Evanescence: Fallen : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Call it a case of mistaken identity. Evanescence's hit "Bring Me to Life" doomed the Arkansas group to a life of Linkin Park comparisons, thanks to the song's digital beats, clean metal-guitar riffs, scattered piano lines and all-too-familiar mix of rapping and singing. The gimmick? It's a woman on the mike, and she's on a mission from God. When vocalist Amy Lee croons about lying "in my field of paper flowers" or "pouring crimson regret," she gives Fallen a creepy spiritual tinge that the new-metal boys lack. Sometimes the band even helps her out, adding ghostly echoes and ghoulish industrial noises to the aptly titled "Haunted," or, better yet, leaving her the hell alone. "My Immortal" lets Lee wail about her personal demons over simple piano and some symphonic dressings - it's a power ballad that P.O.D. and Tori Amos fans could both appreciate.