Music review by Carrie Sanderson

Trail Staff Writer

After three years out of the studio, alternative rock band Evanescence released its third album The Open Door. It is the follow-up to its first studio album Fallen, which was released in 2003. Between the releases of its two studio albums, they also released a live album, Anywhere But Home, which was recorded in London on their tour and released in 2004.
Fallen sold well for the band and it produced huge hits such as “Bring Me to Life,” “My Immortal,” “Everybody’s Fool” and “Going Under.” Evanescence’s front woman Amy Lee also saw success from her duet with Seether in “Broken.”
The band released its first single from The Open Door in August and it has seen much success thus far.
Evanescence has been through a lot since its creation. Ben Moody, a co-founder of the band, left in October 2003 in the middle of the European tour because of “creative differences.”
Evanescence replaced Moody with Terry Balsamo from the band Cold. In early 2006, the band’s bassist Will Boyd left the band to be close to his family. Boyd was replaced soon after by Tim McCord.
One of the biggest songs in Amy Lee’s career was not as a part of Evanescence, but it was singing a duet with Seether on their song “Broken.” Lee ended up dating Seether’s front man Shaun Morgan for three years after the release of that song. After it ended, Morgan checked himself into a 28-day drug and alcohol rehabilitation center and Lee wrote “Call Me When You’re Sober” obviously about him and their relationship. The same day the single was released, Morgan checked himself into the rehab center.
Since its much-anticipated release on Oct. 3, The Open Door has been successful. It has boosted the popularity of Evanescence back to where it was after the release of Fallen. The single “Call Me When You’re Sober” is the main fuel for the album’s success thus far.
The music video for the single is also doing remarkably well. It has reached new heights on MTV’s Total Request Live. It peaked at the number one position and remained there for nine weeks, making that the first time an Evanescence video topped the TRL charts.
My favorite song off of The Open Door is, obviously, “Call Me When You’re Sober.” After I saw the premiere on MTV’s “Making the Video,” I listened to it nonstop and drove my family and boyfriend absolutely crazy.
I love how Amy Lee is making it a point to stand up for herself and saying that she isn’t going to deal with it anymore. My favorite lyric is “Don’t cry to me, if you loved me, you would be here with me” because that conveys the emotion of the whole song so well.
Another of my favorites is “Sweet Sacrifice.” It is about how people are so superficial and think they are superior to others that they view as different. It says, “You poor sweet innocent thing, dry your eyes and testify. Oh, you love to hate me don’t you honey? I’m your sacrifice.”
I like that lyric because it is about standing up to those who put you down. All the songs on this album are great and have good messages, even though they sound depressing.
Amy Lee’s voice is absolutely amazing because of the ranges she hits and the flexibility in her vocals. Her songwriting is equally amazing. The emotion she conveys in each song is unbelievable. The intensity in her voice is unmatchable by anybody in the business.