Evanescence - "The Open Door" (Wind-Up)

After a 14-million selling debut album, there was a good chance future releases from Evanescence would sell quite well. This will no doubt be the case with The Open Door, but there is a question about whether or not it really deserves similar success? After the departure of main songwriter Ben Moody, Amy Lee and friends were eager to say things would only go from strength to strength. On the strength of first single “Call Me When You’re Sober”, we looked forward to another album full of chunky guitars, sweet vocals and a hint of so-called ‘goth’ influence.

How disappointing, then, what we were actually presented with. The Open Door is nowhere near as good as Fallen (2003). While many complained that the debut was over-polished and too pop, the sophomore release sounds like a demo. Considering the sales figures for Fallen, this is frankly unacceptable.

The only song that seems to be properly produced and mixed is the aforementioned single. “Call Me When You’re Sober” and “Weight Of The World”, at least, have the bombast and huge sound that we are all familiar with. The rest of the album, well… let’s just say I’ll be giving it away a couple of hours after writing this review.

The rest of the album sounds largely forced. “Sweet Sacrifice” opens the album with a familiar sounding atmospheric (definitely heard before it on Fallen). Amy Lee’s voice, clearly the focal point of the song sounds pained and a little grating. In fact, a lot of the album sounds like rewrites, with many of the same tricks and melodies (or at least very similar ones) being used. Yes, it helps us recognise that it’s Evanescence, but the band should have branched out more, especially with more people on the writing team this time around. Also, vocal histrionics are not a good thing in a rock album.

Listenable, but largely disappointing.

www.evanescence.com