Evanescence announce six-date UK tour

Amy Lee and co will tour their new self-titled album in November

The Arkansas band, who are currently putting the finishing touches to their self-titled third album, will tour the UK in November. The gigs kick off at London's HMV Hammersmith Apollo on November 4 and run until November 13, when the band close the tour at O2 Academy Birmingham.

The Pretty Reckless, the rock band fronted by former Gossip Girl actress Taylor Momsen, will support on all dates as well as Texas prog rockers Fair To Midland.

The dates are the band's first in the UK since 2007 and will follow the release of the album, which is due to drop on October 10. A single 'What You Want' will precede it in early August.

Evanescence will play:

11/04/11 - London HMV Hammersmith Apollo
11/07/11 - Manchester O2 Apollo
11/08/11 - Glasgow O2 Academy
11/10/11 - Plymouth Pavilions
11/12/11 - Leeds O2 Academy
11/13/11 - Birmingham O2 Academy

Source: nme.com

:30 sample of What You Want

Amazon.com has posted a :30 clip of the first single, "What You Want" which will be available for download on August 16, 2011.

Sample

Billboard's Social 50 Chart

As anticipation mounts for Evanescence's first studio album in nearly four years, the band debuts on the tally at No. 50. The band started previewing album tracks on MTV.com on July 11 and has since revealed several snippets of songs. Fan reaction on Facebook and Twitter is positive and in the week, Evanescence saw growth across both networks (up 114,000 fans at Facebook and 4,000 at Twitter). Perhaps most interesting though is that a spike in MySpace views also occurred, hinting that fans may have searched there for new songs.

Source: billboard.com

Amy Lee Thrilled to Return After Five-Year Break

Evanescence hasn't come out with a new album since 2006's The Open Door – but frontwoman Amy Lee is prepared for the October 11th release of Evanescence. Lee, who moved to New York just before getting married near the end of the band's last tour in 2007, says she's spent much of the intervening time "trying to find myself again as a human. The whole fame, celebrity, center of attention all the time thing, it’s not completely me. I’d rather be somebody’s friend and just be normal for a little bit. I needed to buy my own groceries for a little bit and not have a car and just be like every other New Yorker. So that was a big part of it, just me being me again without the Evanescence part."

But now, she's very happy to be back. "I sort of got away from that in my own heart and brain for a while," Lee says. "And to come back to it and have it just be, to me right now, better than ever, it feels great."

She even managed to find some ways to incoprorate her hiatus into the new album, which was produced by Nick Raskulinecz (Deftones, Foo Fighters, Alice In Chains). Lee makes her recording debut playing the harp, which she took up after her husband got her the instrument as a gift. Then there are her own diverse musical tastes. "I remember when I first heard MGMT, their first record – I loved it, loved it. And I actually started getting inspired around that time with synthesizers and stuff. I have always loved Portishead, Massive Attack, those electro things," she says. "Some of that has made it here. But I think when I finally found the sweet spot was combining the two things, combining Evanescence with some new elements."

Lee says she has more confidence now as a musician than she ever did before – and that it's reflected in the new album. "We’re having a blast making epic dark music," she says. "I don’t need to feel like it has to be any certain thing, it doesn’t have to be all dark and spooky or whatever. It can just be great."

Source: Rolling Stone Online

Snippets are a hit

The preview snippets are currently the most viewed on MTV's official site:

New splash page on official site

Looks like the official website got a mini makeover in preparations for the new album:

Evanescence's 'Lost In Paradise': Hear A Preview Now!

In our third and final sneak peek, Evanescence get unapologetically epic.By James Montgomery

The first time MTV News spoke to Amy Lee about Evanescence's upcoming album, she made a point of explaining exactly why the disc would be self-titled. Namely, because "it's about the band.

"It's more of a band record," she continued. "But I started thinking about it, and it's also that this whole record and the lyrical content and a lot of the things that it's about to me is about falling back in love with this thing, with Evanescence, with what I've obsessed over for a decade, longer than that."

And throughout the week, as we've unveiled sneak peeks at the songs on the album — roaring first single "What You Want" and the equally voluminous "The Other Side" — she continued to mention that the new tunes were very much full band creations: the result of endless back-and-forth between her and her mates.

But our third and final sneak peek is a little different. Because though "Lost in Paradise" features plenty of contributions from the other members of Evanescence, it is very much Amy Lee's song. And the emotional attachment she feels to it is readily apparent.

"That's the one that made us cry ... like, literally, just in here, working on it, there have been tears. I love that song," she told MTV News. "When I was writing it, it wasn't anything; it was just pure, it was just for me. I was literally just writing it for me, to soothe my own feelings by expressing them. And I just thought, 'Piano, vocals, I can record it by myself at my house, and that'll be the track. ... It'll be a B-side somewhere or something.'

"[But] then ... as we were working on other songs — focusing more on rock songs — I kept listening to it for fun, because it was mine, and I sent it to [producer] Nick [Raskulinecz] and I was like, 'I want you to listen to this. ... The more I listen to it, the more I think it means something,' " she continued. "And he, instantly, was like, 'We have to do that song.' And it was his idea to bring the band into it, and at first, I was totally like, 'I don't get that.' But once we did, it just blew the thing wide open, in a way I had never thought about before. It's perfect; it's meant to be the way it is."

Starting with little more than a somber piano and Lee's aching vocals, "Paradise" slowly builds, layering on stirring strings, booming timpani and, at the climax, some thunderous guitar chords. It is unapologetically epic and uncompromisingly raw, a song that manages to seem both all-encompassing and intimate, often at the same time. And because of that, it brings to mind rather unexpected comparisons to Björk's equally astronomic 1997 single "Jóga." And, no, Lee doesn't mind that one bit.

"That's a big inspirational song for me. That's a song through my life that I've listened to a whole bunch," she explained. "And to me, Björk, what makes her style are the strings, the orchestral elements, and that passion that it creates. ... It makes your heart pour out. That totally inspired me, and that song inspired me."

Source: MTV News

Evanescence's 'The Other Side'

MTV News previews a second song from band's hotly anticipated new album.
By James Montgomery

Last week, Evanescence invited MTV News down to Nashville to talk about their much-anticipated new album and play us a handful of tracks from the disc, which hits stores October 11.  

On Monday, we gave you an exclusive preview of "What You Want," the album's roaring first single. Now, we're about to pull the curtain back on another song, "The Other Side," a booming track that gives credence to frontwoman Amy Lee's claim that Ev's new effort is "the heaviest record" they've ever made.

A thunderous mix of double-bass drums, churning, chunky guitars and, of course, Lee's ethereal, widescreen vocals, "The Other Side" is the kind of song that starts big and only gets bigger, culminating in a chorus that's powerful enough to be measured in megatons. Like "What You Want," it's an aggressive track, but, as Lee pointed out, it may also be the best example of what she'd previously described as "fun." There's an elastic groove to the playing, a looseness that only comes from a band letting it all hang out.

"There's this element, this thing that we're doing that I can't really describe. We're just going to have to release the record and create an adjective [for it]," she laughed. "It's just ... 'musicianship.' We're enjoying playing, and the way that I'm singing, the way that I'm writing my vocals, it's not about the most dramatic expression of pain, it's like, 'I'm singing this because it feels really good to sing the melody that way.' And I think that song has both. It's beautiful and epic, but at the same time it's got that rocking vibe."

And in keeping with the overall theme of the album, "The Other Side" is very much a band song (there's a reason they're calling the new album simply Evanescence), the result of Lee working — and reworking — the track with her bandmates and producer Nick Raskulinecz. And while that process makes the song a definite departure for Evanescence, its subject matter — namely, death — is something Lee has been dealing with for years. Though, as is the case with pretty much everything on the new album, for the first time, she's tackling it in a different way.

"I wrote it with the guys. It was real collaborative. That was a hard one for me to write the lyrics for, because I had the chorus — it's very epic and dramatic; 'Counting the days to meet you on the other side' — but then, the verses, again, that element of fun is coming back in, you know, the band, it's grooving," Lee explained. "So I'm like, 'How do I sing about death in a way that's sort of bitchy?' Like, it's not really possible ... it's hard to explain. But it's harder than it sounds."

Source: MTV News

Evanescence's 'What You Want': Hear A Preview!

MTV News gives fans a preview of the band's comeback single.By James Montgomery

It's been nearly four years since Evanescence have released a single, and during that time, it appeared very likely they'd never release another. But on Monday (July 11), the wait — and all the drama that surrounded it — finally came to an end, because Evanescence are officially back, with a roaring new single called "What You Want."

Last week, MTV News traveled to Nashville's Blackbird Studio, where the band were putting the finishing touches on their upcoming, self-titled album (which their label, Wind-Up Records, just informed us is now due October 11 — one week later than previously reported), and they gave us an exclusive first listen at a handful of tracks, including "Want." And now, we're going to give you a sneak peek.

Frontwoman Amy Lee had previously described the song as being "really different" from anything in the band's back catalog, and, as you can tell, she wasn't kidding. "What You Want" is most definitely a departure, quite possibly the heaviest song Evanescence have ever made. The guitars buzz like a hornet's nest, the drums are pounding and primal, and the strings (arranged by Beck's dad, David Campbell) swell and stab. Throw in a positively massive chorus and Lee's vocal pyrotechnics, and you've got a song that's powerful enough to shake rock radio to its very foundation.

And that's pretty amazing, considering its simple roots.
"[Bassist] Tim [McCord] and [guitarist] Terry [Balsamo] and I wrote that song at my house in New York. We were just jamming, like, recording demos, and obviously the song has grown a lot since then, with everyone else," Lee told us. "For me, it was — and I need to remember this, so I can apply it in the future — it wasn't trying so hard to be some epic, massive chorus. I was just doodling around on the piano and the guys were like, 'Do that. Whatever you just did, that's an awesome melody.' And I was like, 'Really?' Sometimes you just need your friends to be like, 'Do that!' "
Though it came from humble origins, "What You Want" deals with heady concepts, a trait that's readily apparent throughout Evanescence's new album.

"It's about freedom — that's definitely a constant theme on the record — but, it's like Evanescence, and me, and my relationship with the music and the fans, and coming to that [realization] of 'This is what I'm supposed to do ... I want to do this,' " Lee said. "And when it says, 'Remember who you really are,' that's exactly everything you could assume it means."

For the time being, Evanescence fans are just going to have to make do with a snippet of "What You Want" (the full single is set to premiere in early August, Wind-Up said). But rest assured, you're going to be hearing the song a lot in the near future, because, as Lee said, it's not just the band's comeback single, it's also the beginning of a mission — one Evanescence are taking very seriously.

"I feel like, not that I'm trying to do what's important for the music industry, I'm doing what I want — we're doing what we love. But, at the same time, it's so refreshing for us to play music that we want to hear," she explained. "It rocks, and not that there's nothing going on that does, but less and less; that's definitely not what's dominating the airwaves. And it would be so amazing and it's totally our dream to have that happen for us; not even just for us, but, like, we want to hear rock music again.

"I think that, as a band, we're really strong," she continued. "Everybody's just playing at the top of their game right now, they're just putting it all in ... and it was, like, that mentality the whole time we were working. Like, whatever it takes to make the most amazing thing possible."

Source: MTV News

MTV tweets new album details

via Twitter

@positivnegativ
“just confirmed: we’ll be unveiling a sneak peek of evanescence’s first single MONDAY on MTVNEWS.COM”

@positivnegativ
 "so @amyleeEV played me about 1/4 of the new evanescence album today, incl. first single. it's all HUGE."

@positivnegativ
"big guitars, big strings, big vox, big ideas ... Ev fans are gonna LOVE it, believe me."