good songs that could have been off their debut album. ”Sick” is another great song, a bit more gothic than the rest, but still very commercial. If you mix Within Temptation with Lacuna Coil, you come pretty close to how that song sounds.

Unfortunately there are too many mediocre songs here for this album to be a true winner. While this album kicks its predecessor in the butt, it’s nowhere as good as this band can be. Moodyson is still sorely missed. This time they got the sound right, but unfortunately not all the songs.

Jon Wilmenius (6/10)

Tracklist:

01. What You Want
02. Made Of Stone
03. The Change
04. My Heart Is Broken
05. The Other Side
06. Erase This
07. Lost In Paradise
08. Sick
09. End Of The Dream
10. Oceans
11. Never Go Back
12. Swimming Home