Evanescence - Fallen (first album)

digitalscream

Randomly cued this up tonight, and...excuse the language, but...fuck me, it's a masterpiece. I know it's not cool to like Evanescence these days, and that they effectively kicked off a whole subgenre of sub-par nearly-soundalikes that blight us to this day, but there really isn't a single bad song on this album.

Better than that, they're all actually really good songs, almost immaculately played.

I was going to put a YT link in here to my favourite song, but I can't even pick a top three.

If you've opened this thread, you owe it to yourself to go and put it on again. Now.

quarky

Thanks, I might have to do that

Grumpyrocker

Yeah I've been listening to it recently having not done so for a long time. It really is rather fabulous . Great songs, tastefully played and Amy Lee's voice is sublime. It's an album that has aged very well.

My favourite track is My Tourniquet - which they wrote for another band but ended up recording themselves too.  One of the co-writers of the track (from the other group) ended up in Evanescence later. 

Sporky

Is it ok to have never liked them?

Grunfeld

Love that guitar sound.  It sounds immense. 

ICBM

This remains the last album I bought after hearing one track on the radio and then going directly to a record shop and buying it. (OK, it will probably always be since I don't really buy music like that now...)

I think it's a great classic album too. The only thing I don't like about it is that the production is just slightly too samey on all the tracks, apart from My Immortal and Hello, which are also too similar to each other. A bit more variation would have been better.

My favourite track is probably My Last Breath - Imaginary would be a contender but it's not quite as good as the original version on the 1998 Evanescence EP. I managed to get both that and 'Origin' from their website back then, although I don't know if they're still available.

Sadly they went totally down the pan after Ben Moody left - basically after Fallen. If you're a fan of it, it may be unwise to dig too deeply into any of their live recordings too... Amy really isn't good. I'm also guessing she's "difficult" to work with given the band turnover .

If you like Ben Moody's playing and production you should have a listen to Kelly Clarkson's 'Breakaway' album too, which he worked on. Another potentially classic album and rockier than you might expect from her usually more pop direction.

Philly_Q

I've always liked them, although I must admit it's been a while since I checked if they've released anything new (...seems they haven't).  The first album has overshadowed the others but they're all good.

I think a lot of their songs are very similar... but who cares so long as they're that good.

Ben Moody's post-Evanescence band, We Are The Fallen, also put out one really good album - worth checking out if you haven't already.

cruxiform

It's a fantastic album, beautiful in fact.

digitalscream

ICBM said:

I think it's a great classic album too. The only thing I don't like about it is that the production is just slightly too samey on all the tracks, apart from My Immortal and Hello, which are also too similar to each other. A bit more variation would have been better.

The problem, I think, is that the heavy songs are generally lacking in dynamics. If there was a little more consideration given to the production (rather than the brick-wall approach in vogue at the time), I suspect the songs would be a lot more distinct from each other.

ICBM said:

If you like Ben Moody's playing and production you should have a listen to Kelly Clarkson's 'Breakaway' album too, which he worked on. Another potentially classic album and rockier than you might expect from her usually more pop direction.

Not too impressed with We Are The Fallen - in fact, contrary to the interviews he gave at the time, I don't really hear a lot of resemblance to Evanescence at all, beyond the combination of distorted guitar and female vocal - but I do really like Breakaway. Had no idea he was involved with it at the time, though.

ICBM

digitalscream said:

Not too impressed with We Are The Fallen - in fact, contrary to the interviews he gave at the time, I don't really hear a lot of resemblance to Evanescence at all, beyond the combination of distorted guitar and female vocal

Really? I've just listened to the whole album and it's an almost exact clone of Evanescence, with a (very slightly) different and less characterful vocalist, and astonishingly predictable chord progressions and arrangements.

I have to admit I thought they were one of the subgenre of sub-par nearly-soundalikes… the ludicrously clichéd album cover didn't bode well either.

For something less derivative but good in a similar vein, check out Plumb - Tiffany Lee (no relation to Amy) - especially the Chaotic Resolve album. Some of the lyrics are overtly Christian, but not offensively so if you aren't...

Grumpyrocker

While none of the other albums have the same power as the first, I still rather like the most recent Evanescence offering. 

I remember when I got into Fallen and some Lacuna Coil around the same time they were just the kind of band I'd been wanting to find (or to exist even) for a while. I'd been very into All About Eve and  also lots of metal and I really wanted some heavy bands with beautiful female vocals.

We're spoiled for choice in that regard now.  But at the time it Evanescence that led me to finding other fantastic bands such as The Gathering.  

ICBM

Just for the sake of pedantry - I should have mentioned it earlier really - Fallen isn't the first album… it's just the first major-label one. Origin is the first album, even if you don't count the 1998 Evanescence 'EP' - which is more of a mini-album really.

You can actually still get all this early material, apparently legally, here - https://evanescencereference.info/music/

Grumpyrocker

Haven't heard the EPs and the first very  minor release. But didn't some of those early songs end up on Fallen again anyway?

ICBM

Grumpyrocker said:

Haven't heard the EPs and the first very  minor release. But didn't some of those early songs end up on Fallen again anyway?

Yes - in reworked versions. The originals aren't as well-produced but in some ways more interesting... eg Imaginary has extra lyrics that aren't on the well-known version. 

joneve

ICBM said:

This remains the last album I bought after hearing one track on the radio and then going directly to a record shop and buying it. (OK, it will probably always be since I don't really buy music like that now...)

I think it's a great classic album too. The only thing I don't like about it is that the production is just slightly too samey on all the tracks, apart from My Immortal and Hello, which are also too similar to each other. A bit more variation would have been better.

My favourite track is probably My Last Breath - Imaginary would be a contender but it's not quite as good as the original version on the 1998 Evanescence EP. I managed to get both that and 'Origin' from their website back then, although I don't know if they're still available.

Sadly they went totally down the pan after Ben Moody left - basically after Fallen. If you're a fan of it, it may be unwise to dig too deeply into any of their live recordings too... Amy really isn't good. I'm also guessing she's "difficult" to work with given the band turnover .

If you like Ben Moody's playing and production you should have a listen to Kelly Clarkson's 'Breakaway' album too, which he worked on. Another potentially classic album and rockier than you might expect from her usually more pop direction.

This was basically what I was going to write (except for the first paragraph) - so I won't bother and will just quote instead. "Breakaway" is one of my guilty pleasures - a really good pop album. Shame Amy is such a cow and isn't great live...I'd still not have kicked her out of bed though. 

digitalscream

joneve said:

ICBM said:

This remains the last album I bought after hearing one track on the radio and then going directly to a record shop and buying it. (OK, it will probably always be since I don't really buy music like that now...)

I think it's a great classic album too. The only thing I don't like about it is that the production is just slightly too samey on all the tracks, apart from My Immortal and Hello, which are also too similar to each other. A bit more variation would have been better.

My favourite track is probably My Last Breath - Imaginary would be a contender but it's not quite as good as the original version on the 1998 Evanescence EP. I managed to get both that and 'Origin' from their website back then, although I don't know if they're still available.

Sadly they went totally down the pan after Ben Moody left - basically after Fallen. If you're a fan of it, it may be unwise to dig too deeply into any of their live recordings too... Amy really isn't good. I'm also guessing she's "difficult" to work with given the band turnover .

If you like Ben Moody's playing and production you should have a listen to Kelly Clarkson's 'Breakaway' album too, which he worked on. Another potentially classic album and rockier than you might expect from her usually more pop direction.

This was basically what I was going to write (except for the first paragraph) - so I won't bother and will just quote instead. "Breakaway" is one of my guilty pleasures - a really good pop album. Shame Amy is such a cow and isn't great live...I'd still not have kicked her out of bed though. 

If you think she's bad live, check out some of their latest live videos. She's pretty good, but the guitarists...wow. I've not seen people consistently screw up solos that badly since I saw a crappy punk band down at my local. They just sound horribly amateurish, to the point where I've no idea how they got the job in the first place.

ICBM

digitalscream said:

If you think she's bad live, check out some of their latest live videos. She's pretty good, but the guitarists...wow. I've not seen people consistently screw up solos that badly since I saw a crappy punk band down at my local. They just sound horribly amateurish, to the point where I've no idea how they got the job in the first place.

Because no-one any good would work with her?

english_bob

digitalscream said:

If you think she's bad live, check out some of their latest live videos. She's pretty good, but the guitarists...wow. I've not seen people consistently screw up solos that badly since I saw a crappy punk band down at my local. They just sound horribly amateurish, to the point where I've no idea how they got the job in the first place.

Unless maybe Amy Lee is as "difficult" as @ICBM suspects, and the word is out.

digitalscream

ICBM said:

digitalscream said:

If you think she's bad live, check out some of their latest live videos. She's pretty good, but the guitarists...wow. I've not seen people consistently screw up solos that badly since I saw a crappy punk band down at my local. They just sound horribly amateurish, to the point where I've no idea how they got the job in the first place.

Because no-one any good would work with her?

I'm being totally honest right now - I wouldn't mind

Dopesick

Yeah...I think 'masterpiece' is stretching it a tad.

Never got the hype tbh. Just seemed like a Poundshop version of Lacuna Coil.

Grumpyrocker

Alas that role is now taken by Lacuna Coil themselves.