World Evanescence Day: Happy 10th Anniversary to 'Fallen'

Well, it's March fourth, World Evanescence Day. But this year is most important, for it marks the tenth anniversery of their first big album released by Wind-Up Records, Fallen.

Fallen is one of my favorite (if not, my single favorite) albums ever crafted. I got my hands on it in 2005, and it changed my life. It introduced me to different types of music that I'd never listened to before and helped discover some of my secondary favorite bands. That album showed me what a great voice really sounded like, but more importantly, that it's okay to express any of life's negativity through art.

Sometimes on forums, I'll be asked to make a list of my top ten favorite bands, and the top two are always the same:

1. Evanescence
2. Within Temptation

There are some times when I feel like Evanescence and Within Temptation may be tied for first place, but Within Temptation never exceeds Evanescence in my mind. There's something about that band, something wonderful, that has kept them in my heart for the past seven (going on eight) years. No, not something, but many things that have made me love this band and their music so much.

In general, Evanescence is my go-to band whenever I need to feel better. Not only do I rely on Fallen, but also their other albums, The Open Door, Evanescence, and even their early EPs. Sure, their music isn't the happiest, but it's the most relatable music I've ever come across. Amy Lee's lyrics have described some of my life situations ever-so perfectly, and the music has pulled on my heart strings, conveying the emotion even more realistically.

Not to mention the band members themselves. Amy Lee is the definition of a role model, and she maintains this simply by being her (very artistic) self. She's such a great person, always gracious for her fans, and she's never lost her femminist-edge. (Of course, I mean the real definition of femminist; that word has been thrown around and changed too much lately.)

Even though the line-up changes have been a bit frequent in the past ten years, I must say, I love the line-up that they've had since The Open Door Tour, which includes Terry Balsamo on lead guitar, Troy McLawhorn on guitar, Tim McCord on bass, Will Hunt on drums, and of course Amy Lee on vocals/piano. I finally saw Evanescence live for the first time last summer, and they all rocked. The songs from Fallen have improved live, particularly potence of the drums.

Naturally, ten years has brought a lot of change in their sound as well; no two albums sound too similar. But it all started with Fallen and a hit single entitled "Bring Me to Life" (which is still played on the radio regularly after all this time) to make them known in the world.

Happy anniversery, Fallen. The world is lucky to have you for all this time; the world is lucky to have Evanescence for all this time.

Fallen | by: Lauren Kate

Fallen is the first book in its series, about Luce, a girl sent to reform school after a terrible accident she barely remembers. She makes friends as well as enemies in the strange school, and even has a couple of love interests - which brings the subject of Daniel. He makes it absolutely clear that he isn't interested in her, but she can't stop being interested in him. She's drawn to him in a way that almost feels natural to Luce, though it makes no sense. There's just something about him that is unlike any other being, but is that part only Luce's imagination?

I was really into this book from the start. For one thing, the setting of this book is quite different than I imagined. Creepy, restricted reform schools just aren't the cliche place to be these days. But, it definately lives up to the beautifully dark cover art. (In fact, this may be the best book cover I've ever seen!)

Despite it had some originality to it, I was worried of being able to predict the plot. After all, most of these YA books have been pretty predictable to some degree. A lot of my predictions were true, but the ending was shocking. I truly hope Laren Kate can keep it up in Torment. Not much was explained in Fallen, so I hope that Torment will bring more information about the angels, and Luce's past.

Lauren Kate's writing is very good, and she has crafted quite a page turner. It took a while for things to really get going in this book, but for some odd reason, I still had trouble putting it down. Lauren Kate made me curious about what would happen next, even if not much was happening. The great books always make me do somthing crazy, like stay up extra hours reading, dreaming about the book, telling characters what to do, ect. Fallen would make me read and read and read against my own will. I'd sit there and feel like I've only read for ten minutes and look at the clock, when it's been thirty minutes. I even dreamt about this book. I dreamt of Daniel, and I dreamt of feeling silky wings.

Despite being a bit predictable and kind of slow, I really, really liked this book.

4/5 stars

Fallen | Evanescence

"Now I will tell you what I've done for you" is the opening line to Fallen, which makes it sound as if Evanescence's lead singer, Amy Lee, is about to tell a story. "Going Under" is the starting song, and Amy's voice goes very low and quite high in this song, as well as the rest of the album. "Going Under" was a great pick to begin the album.

Next comes "Bring Me to Life", a duet with the lead singer of the band 12 Stones. This track begins with piano and cresendos into a new sound, filled with booming guitars, Amy's strong voice, and Paul's vocals (that are more like rapping). The sound remains similar, though not as deep or dramatic, into "Everybody's Fool". The lyrics are angrier, but still incredible. And, as usual, Amy's voice stands out above everything else.

The next song is a slow one, the main instrument being the piano. It turns out Evanescence can make acoustic music with as much brilliance as their heavier tracks. "My Immortal" is sad, and seems to revolve around death and loss... but at the same time it is about something, or someone, that lingers.

Creepy and snythesized effects come next in the song "Haunted". Amy's voice seems to be sewn into the first couple of lines, and then BOOM! All of a sudden, the music is loud and the guitars are back. Unlike the other songs, the drumline in "Haunted" really sticks out.

An airy intro leads into the following song, "Tourniquet". This may be one of the darkest songs from Fallen. After all, it is a song about suicide. Amy Lee's voice soars and carries the music behind it. At some point, she surprises us all by screaming "I want to die!" The string outro from "Tourniquet" leads straight into "Imaginary", one of the best and most influential songs from Fallen. The guitar riffs are melodic and unearthly, and as usual, Amy's voice is delicate, yet so powerful at the same time. Nothing could ever break such an amazing voice.

"Taking Over Me" is about obsession. The effects behind Amy's voice are electric as her voice sounds the desperate lyrics. It is not the best from Fallen, but it is still amazing nontheless.

Now we dive into "Hello", a much different experience than the earlier tracks. For nearly the whole song, all the listener hears is Amy's piano and voice. This song holds so much meaning, so much despair, it should be no surprise that it was written about a tragedy that effected Amy Lee. Everything about this song is beautiful.

The tenth track is called "My Last Breath". It is particularly deep, and the most romantic song on the album. It is heavy and melodic, as most of the album, but there is something special about it within the lyrics and melody.

Last comes "Whisper", the darkest and heaviest song from Fallen. The opening guitar riffs are like classic Evanescence, edgy and awesome. Every lyrics is dark as a pit, but sung so gracefully, which helps to make it one of the most epic songs I've ever heard. A fabulous ending to the masterclass album.

Truth to be told, Evanescence is my favorite band, and Fallen is one of the best albums I've ever heard, if not the best. I love this album more than I could ever tell you; it means so much to me, and is truly extraordinary.

Epic, beautiful, and emotional, with a hard rock/symphoniac/electronic sound.

5/5 stars.