Little Rock, AR · gothic-metal · alt-metal

Evanescence

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Amy Lee's piano-and-orchestra gothic metal, the sound of a whole 2000s radio format built around one voice — 'Bring Me to Life' still an event live.

Amy Lee and Ben Moody met as young teenagers at a Christian youth camp in Little Rock, Arkansas, where she played piano and he played acoustic guitar; both felt like outsiders and started making music together. Evanescence spent the late 1990s releasing independent EPs and a demo before signing to a major label.

Musically the band paired classically inflected piano and string arrangements with downtuned guitars, Lee's soprano carrying the melody over the top, a sound their early records helped establish as a template others copied.

Their 2003 debut, Fallen, sold more than four million copies in the US within a year on the strength of 'Bring Me to Life' and 'My Immortal', earning two Grammy Awards, and the band followed it with the platinum live album and DVD Anywhere but Home. Moody left the group not long after Fallen, leaving Lee as the only constant member through later lineups.

The Open Door, co-written with guitarist Terry Balsamo, followed in 2006 and sold more than six million copies worldwide. The band reconvened in 2009 with Balsamo, Troy McLawhorn, Tim McCord and Will Hunt for their 2011 self-titled album, the first written collectively, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 before the group entered a hiatus.

Evanescence became an independent band in 2014 and resumed touring the following year. Synthesis (2017) reworked earlier songs with orchestra and electronics and led to their first tour performed with live orchestras, followed by The Bitter Truth in 2021 and a sixth album, Sanctuary, due in 2026. The current lineup pairs Lee with McCord, McLawhorn, Hunt and bassist Emma Anzai.

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gothic-metalalt-metal