EVANESCENCE
Welcome to the Farris/Caleb Maxell EVANESCENCE PAGE!!!
This page is, obviously, dedicated to our favorite punk band...wait....HAHAHAHA. Sorry. Just had to make fun of my father right there. It is, obviously, dedicated to Evanescence, the ONLY good thing to come out of Arkansas. (no offense to your R-Kansas-ans)
We will make this simple. While we listen to the songs, we will just make some comments and stuff. I guess in the near future we may put something of actual WORTH on this page...but I will be green text and Caleb Maxell will be red text, like our favorite book. [Which book is this? Go to the Doors to Fantasia page.]
My personal favorite part of the CD is the Trilogy...Triplet...Trinity...of "HAUNTED", "Tourniquet", and "Imaginary". It adds new freshness after the much-overused songs of "Bring Me To Life" and the sad "My Immortal". If you are already lost, I have accomplished my goal.
I totally agree. I was just thinking about how, after the incredible depressing emotion of "My Immortal", a much-needed change in pace is utilized. The three were probably originally not meant to go together; but work and expoud upon each other in an amazing fashion.
I shall begin the triliogy with my personal favorite, "HAUNTED". I've always quite enjoyed a pessimistic view of fear and oppression, which is dealt with in a very, very amazing manner. This song starts out in a normal sort of rock fashion with a little bit of a gothic "haunted house" sort of feel behind it. Going on to the chorus, you can feel the intensity and the emotion behind the vocalist, Amy Lee. "HAUNTED" probably has the fewest lyrics of all of the songs in the album, yet I believe it conveys the most. My personal favorite aspect of the song is the background choral arrangement. This choir becomes evident in the bridge and then remains for the final repeat of the chorus. There are no words to describe how effective and how meaningful this makes it.
I pick up the coverage with my personal favorite, "Tourniquet". This song really is likened unto me in that it is AWESOME, yet explores deep and often unthought philosophies. A tourniquet is something you tie around your arm or leg to cut off a big artery to attempt to stop a bleeding in that arm or leg. The tourniquet literally constricts your blood vessels so that you do not die of blood loss. The song begins nice and quiet, but slowly builds with the pulsing of perhaps a beginning heartbeat. Then the guitars come in and you feel alive and kicking, in that sort of aspect. It quiets again when Amy Lee, maybe the best female vocalist of her time, begins the verse. The words have a special feel of despair--crying out to be saved because she is bleeding her life away. But as the verse ends, "Am I too lost to be saved? Am I too lost...?" The verse has a new meaning not yet expressed in the CD and maybe not quite shown even later. It is the fact of calling out to someone higher than this person ("My God, My Tourniquet, Return to me salvation"). This obviously shows that the view of personal deity has not panned out quite like the person would imagine. This little bit could have been placed in there to reel in the Christian listeners, or it could be a more deeper meaning, causing the listeners to think and ponder its meaning. Later in the song, a line catches the attention of many listeners: "Christ, Tourniquet, my suicide". Much could be theorized about this single line. The fact that they would say 'Christ' is phenominal and spectacular. It identifies who the Tourniquet is that the vocalist is crying out to. The end of the line "my suicide", perhaps refers to Christ's death as a suicide. In some aspects, perhaps, it was. Christ 'surrendered' Himself to death (a definition of suicide) to save us. Maybe it was just the vocalists' suicide in the future being referred to. Either way, this does NOT rationalize suicides, for any of you that wish to see it in that way. Christ was the only holy 'suicide', dying so that we would not have to. Overall, "Tourniquet" is perhaps the most impressive of songs in my opinion. With the "end" of the feeling of despair and crying out, a short string arrangement carries you right into the next song...
and without a break in between the songs it goes on to "Imaginary". This triad, as my friend has just pointed out, has an ironic sort of idealogy. The song of "HAUNTED" can be likened to my old self, who--unfortunately--would let himself fall and become oppressed with a depression. "Imaginary" is just the opposite and goes along with how I am today. It expresses an extreme distaste with reality and a longing to get away from it. Along with music from the sixties I have grown to like, it gives us a solution to that. The sixties are associated with psychedelia and, most of all, drugs--especially the hallucinogens such as marijuana and LSD. "Imaginary", however, gives us a saner and better alternative. The vocalist wishes to not wake up but to stay asleep. She wishes the alarm clock would not scream at her so she could stay in her dream world. She can stay in her "field of paper flowers and candy clouds of lullaby". This is similar to what sixties musicians such as the BEATLES would portray in their songs about LSD ("Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"). However, there is nothing wrong with wanting to stay in a subconscious state with no worries.
As with the rest of the CD, it has its positives and negatives. The majority are depressing and express dark emotion, but there are the lights in the dark. For instance, in correlation with the Evanescense style--the piano/keyboard and the female vocal, then the darker and distorted guitar and the harder metal sound--the choir adds a particular flare to certain songs. "Whisper", in the end, follows other such songs as "Aerials" by System Of A Down with the sort of tribal/chanting/"RING OF FIRE" sort of flare (bonus points to anyone who names the movie). The choir chaning the Latin (maybe?) phrase adds a new and awesome cool-beans-ness to the ending of the song and of the album.
Many people have criticized Evanescence's "Fallen" album because it almost never lets up from it's dark/depression music and lyrics. However, while I do agree that none of it is "peaches and cream", that does not make it wrong nor negative. It has been said that if people know that there are other people in the world who feel what they feel and communicate what they feel in a way that they can associate with. It does much more good than offering artificial "happiness". There are probably no lyrics in Evanescence which are hopeless; most of them just convey sadness and despair. Some people may ask, "What is the difference?" But there is a difference. Knowing that there IS something to look forward to in life and knowing that what you feel is not unique but is "common to man" can actually offer hope. Overall, this album explores many deep, complicated emotions in a very entertaining yet emotional way. There is NO reason why I would NOT recommend this album to anyone.
And at this point, bringing back the epic writers of this beautiful page for a reunion (after the findings of the beautiful Evanescence CD "Origin"), we have written about the amazing songs of that.
We hope to have given an interview worthy of the album and that you have learned our opinions and now have a better understanding of the album's meaning. We will, most likely, give a more in-depth look at the band as we actually do research, but--as is usual in my website--don't hold me accountable to that.
2003(c)Enlightened Farris [and Caleb Maxell]
We do NOT claim to have invented Evanescence nor to have written and produced the songs and album discussed. This is a REVIEW...we REVIEW the album and express our opinions. We are not being judgemental or forcing our opinions on you, so if you say so, we will certainly force you to leave. As your good enlightenment officers, we say fare thee well.