It’s like Lacuna Coil have grown an American accent!
Evanescence appear to be the band everyone loves to hate. Whilst some seasoned rock fans turn their noses up in disgust, fledgling rockers rave about how wonderful lead singer Amy Lee is. Regardless of which side of the Evanescence fence you sit on, if you are familiar with the band Lacuna Coil, it is obvious that Cristina Scabbia and her band of goth-metallers from Italy are by far superior. Amy Lee has a nasal quality embedded in her voice whilst Christina’s moves like a cheetah, zigzagging after the perfect song. Remember, the chances that a cheetah will catch its prey are pretty slim. Similarly, Lacuna Coil stumble in areas when Evanescence glow; the track ‘Haunted’ stands out as one of the best songs on their latest album Fallen. Amy Lee and her cohorts have something Lacuna will never have: the ability to create metal that is capable of breaking the singles charts- ‘Bring Me To Life’ rose up into the higher regions of the charts after Daredevil was released. But why? If Lacuna are the real thing, why have the got to watch Evanescence take the money for their unique ‘nu-goth’ (read: pop-metal)?
Quite simply, they’re Italian. The UK, on the whole is very narrow minded and until recent times appeared unable to look to Europe for new bands, preferring the bland, predictable yet palatable sounds of American bands and accents.
The album Fallen highlights this overall, a dull, uninteresting album which does, in its defence, show a glimmer of the intelligent songwriting that was openly displayed on their first album Origin. Whereas Origin displayed creativity and thoughtful content, Fallen has indeed fallen flat on its face. Contained within faded guitars that sound like the torn and tattered remains thrown out by Linkin Park, Amy Lee whines her way through eleven songs worth of tenuous lyrics. Quite frankly, with the exception of four songs, the album leaves you unmoved and wondering how you could have spent the time better. The few tracks that stand out are mainly reworked, more radio friendly songs from the collectors album Origin.
‘Going Under’ gets off to a promising start, but it quickly slips into the monotonous loud/quiet tactic employed by so many bands these days. The song is redeemed somewhat by Ben Moody (now departed)’s guitar solo. It shows he can play when he feels like it and proves how unlucky Evanescence really are to have lost him to pop queen Avril Lavagne. The song fades off to be replaced with the well-known twinkling piano of ‘Bring Me To Life’. This is one of the better new songs on the album and features the voice of Paul McCoy, a cunning plan from Ben and Amy to lure people curious about a band with both a male and female singer into buying their record. McCoy’s voice compliments Amy’s and stops it from becoming the usual hungry-bat-in-the-night-looking-for-food whine she delivers her lyrics with.
‘Bring me To Life’ really is Pop Metal in its finest three minutes.
Other songs on the album such as ‘Haunted’ and ‘Whisper’ employ atmospheric choral vocals and sliding changes beneath Amy’s voice. Both work incredibly well with Amy’s voice. All in all, Fallen is worth purchasing because, when it’s good, it’s very, very good. My advice? Pretend tracks 3, 6,7, 8,9 and 10 don’t exist, or better yet, try to obtain a copy of Evanescence’s Origin album.