- This article is about the band. For other similar uses, see Evanescence (disambiguation).
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Evanescence is an American rock band, formed by Amy Lee and Ben Moody. Originating from Little Rock, Arkansas, the two met each other at a youth camp in 1994 and formed a band the next year. Since then, the band has released a number of EPs, three studio albums, one live session album and a career-spanning vinyl collection.
The lineup for the group has changed several times: David Hodges was the first to leave in 2002, followed by Ben Moody in 2003 after post-Fallen release. Bassist Will Boyd left in 2006, and later on guitarist John LeCompt and drummer Rocky Gray in 2007. Lead guitarist Terry Balsamo left the band in 2015 and was replaced by Jen Majura after hiatus.
In 2016, new tour dates were announced and Amy Lee stated that Evanescence would continue. In March 2017, Lee stated that Evanescence is working on their fourth studio album that is to be released in late 2017.
Beginning (1995–2001)
Evanescence was founded by Amy Lee and former lead guitarist Ben Moody. It was rumored that the two met at a youth camp in Arkansas, where Moody heard Amy playing Meat Loaf's "I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)" on the piano, but this rumor was later refuted by Amy in an interview for the magazine Rolling Stones. According to her she has never played a song by Meat Loaf and never will.
The two starting writing songs such as "Solitude" and "Give Unto Me", both written by Lee, and "Understanding" and "My Immortal", both written by Moody. The songs were edited by both artists, and they shared equal credit. Two of Lee and Moody's songs were played on local radio stations, raising local awareness of the group and demand for a concert. The band eventually appeared live and became one of the most popular acts in the area. After experimenting with band names, such as Childish Intentions and Stricken, they decided on Evanescence, which means "disappearance" or "fading away" (from the word evanesce, which means "to disappear"). They released two EPs ("Evanescence EP" and "Sound Asleep EP") in 1998 and 1999. Very few copies of these CDs were made, both distributed by Bigwig Enterprises.
"When this band started I was about 14 or so, and it was nothing more than a lot of song-writing and home recording. Throughout my high school years Ben and I (and later, David) filled all our spare time obsessing over songs, demoing them the best we could out of our parents houses, and playing the occasional club or cafe gig. Origin is a collection of our best home made recordings as of 2001 (I think. Maybe 2000...) Anyway, back then we were still finding ourselves- learning how to write. I've always felt that our music has grown and improved tremendously since then and want to keep doing better and better than before, instead of looking back. To be honest, its hard to listen to the really old stuff without laughing at myself a little. But of course those songs will always be special to me, and remind me of a time in my life that was both wonderful and terrible. It's so cool to have them recorded, so I can go back and listen to my teenaged self- to remember things I'd forgotten. " -Amy Lee
Their first record, Origin, was released on November 4th, 2000. Writing credits include Amy, Ben, and David Hodges. Amy herself does not consider the record to be an actual album; rather, she considers it merely a bundle of demo songs (some of which she says are not done properly) that was sent to record companies. Only 2500 copies of this record were ever made, and it is thus not generally available in stores. In response, Amy and Ben encouraged fans to download the band's older songs.
Fallen Era (2002 - 2005)
David left the band in December of 2002, four months before Fallen was released, because he thought he was leading the band to the Christian rock scene more than Ben Moody and Amy Lee wanted to. Just before Fallen, in January, Mystary EP was sold during a concert as a "Fallen Sampler". When their debut album was released by the major Wind-Up Records, the band consisted of Amy Lee, Ben Moody, Rocky Gray (Drums), John LeCompt (Guitar), and William Boyd (Bass). The same day as Fallen, the Daredevil movie soundtrack was released featuring Evanescence's "Bring Me To Life" and "My Immortal". "Bring Me To Life", the first single off Fallen, was a global hit for the band and reached #5 on the American Billboard Hot 100. Fallen spent 43 weeks on the Billboard Top 10, was certified 7x Platinum in the United States and sold more than 15 million copies worldwide; the album was listed for 104 weeks on the Billboard Top 200, and it was one of eight albums in the history of the chart to spend at least a year on the Billboard Top 50.
On October 22, 2003, Moody left the band in the middle of the European Tour, reportedly because of creative differences. His explanation of the event can be read in his open letter to the fans, published about 7 years later. In an interview several months later, Amy Lee said:
"It's actually been a relief, I don't mean that as a negative toward Ben, but we've all been through a lot and we were at breaking point. And the thing is, we'd gotten to a point that if something didn't change, we wouldn't have been able to make a second record." {C Terry Balsamo, former guitarist from Cold, joined the band in Moody's place.
The three other singles released from Fallen during 2003 and 2004 are "Going Under", "Everybody's Fool" and "My Immortal", which later became one of the most popular Evanescence songs.
In 2004 Evanescence released a live album + DVD set: "Anywhere But Home" was released November 22, 2004, and consists of a concert at the Zenith in Paris on May 25, a behind-the-scenes footage and the music videos off Fallen. Also on the CD are the live songs "Breathe No More" (from the Elektra movie soundtrack, released during 2005), "Farther Away", and the band's cover of Korn's {C "Thoughtless", along with the studio version of the B-Side "Missing".
The Open Door Era (2006–2009)
A spokesperson for the band's label confirmed on July 14, 2006, that Will Boyd had left Evanescence on good terms in late June for "not wanting to do another big tour" and wanting "to b
e close to his family", after the recordings of "The Open Door" were completed. In an interview with MTV, posted on their website on August 10, 2006, Lee announced he would have been replaced by Tim McCord. The album progressed slowly for several reasons, including Amy Lee's desire to maximize the creative process and not rush production, other band members' side projects, guitarist Terry Balsamo's stroke, and the loss of their former manager. The Open Door is Evanescence's second official album and third album overall; it was released on September 30, 2006, in Australia and Italy, October 2, 2006, in Europe and October 3, 2006, in North America. The album was recorded at The Record Plant in Hollywood, California, and mixed at Ocean Way Studios in March of 2006. It debuted at #1 in the US, Australia, Germany, Greece, Japan, and Switzerland and was in the Top 5 in Austria, Canada, France, Holland, Hong Kong, Italy, New Zealand, Sweden, UK, Ireland, Korea, Norway, and Denmark. The album was preceded by the single "Call Me When You're Sober", the music video for the song, based on a Little Riding Hood concept, was released on September 25. The tour for The Open Door began on October 5, 2006, in Toronto and included locations in Canada, the U.S. and Europe during that year. This first tour continued on January 5, 2007 and included stops in Canada (alongside band Stone Sour), Japan and Australia (alongside band Shihad) and then returned to the U.S. for a second tour in the spring (alongside bands Chevelle and Finger Eleven). They also co-headlined on the Family Values Tour 2007 along with Korn and other bands.
John was officially "fired" from Evanescence on May 4th, 2007 for unknown reasons. Rocky officially left Evanescence on May 4th, 2007, some people believe he did it in order to protest over John getting fired, but this wasn't the reason. Rocky had already decided to leave Evanescence in January (probably because he wanted to work on his side projects, but this is just a theory). His contract with Wind-Up said that he had to finish the tour first. He wasn't allowed to say anything about his plans about leaving either. When John was fired, he defied Wind-Up and told the fans anyway. Wind-up issued a press release on May 17, 2007, stating that Will Hunt (Drums) and Troy McLawhorn (Guitar) from Dark New Day would go on tour with Evanescence as guest members until the end of the Family Values Tour in September 2007, but both continued to play with the band through The Open Door tour.
Evanescence Era (2010-present)
In a news posting to the Evanescence website during June 2009, Amy Lee wrote that the band was in the process of writing new material for a new album proposed for release in 2010. She stated that the music would be an evolution of previous works and be "better, stronger, and more interesting". The 1st September, 2009, Amy Lee announced Evanescence's headline appearance at the Maquinária Festival in São Paulo, Brazil, which took place on November 8. The 4th November Evanescence played a "warm-up show" in New York, Manhattan Center Grand Ballroom; the venue had just a hundred capacity and the tickets were sold in less than ten minutes. "Together Again", an outtake from The Open Door, was released as a digital download in January 22, 2010, to benefit the United Nations Foundation for their Haiti earthquake recovery efforts. The download was free with a 5$ minimum donation. It later received wide release as a digital download on February 23, 2010. As announced on January 8 through Twitter, Evanescence entered the studio for the third album on February 22 to begin recording. Will "Science" Hunt joined the band as primary drummer and programmer, while Will Hunt returned as secondary drummer. David Campbell, who previously worked on The Open Door, was brought back to handle string arrangements, and the album will be produced by Steve Lillywhite. The sound of the new album has been described as "synthetic and atmospheric" quoting influences like Portishead, Massive Attack and Björk. The album was intended to be released during Fall 2010, however, on June 21, 2010, it was announced that Evanescence had temporarily left the studio to work further on the album and "get our heads into the right creative space" and indicated that Wind-Up Records was going through "uncertain times", which may further delay release of the album.
In June/July 2011, the productions for the album were finally finished. {C The first single of the 3rd album, which is selftitled because "it's the biggest band project so far", What You Want, got released in August 2011, followed by a music video in September. The album, "Evanescence" was released October 11th 2011 in the USA and a few days later or earlier in other countries.