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Let's start with two interviews of Amy Lee from Evanescence (via EvBoard.com: New (Old) Ev Articles *UPDATED*).
The Point Web-Only Interview: Amy Lee of Evanescence Interview by Adron Buske Transcribed by Amanda Rodgers: very interesting, with a good question about Lies (from the album Origin, one of my preferred song from Evanescence) and the appearance on vocals of Bruce Fitzhugh (the vocalist of Living Sacrifice):
1057thePoint.com: Do you think the dual vocal thing was inspired by the duet on your earlier EP, Origin, with Bruce Fitzhugh, the vocalist from Living Sacrifice?
Amy: See, this is the thing, we don't consider Origin a real CD. It's really funny. We made it look like a CD and we were really only using it as a demo to show to record labels. That was before we had a record deal. Then we were like, "Well, if we're doing all these songs…" These were all recorded in our apartment. We put them on the CD and made them look like a CD and now people think it's the 'early works of Evanescence.' I was so mad about that, I'm really so much more proud of our newer stuff. I mean, it's stuff that's good, but it's nothing like our new stuff. We've really grown as a band and even some of the songs on Origin are the same songs on Fallen, but were just done right, now that we have the money to or the backing from the label. We had Bruce Fitzhugh, from Living Sacrifice, come in and do a guest vocal on the song called "Lies" (on Origin), which is really cool; he's a friend of ours. We're friends with the band Living Sacrifice. Rocky Gray, our drummer, played guitar for Living Sacrifice. That was when I was in high school. Gosh, that was so long ago. It was all experimental back then.
And a candid interview: A Whisper and A Breath From Evanescence by Tim Cashmere.
What upset me is this story of front-woman, maybe one of the many reasons why Ben left the band. Amy is not Evanescence. Even if Ben and Amy were always doing interviews together after or before live shows, Amy began to do things alone more and more (in the press for example), or Ben was throwed with the rest of the band. Yes, Amy is a great vocalist, but Ben is a maestro with his own style. Just listen to the two now-splitted-Evanescence songs on The Punisher: The Album: Seether featuring Amy Lee: Broken, and Ben Moody featuring Jason Miller & Jason "Gong" Jones: The End Has Come. This last one is in the spirit of Evanescence, just without Amy Lee (and you can imagine what it would have been with Amy, that's sad...). When I read:
TC: Let's talk about the cover, how do you feel about being the focal point of the cover?
AL: Well I'm the lead singer, so it's kind of to be expected. Honestly, even I'm guilty of this, when you see a band, be it their video or live or whatever, you remember the lead singer. It's a lot easier to remember one face rather than four or five. It's just part of the job, I don't mind it. Ben minds it sometimes, he gets upset, but he'll live.,
I get very angry, cos if she would have wanted to be a part of the band, she could have made it. Look at Dream Theater, they are ONE band: each individual in the band is a very talented musician with his own personnality, you do not have James LaBrie on a cover. There was even fans thinking that "Evanescence" was the real name of Amy Lee! That's really bad that composers cannot be recognized for what they are... So I can completely understand the point of view of Ben in the Evanescence: The Split interview on mtv.com (this article is a must read, I will write another entry about it in the future), and I cannot accept little sentence from Amy like “Ben leaving was a very good moment. We got to the point where the band was really unhealthy.” (from the article Survivor in Blender - the ultimate music magazine – the title of the article is really stupid, and the photos are obviously not the best ever made, Amy seems to have chicken legs lol). Clearly, when we watch interviews of the band, Ben was always with the rest of the band, and the guys seemed to have fun together; so now when I read John LeCompt saying that Amy is true, it sounds really strange to me (and I respect the other band members, I am very respectful of someone like Rocky Gray who can play guitar, bass and battery at this level... hum smashing Sabian cymbal like one of my idol, Mike Portnoy). I remember a time when Amy was saying that Evanescence was her and Ben, the other being considered as musicians interpreting their music; now she says that they feel like a band... what a change!
To conclude this rant, I must confess I am troubled by what will be the next album. Fallen was a very good album, but too close from a concept album, too consistent, maybe too engineered/produced. I think I prefer Origin, which is more experimental, harder sometimes (Lies) but also with impressive ballads (Anywhere), even in Lavigne's pop-rock style (Where will you go) and the wonderfull Even in death. Without maestro Moody, the essence of Evanescence is gone, we have great performers with an unbelievable singer who can write haunted lyrics. My fear goes on an over-produced album... I hope it won't happen.
You can read one interesting point of view about Fallen in Fallen, by Evanescence by David Martin and follow the thread entitled Origin.. Greater album than fallen? on EvBoard.

New series of cool websites about Evanescence:

• Haunted Me: a brazilian website with a big library of interviews;


• Evanescence is... not a christian band.com: a really complete website, made by an early fan, with scans and rarities like two great sections about Ben Moody and David Hodges, and one listing of side projects (Kill System, Sould Embraced...);


• Childish Intentions is this crappy band: a very strange website whose title comes from the past of Evanescence;


• www.BringMeToLife.Com: a french website, so interesting for french people lol;


• two new websites with a few cool things: Falling-Forever.com and Dying Again.

And to finish, I must take the time to mention two great bands with girls as front-women which I discovered wandering the web: Eva (USA) and Die Happy (Germany). The first one is an electric evolution of an acoustic band, and the second is an empowered melodic metal band. And if you want to know what's happening in Little Rock, you can take a look at a new band from Evanescence's city: Between The Second.