EVANESCENCE — Evanescence (review)

Album · 2011 · Alternative Metal

2/5 · 2012-01-11
adg211288

Evanescence is the self-titled third release from alternative/gothic rock/metal act Evanescence. The 2011 release is the first from the band since 2006’s The Open Door. Evanescence had a lot of commercial success since their 2003 debut, Fallen, but this had the rather unfortunate side effect that every female fronted metal act started getting compared to them despite the fact that many of them were releasing albums a long time before Evanescence and the even more important fact that Evanescence actually plays more in an alternative rock/metal style. Evanescence also seems to have become a generally reviled act within the metal community in particular, possibly because of the above, or maybe because of their more commercial tendencies than is generally accepted for a heavier band. Fallen, however commercial it may be, was a great album. The second, The Open Door, released after losing guitarist Ben Moody, who was one of the main composers, was not so much and I have to confess that with such a plummet in quality I lost what interest I had in the band. So Evanescence now returns to the music world with this album and against my better judgement I find myself interested enough to find out if they can return to form with this self-titled effort, although after The Open Door I came to this album without very high expectations.

In terms of style not much has changed since Fallen, the band is still a semi heavy alternative act with lashings of piano all the way through it. The guitars fit the alternative metal vein even though a good portion of the metal crowd will probably still outright deny that the band is metal (they are borderline admittedly), and the music is still very commercial.

Kicking the album off with its lead single, What You Want, and my worst fears are realised, Evanescence wasn’t back with a bang, and if anything they were beginning their comeback with what may just be the worst track they’ve ever put out. It sounds like it was written as a pop song, and then some heavy alternative metal style guitars were added to it. Musically this is a complete disaster. Imagine taking the vocal tracks of a one song and sticking them over the music of another song, preferably one at the other end of the musical spectrum. It just doesn’t work does it? And that’s exactly what we’ve got here only this track was actually intentionally put together like this. It was seriously almost enough to give up on the album there and then.

It’s a good thing I stuck with it though, as once the disaster of a opener is over the album does do, I wouldn’t call it a complete 180 degree turn, perhaps more like a 120 degree turn, and suddenly the album isn’t as bad as what I initially thought (and was reinforced by What You Want) it would be. It is still not exactly a great album and Fallen is still casting a shadow over everything the band has done since, but Evanescence is at least a stronger album than the very weak The Open Door. Ultimately though what impresses me the most about Evanescence is singer Amy Lee’s vocals and her piano playing. The piano actually adds a nice and interesting touch to what could otherwise be considered a pretty bland album. The songs are generally stronger than those on The Open Door, so it seems the band’s hiatus was not wasted as much as I want to scream about how much of a disaster What You Want is.

The album is not exactly the return to form I could have wished for but it is a step back on the right track for the band and they have at least come back stronger than they were before the hiatus. I do still however feel some apprehension at where they could go next as at the end of the day Evanescence is an album filled with mostly potential for good but also some really bad stuff. Did it have just that bit more consistency I think an above average rating would be appropriate but I have to take into consideration that What You Want is just the definition of a stinker and downgrade my rating to something more representative of a middle of the road release, which is ultimately most appropriate since the album does leave me with mixed feelings upon its conclusion. I think that Evanescence could go either way from here, either back to really delivering the goods in the field of alternative rock/metal or just push the boundaries of commercial influences in heavy music so much that they’ll lose what remaining credibility they have.

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven (http://metaltube.freeforums.org), scored at 5.2/10)