(Posted: 05/16/03)
The genre now too old to be called nu-metal isn't exactly overflowing with spine-tingling great vocalists -- let alone female ones. Amy Lee, lead singer of gloomy Arkansas rockers Evanescence, is an exception. But her pure soprano and sharp hooks are too often swamped by the goofy, gothic melodrama of Fallen's luyrics ("I know well what lies beyond my sleeping refuge") and arrangements (enough with the medieval choirs, already).
(From RS 920, April 17, 2003)
Call it a case of mistake identity. Evanescence's hit "Bring Me to Life" doomed the Arkansas group to a life of Linkin Park comparisons, tanks to the song's digital beats, clean metal-guitar riffs, scattered piano lines and all-too-familiar mix of rapping and singing. The gimmick? It's a woman on the mike, and she's on a misson from God. When vocalist Amy Lee croons about lying "in my field of paper flowers" or "pouring crimson regret," she gives Fallen a creepy spiritual tinge that the new-metal boys lack. Sometimes the band even helps her out, adding ghostly echoes and ghoulish industrial noises to the aptly titled "Haunted," or, better yet, leaving her the hell alone. "My Immortal" lets Lee wail about her personal demons over simple piano and some symphonic dressings - it's a pwer ballad that P.O.D. and Tori Amos fans could both appreciate.
"Although the band's name may suggest a sudden vanishing, the music of Evanescence is poised for longeviity. 'Fallen', the Wind-up Records debut of this talented quartet from Little Rock, Arkansas, is an emotional, ethereal work of undeniable ptency giuded by the heavenly vocals of Amy Lee. Two Evanescence tracks Bring Me to Life and My Immortal are featured on Daredevil The Album. In stores March 4, 2003."
-- winduprecords.com
