Saturday, 4 March 2017

Revisiting: Fallen - Evanescence (2003)

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Fallen - Evanescence
Wind-Up
Produced by Dave Fortman
Released 4th March 2003
UK Chart #1
US Chart #3
Australian Chart #1
Austrian Chart #1
Canadian Chart #1
Danish Chart #1
Dutch Chart #2
Finnish Chart #1
French Chart #2
German Chart #2
Italian Chart #3
Japanese Chart #7
Russian Chart #1
Swedish Chart #3
Swiss Chart #2

Tracklist
1 Going Under    
2 Bring Me To Life    
3 Everybody's Fool    
4 My Immortal*    
5 Haunted    
6 Tourniquet    
7 Imaginary*    
8 Taking Over Me    
9 Hello    
10 My Last Breath    
11 Whisper*

 * These Tracks had been included on the Demos Album Origin on Bigwig Enterprises that had been sold at Evanescence Shows and online. It was released in November 2000 and 2,500 copies were pressed.

Listen to Origin Here.



Singles on Fallen


Released April 22nd 2003
UK Chart #1
US Chart #5

 

Released 9th September 2003
UK Chart #8



Released 8th December 2003
UK Chart #7
US Chart #7

 

Released 7th June 2004
UK Chart #24

 To celebrate the 10th Anniversary of its release Wind-Up released a Limited Edition of 1500 copies on Purple Vinyl
A-Side
B-Side


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It's been awhile since I last sat down and listened to Fallen, the debut album from Evanescence. Hard to believe it's fourteen years old this year! Anyway, I thought I'd pay it a wee visit and give it a spin for the first time in...mmm...must be almost a five years.


Just in passing they had put music out before signing to Wind-Up. There were two self-released EP's: Evanescence (1998 very limited to 100 copies. Cover pictured above) and the Sound Asleep EP (1999 - sometimes called the Whisper EP. There was no artwork for this CD). Various Bootleg versions of these first recordings often do the rounds Evanescence EP (with Outtakes), and Sound Asleep EP (with one extra track).

 As I mentioned above there was also the Demos CD that they made in 2000 called Origin. There are also copies circulating of this that contain two extra songs (Listen To The Rain and Demise).


The album was largely a success on the back of Bring Me To Life being added to the Soundtrack of Marvel's Daredevil movie (My Immortal was also on the Album) and gaining a heck of a lot of sales around the globe. It hit the top spot in the UK (staying there for four weeks), Italy, Australia, and the European Hot 100 Singles Chart. In pretty much every country it was released as a single it made it to the Top Twenty: #2 - Belguim, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Norway and Sweden; #3 - Austria, Canada, Greece and New Zealand; #4 - Poland; #5 - France; #6 - Netherlands and Switzerland; and #11 - Finland and Romania.

There was a wee bit of turmoil caused with regard to the album when Wind-Up first heard it they were not keen to release it unless the band brought on board a full-time male co-vocalist. The band of course did not agree to such a move and a compromise was made that at least the first single from the album should feature a male voice. During an interview, Amy Lee recalled that during the recording process of the Bring Me To Life it was said to her that the song must have male vocals: "It was presented to me as, 'You're a girl singing in a rock band, there's nothing else like that out there, nobody's going to listen to you. You need a guy to come in and sing back-up for it to be successful'".

The singer chosen for this role was also part of a band recently signed to Wind-Up Records, Paul McCoy of 12 Stones ( who had released their debut album in 2002 and are a band that I have a lot of affection for).

Not long after the album was completed David Hodges left the band. He had been with them since 1999 and had been part of the Origin recordings.

The album would go on to sell more than 17 million copies worldwide. Critics were varied in their opinions on the record. Entertainment Weekly, in a generally positive review, graded the album B-minus: "The genre now too old to be called nü-metal isn't exactly overflowing with spine-tinglingly great vocalists – let alone female ones. Amy Lee, lead singer of gloomy Arkansas rockers Evanescence, is an exception."

Adrien Begrand of PopMatters criticized Fallen, calling the album "basically as unoriginal and dumb as everything else in its genre; it has a small handful of transcendent moments, but a complete lack of musical adventurousness has the band mucking around either in stultifying nu-metal riffage, pretentious high school journal caterwauling, or even worse, both." Begrand praised Lee's "soaring, enchanting, [and] angelic" voice, writing that "Evanescence would be nothing" without her.

They had also caused a bit of a stir within the world of Christian Music as their album had been marketed to Christian Bookstores as well as mainstream music outlets but the band made it very clear they did not want to be associated with Christian Rock Music. In April 2003 Wind-up Records chairman Alan Meltzer sent a letter to Christian radio and retail outlets explaining that despite the "spiritual underpinning that ignited interest and excitement in the Christian religious community", Evanescence were "a secular band, and as such view their music as entertainment." Meltzer also wrote that even the label "strongly feels that [Evanescence] no longer belong in Christian markets". Soon after receiving the letter, many Christian radio stations pulled Fallen songs from their playlists. Terry Hemmings, CEO of the Christian music distributor Provident, was puzzled by the band's about-face: "They clearly understood the album would be sold in these [Christian music] channels." In 2006, Amy Lee told Billboard that she had opposed Evanescence being identified as a "Christian band" from the beginning; Ben Moody had supported it, whereas she had not.

That of course would have further troubles for the band as mid-tour whilst in Europe Ben Moody left the band in October citing "creatve differences". Where he wanted to be more commercial Amy Lee on the other hand wanted something very different,  "I wanted to do the more artistic weird thing and he'd wanna do the thing that people would want to hear...". It was interesting to see the result that Moody's departure would have on the band and I think you see with the lack of chart success singles-wise after he had gone.

My favourite track on the album is Torniquet.

Where Are They Now?


 These days Amy Lee is now an Independent artist after being let go from Wind-Up Records after she sued them for unpaid royalties in January 2014. 

She has just recently been putting out some new music, a song Love Exists went up on her You Tube Channel about week ago. On her channel you'll find some of the kids music she has released as well as a few Cover Versions of songs by the likes of Led Zeppelin, U2, Portishead, and Chris Isaak.



 Ben Moody is involved with two projects We Are The Fallen (2009 - Present?) and The Halo Method (2012 - Present?). I can't really say what these bands are currently up to as news has been scarce.


We Are The Fallen were dropped by their label Universal Republic in 2011 (a year after their debut album Tear Down The World had been released). Last word from them came in 2012 where Moody and singer Carly Smithson were talking about future plans but nothing has come to light since!

 As for The Halo Method they released an EP called Reset in 2013 that featured the songs Toxic, Beauty Is The Beast, Porcelain and Crutch. 

 Moody has also released Solo material between 2005 -2011.

Evanescence as a band played a few shows last year, but don't be expecting any new music from them just yet.

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