Ten years since the release of their latest studio album — yes, I am excluding 2017’s Synthesis — Evanescence is finally back with a brand new album, The Bitter Truth, and I am already getting ready to start digging for my fan club merch from nine years ago. Wait, is their fan club still around? And WHERE did I put my merch?!
Anyways, that’s a whole other story. Let’s just get going with this review already.
It’s been more than eighteen years since we were first introduced to Evanescence and their debut album Fallen. It didn’t take long for the world to be hypnotized by the hauntingly beautiful vocals and melodies from Amy Lee. We all cried when listening to My Immortal, we all sang along to Going Under while we pictured ourselves singing it to our fictional ex.
Following Fallen‘s release in 2003, Evanescence released two more studio albums (The Open Door in 2006 and Evanescence in 2011), as well as an album that was filled with reworked versions of their songs on their previous albums. Now, after ten years, they’re back with The Bitter Truth.
Throughout my time listening to this album, I can say that eighteen years after the release of their debut album, Evanescence is still bringing a dark, moody, and emotional touch to their songs. And I love it. Each track is very reminiscent of the sound we were first introduced to and it seems like it only gets better with each album. Not only does the sound gets better, but the lyrics do too.
In fact, this album sort of feels like a true follow-up to Fallen. Not saying that The Open Door wasn’t a great followup, because it was great. Actually, no. It was a fantastic follow up. However, the sound on this new album just feels like something that would have been released as a sequel to Fallen.
Amy’s vocals are still as hauntingly beautiful as they were when we were first introduced to her vocals eighteen years ago, which is also another highlight on this album. Her voice can still give you goosebumps after all these years.
Her main vocal highlights were, hands down, “Better Without You”, “Use My Voice”, “Far From Heaven”, and “Part Of Me”. If I could pick songs that displayed some of her best vocal performances to date, it would be those songs.
The album’s closing track, “Blind Belief”, was a perfect album closer. If I’m being honest, that’s a track that reminded me of a combination of two tracks off of their self-titled album, “The End Of The Dream” and “Swimming Home”. What a way to end this album!
Overall, this album was a great return to the Evanescence sound we’ve always been familiar with. Kudos to Evanescence for a great album, great lyrics, great sound, great music in general.
