Like a christmas stocking bursting at the seams with all sorts of alluring and curious angles and shapes, the little rock quartet Evanescence comes wrapped with almost golden surprise. well...maybe that's just their lead singer. Amy Lee's vocals are tremendous throughout and often act as a counterweight to the heavy guitar and drumming that also permeate the album. to say the least, the band got a glance from me simply on the strength of her singing. but unfortunately they didn't get much more. it's one thing to *look* at your stocking christmas day and gleefully smile at the odd contours protruding from it and it's another thing to actually pull out the object only to find it's the same red fire truck you grew tired of a few years back.

Amy Lee, much like her male counterpart Chester Bennington of Linkin Park, seems to initially resuscitate the dead genre of pop-rock. her voice is powerful, rich, and enchantingly mellifluous but unfortunately it stops there. the music as a whole still succumbs to trite monikers of angst, depression, and loneliness. the lyrics, like chester's, are merely abstractions of already vague subjects. what's especially disappointing is that i don't think the band would have even been recognized without Lee. the guitaring is your usual thrash nonsense and seems like an awful representation for the lead vox. whereas A Perfect Circle perfectly evoked a feminist interpretation of a musical genre meant "for the boys," Evanescence is just boys' music that tried melody for kicks.

it's still the same red fire truck.

Artist: Evanescence
Album: Fallen
Label: Wind Up Records
Rating: 5.5/10