Amy Lee Attends EMI Canada's Evanescence Listening Party

By Karen Bliss, Toronto

Amy Lee was on hand for an invitation-only playback of five new Evanescence songs at Toronto's Liberty Studios on August 22. Hosted by EMI Music Canada, and attended by about 30 people, mainly label staff and media, radio and retail, Paul Shaver, EMI's vice-president, marketing and promotion, gave a small intro, before playing "What You Want," "The Change," "The Other Side," "My Heart Is Broken" and "Lost In Paradise."

"This is a great opportunity: we have an artist show up and want to present their music to ourselves, the industry," said Shaver. "It doesn't happen that much anymore. A lot of pride and love went into this record. A few of us had the privilege of going to Vancouver a few weeks ago [to The Warehouse] and Amy played us a few tracks in the studio when she was mixing and it was just fantastic. It made us want to recreate it here in Toronto."

The self-titled album, the first since 2006's The Open Door, due Oct. 11. It was produced by Nick Raskulinecz (Foo Fighters, Rush) and mixed by Randy Staub (Metallica, Nickelback, Bon Jovi).