Evanescence - The Bitter Truth
World renowned hard / gothic rock band Evanescence released their new album "The Bitter Truth" today. Wow! This album takes me back to my teenage years, a lot of it is very reminiscent of their first album, but this one has a more well-aged matured sound. I enjoyed this album a lot!
The first thing I noticed is that there's a lot of really heavy riffs in this album, especially evident in "Wasted On You", "Better Without You", and a few other tracks. Significantly heavier than a lot of what I've heard them do before. I love this heavier and edgier side of them. It's great!
Another different is that this album has a bit of a different perspective in most of the lyrics. They've sort of gone from the classic dark goth doom and gloom woe is me to a more powerful and fighting back sort of tone. I think after all that Amy Lee has been through, and how long she's been doing this, it's about time for this shift. It's a really nice change, and it's very blatant in the song "Use My Voice". It's very empowering and definitely one of my personal favorite tracks on this album.
There was one song that really caught me off guard. "Yeah, Right" is a very poppy tune, and has a very different sound from any other Evanescence tracks. Did I like it? Sure. But it also felt sort of out of place. What is this upbeat poppy song doing on a hard rock album?
Of course, what would an Evanescence album be without a piano driven ballad? There was a couple of them, but I especially enjoyed "Far From Heaven". It's an absolutely beautiful song of loss and longing. Lee's vocal performance on this song is so raw and emotional and beautiful. It's so good!
I definitely thought this album is a great comeback. After not releasing a new album for so long, and despite lineup changes and a slight change in sound, Evanescence definitely still has it! This album kicks ass! I love it so much! I highly recommend checking it out, and I'm very much looking forward to the future of this band and whatever they do next. ~Gangis
