Evanescence Fallen CD

Evanescence: Amy Lee (vocals); Ben Moody (guitar, percussion, programming).
Additional personnel: Paul McCoy (vocals); David Hodges (piano, keyboards, programming); Francesco DiCosmo (bass); Josh Freese, Rocky Gray (drums); Zac Baird, Chris Johnson (programming).
Evanescence won the 2004 Grammy Award for Best New Artist. FALLEN was nominated for Album Of The Year and for Best Rock Album. "Bring Me To Life" won for Best Hard Rock Performance. The song was also nominated for Best Rock Song.
Personnel: Amy Lee (vocals); David Hodges (piano, keyboards, programming); Josh Freese (drums); Chris Johnson , Zac Baird (programming).
Audio Mixers: Dave Fortman ; Jay Baumgardner; Mark Curry.
Recording information: Conway Recording Studios, Hollywood, CA; Newman Stage, Twentieth Century Fox; NRG Recording Studios, North Hollywood, CA; Ocean Studios, Burbank, CA; Track Records, Inc., North Hollywood, CA.
Arranger: Amy Lee.
Fallen is the major-label debut of Evanescence, a Little Rock, AR-based quartet led by the soaring vocals of 20-year-old Amy Lee. Emboldened by the inclusion of its single "Bring Me to Life" on the soundtrack to the hit film Daredevil, Fallen debuted at an impressive number seven on Billboard's Top 40. But "Bring Me to Life" is a bit misleading. A flawless slice of Linkin Park-style anguish pop, it's actually a duet between Lee and 12 Stones' Paul McCoy. In fact, almost half of Fallen's 11 songs are piano-driven ballads that suggest Tori Amos if she wore too much mascara and recorded for the Projekt label. The other half of the album does include flashes of the single's PG-rated nu-metal ("Everybody's Fool," "Going Under"). But it's the symphonic goth rock of groups like Type O Negative that influences most of Fallen. Ethereal synths float above Ben Moody's crunching guitar in "Haunted," while "Whisper" even features apocalyptic strings and a scary chorus of Latin voices right out of Carmina Burana. "Tourniquet" is an anguished, urgent rocker driven by chugging guitars and spiraling synths, with brooding lyrics that reference Evanescence's Christian values: "Am I too lost to be saved?/Am I too lost?/My God! My tourniquet/Return to me salvation." The song is Fallen's emotional center point and defines the band's sound. ~ Johnny Loftus
Picture Tori Amos fronting Nickelback and you'll get an idea of the sound behind Evanescence, an Arkansas quartet whose introduction to the world came via the DAREDEVIL soundtrack. With its debut FALLEN, Evanescence further pushes the envelope on the aforementioned description, with frontwoman Amy Lee pouring her light-yet-strong vocals into the aggro-rock workout "Bring Me to Life" and industrial trip-hop of "My Last Breath." Although guitarists Ben Moody and John LeCompt leave no riff unplayed on hard-hitting cuts like "Going Under" and "Taking Over Me," Lee brings a nice balance to the table with her gorgeous piano runs, which come to the fore on the very Amos-like "Hello." The perfect balance of hard and soft is met on "Haunted" with its ambient nuance stoked by clattering beats and loops, crunching riffs, and the use of a children's choir. Goth-like in mood yet nu-metal in execution, FALLEN could very well have been where Amos' first group Y Kant Tori Read ended up had they not come along 15 years too soon.Rolling Stone (4/17/03, p.103) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...When vocalist Amy Lee croons...she gives FALLEN a creepy spiritual tinge that the new-metal boys lack..."