Evanescence is Back With a New Album

It's no secret that Evanescence has been my favorite band since I was about 11 years old, 10 years later and I'm still in love with this Little Rock, Arkansas band. No wonder, too, with Amy's soulful lyrics that draw you in and her amazing vocal range, the music is angry and sad and happy and often all at the same time.

The band dropped their first studio album, Fallen, in 2003 which went on to sell 17 million records world wide, win 2 Grammy Awards, and capture the hearts of millions. A year later the live album Anywhere But Home was released and sold about a million records worldwide. The DVD portion featured a taping of the Paris performance as well as plenty of back-stage antics and crazyness from the band.

The band has had a tumultuous history with the lineup changing drastically and often over the years; David Hodges left in 2002, co-founder Ben Moody left in 2003 mid-tour, Will Boyd in 2006, and John Lecompt and Rocky Gray in 2007. There was at least one lawsuit and amid all the turmoil flying up around Lee, she still managed to drop a second studio album in 2006.

The Open Door which landed in stores on September 25, 2006 sold more than 6 million copies worldwide and was certified platinum in the US only a month after its release. Its obvious at a glance that this album, which featured a new Co-Writer for Amy (Terry Balsamo), didn't do as well as their debut Fallen, which featured lots of bass and lyrics laced with pain, sorrow and heartbreak over an abusive relationship with Ben Moody. Even I had my reservations in the beginning, but the album quickly grew on me as I grew with the band. The Lithium CD single for this album featured a bonus track, if you pre-ordered, from Amazon titled "The Last Song I'm Wasting on You" which is exactly that, having been married and moved on, she's done reliving the pain of her past relationship through her music.

Earlier this month, the band released their third studio album self-titled Evanescence which hit iTunes and Amazon on October 11th. The release date for this album is especially interesting because it happened to be my sister's birthday as well as National Comming Out Day. The newest album has spawned 2 singles so far: "What You Want" and another single, "My Heart is Broken," that was distributed to radio stations today. I'm fast falling in love with this rockier follow-up to their latest album The Open Door which featured softer harmonies and spookier vocal styles.

The original contract for the band was for 3 studio albums, and with Lee having been quoted "I'm not doing this forever" fans, including myself, are beginning to worry. Could this be the end of a band we've all come to love? Lee continues to evolve and grow as an artist with every album and I hope we don't see the growth end here with Evanescence. The album title itself kind of foreshadows just that though, given that the band's name means to "fade away" could this be Lee's way of telling us she's done with this chapter of her life?