Evanescence - Fallen
Amy Lee - Vocals and Piano
John LeCompt - Guitar
Rocky Gray - Drums
William Boyd - Bass
Terry Balsamo - Guitar
Fallen (UK Release on April 28th 2003) Track Listing
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
Before Fallen was released onto the record stores’ shelves, Evanescence were virtually unknown but their first record was actually was released nearly 7 years ago, back in 1998. Evanescence began when Ben Moody (lead guitar, left in 2003) and Amy Lee (vocalist and piano) met at a camp and he heard her sing the Meatloaf track, ‘I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That)’. After this many songs were written by Ben and Amy.
Evanescence were a favourite with Christians and ‘Fallen’ were featured in Christian music stores before Evanescence claimed that they did not want to be part of the Christian rock scene. Evanescence are now considered as alternative/Goth rock.
The opening track to Fallen is Going Under. This song is quite rocky compared to some of the other tracks but still have excellent vocals from Amy Lee. Going Under was the second song released as a single from this album. The second track, Bring Me To Life, could be considered as the song that threw Evanescence into the limelight. Bring Me To Life was the first track released from the album and is also well-known for being featured in the 2003 movie ‘Daredevil’. This song went to number one.
Everybody’s Fool is about people who aren’t themselves and pretend to be something they’re not just to get themselves accepted. This song was also released as a single, the fourth out of four to be released. My Immortal was the third track to be released as a single. This song is probably the most melodic and is a slow, flowing song played on piano. My Immortal is apparently one of the songs that Evanescence have produced that Amy Lee dislikes. The fifth track Haunted is another of the rockier tracks but also quite dark. A choir are featured in Haunted which gives a dark and mysterious feel to the song. From the beginning and first verse, the pace of the song is quite slow but the rest of the band come in on the chorus, leading it into a rockier song.
For Tourniquet, interesting effects have been used on Amy’s voice after effects and guitar riffs that leads into the verse. The song features quite hard-hitting lyrics, an example could be, ‘My wounds cry for the grave, my soul cries for deliverance, Will I be denied Christ, Tourniquet, My suicide.’ Imaginary is another of my favourite tracks. This track seems quite surreal as it mentions monsters, paper flowers, candy clouds of lullaby and purple skies.
Taking Over Me seems a really melodic and soft song with gentle piano playing, if you judge from the introduction, but then heavy guitars come in just before the verse. Then the piano is back. This song to me seems very meaningful and that is a reason why I like it so much. The ninth song, Hello is a very gentle acoustic song that is played on piano. It is slow and quite mysterious but relaxing as the rest of the album is quite rocky.
My Last Breath is not one of the rockiest tracks, in my opinion. Again, it is slow and played on piano in the verses and rest of the band comes in on the chorus, mostly. Towards the middle, the band plays all together and carries on though to the end of the song. Final song. Whisper is one of the darkest tracks on the album, possibly the most. It is different to most of the others with a guitar intro coming straight in. This song gives a mysterious feel, especially with the choir in the background and at the end, singing in Latin. This is definitely one of the best tracks, in my opinion. Mysterious feel, backing choir, suspense being built up and amazing vocals by Amy Lee; all make this song amazing.
This album, by November 2004, had gone six times platinum and listening to this amazing album, you can see why. I’d definitely recommend ‘Fallen’ if you’ve loved the singles released. My favourite songs would be My Immortal, Imaginary, Hello and Whisper, but they’re all awesome and it’s hard to choose!
