Five years since the release of their sophomore album, Arkansas rockers Evanescence finally return with their third effort. A hiatus and scrapped sessions with producer Steve Lillywhite behind them, the quintet brought in Nick Raskulinecz (Foo Fighters, Deftones) to handle production duties. The result is an album that delivers on the orchestral-laced hard rock thrust and Amy Lee's soaring vocals fans have come to expect, with a few surprising experiments along the way.
Lee's skyward vocals suit the album's obsession with the emotional frustration and devastation of a break-up well, ripe with romantically longing tunes like gorgeous power ballad "Lost In Paradise", where her breathy vocals in the beginning awaken as she passionately apologizes for not sticking with the guy who believed in her. While there are moments of beauty, like the twinkling piano and classical strings wrestling with burly riffs on "The Change", there are plenty of tracks where the guitar assault does its best to smother the strings for a more direct hard rock sound, as with the thick slab of metal-kissed guitar shoving the orchestra to the background on "End Of The Dream".
Lee's alluring vocals hang over the rubbery thicket of guitars on "Made Of Stone", almost as if she is haunting the song. Their attempt to pretty up "Never Go Back" nearly derails the track, with guitar gnawing over a grumbling bass groove sounding great before they clumsily toss in a bit of unnecessary piano in the hook of what is otherwise an invigorating listen, as Lee desperately professes her love. For all the familiar cascading piano and grubby march of guitar and stomping drums on fiery "My Heart Is Broken", where Lee's siren-esque vocals shine, the band takes a few interesting chances late in the album.
A hazy synth hum and stuttering beat make for a head turning sonic shift on the excellent "Oceans", with plenty of guitar in the hook to make up for the neon fog in the verses. The icy chill of electo-pop ballad "Swimming Home" is a twitchy, sleepy experiment gone awry, and is enough of a sonic departure to be better served as a bonus track or b-side. The slamming beat and odd blend of twinkling piano and electro-pop dance elements toil with thrashing guitars for a cluttered, but uplifting listen as Lee pleads for freedom of expression on the oddly poppy vocal of "What You Want".
With a few tracks spreading their wings a bit and plenty of surefire fan favorites, like the dramatic roaring vocals and guitars sawing through piano on tense "Erase This", Evanescence's latest is great album that delivers the familiar while keeping an eye on the future.
8 out of 10
Source: ign.com
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