 You've got to have heard Bring Me To Life right? The awesome lead single from Fallen that marries the downtuned rap-metal of Linkin Park with the Julianne Regan on steroids vocals of lead chantuese Amy Lee. To give Evanescence their due, Bring Me To Life is very different from what you've heard before, and deserves its runaway success.
Bring Me To Life is actually the only track on Fallen which features the input of Paul McCoy, lead vocalist with label-mates 12 Stones. More's the pity, because his contemporary style offers a perfect counterpoint to Lee's admittedly impressive sub-goth warblings. Without McCoy's singing Evanescence can sound like a nu metal Heart. No doubt they'd prefer a nu metal Tori Amos. Heart it is then, particularly as there's an old rock dynamic in the songwriting of the kind that you can hear in the songs of other breakthrough acts like Nickelback and Saliva.
I really wanted to like Fallen, but there's this thing y'see . . . well you work it out: Check this out, from My Immortal: "These wounds won't seem to heal, this pain is just too real, there's just too much that time cannot erase." How about this from Tourniquet: "I tried to kill the pain, but only brought more, I lay dying." Finally from album closer Whisper: "Don't turn away, don't give into the pain, don't try to hide, though they're screaming your name." D'ya see a theme here? That's right; pain, anguish, fear, torment, oh God, please shut up, shut up, shut up! Never have I heard such a continuous torrent of unspecific self-pitying twaddle. I'm not even sure that impressionable 15 year old teeny goths are going to fall for this one, because its lack of subtlety, imagination and scope is simply breathtaking.
If the tunes were all of the same quality as the single I could forgive the lyrics, but they're not. Not one of them is. Points should be given to Evanescence for trying something different, but the bottom line is that Bring Me To Life excepted, Fallen just ain't that good. :: Rowan Shaeffer |
