Fallen [Live]

Vocalist Amy Lee has one of those voices that only comes along once in a while; haunting, beautiful and melodic. She manages to make every track her own, but really excels on the two ballads "My Immortal" and "Hello". Backed with little more than a piano she is able to demonstrate her full vocal dexterity, and sent shivers down my spine in the process. Meanwhile, on "Bring Me To Life" she is the perfect antithesis to guest singer Paul McCoy's (lead singer of 12 stones, another fantastic group) gravelly, rough voice.

The music itself is no less wonderful. Guitars, drums, keyboards, synthesisers and even violins work in harmony to create highly atmospheric pieces like "Haunted" and "Imaginary". Basically Evanescence are the perfect musical combination; everything comes together in order to make eleven stand-out tracks that will often leave you awestruck.

Some reviewers have compared the group to Linkin Park, but look beyond that and you'll find that Evanescence are so much more. This album will be staying in my CD player for a long, long time...

I appreciate that nearly every word on the CD is understandable. I like this genre of music, but dislike those artists that feel the need to unintelligibly scream nearly every word. Sure there were a couple places I wasn't sure until I looked up lyrics on-line--but that would be true with almost anything.

Really it is hard to describe the tracks, except to say that they're different, but all good. No Amy Lee's voice doesn't sound radically different in each track, but you can find something different about each, be it the message, the tone, or just the beat. The collection works together to snythesize one coherent whole. Yes, a bit dark, but more enjoyable than depressing.

I never heard any of these songs overplayed on the radio, so any saturation is due to my own choice of playing the CD--and I've not reached that point yet. If you haven't checked this group out then give them a chance, especially if you enjoy the samples Amazon provides to listen.