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Evanescence - Biography


This band's profile is 'invisible', meaning that it's much less prominent on the site - either because it's incomplete, or maybe doesn't entirely fit MS format.


Biography

Evanescence was founded by singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Amy Lee and former lead guitarist and songwriter Ben Moody. The two met in 1994 at a youth camp in Little Rock, where Moody heard Lee playing a Meat Loaf song on the piano. The band became popular after performing in coffee shops around the Little Rock area. After experimenting with band names, such as Childish Intentions and Stricken, they decided on Evanescence, which means "disappearance" or "fading away" (from the word evanesce, which means "to disappear").

The band released two EPs. The first is the self-titled Evanescence EP (1998), of which about 100 copies were made and distributed at the band's early live performances. The second is the Sound Asleep EP, also known as the Whisper EP (1999). For their first full-length demo CD, Origin (2000), about 2,500 copies were produced and sold to concert audiences. Origin and the EPs contain demo versions of some songs that were reworked to be in their debut album, Fallen.

After recording independent albums, the band released their first full-length album, Fallen, on Wind-up Records in 2003. Fallen sold more than 17 million copies worldwide and helped the band win two Grammy Awards out of seven nominations. A year later, Evanescence released their first live album, Anywhere But Home, which sold more than one million copies worldwide. In 2006, the band released their second studio album, The Open Door, which sold more than seven million copies worldwide.

The lineup of the group changed several times over the course of the first two studio albums' productions and promotions: David Hodges left in 2002, co-founder Moody left in 2003 (mid-tour), bassist Will Boyd in 2006, followed by guitarist John LeCompt and drummer Rocky Gray in 2007, and Terry Balsamo in 2015. As a result, none of the band's three studio albums feature the same lineup. The latter two changes led to a hiatus, with temporary band members contributing to tour performances.

The band reconvened in June 2009 with a new lineup; their next studio album, Evanescence, was released in 2011. It debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 chart with 127,000 copies in sales on first week. The album also debuted at number one on four other different Billboard charts: the Rock Albums, Digital Albums, Alternative Albums, and the Hard Rock Albums charts. The band spent 2012 on tour in promotion of their latest album with other bands including The Pretty Reckless and Fair To Midland. Troy McLawhorn also became a full-time band member during this time. Following the end of the album's tour cycle in 2012, the band entered another hiatus.

In 2015, Evanescence emerged from hiatus and announced they would resume touring; however, they denied that new Evanescence material was being produced, as Lee was focusing on a solo project instead. In addition, Balsamo left the band and was replaced by Jen Majura. Late 2016 saw additional touring from the band and a statement from Lee that Evanescence would continue. In March 2017, Lee stated Evanescence was working on a collection for release later in 2017.
Synthesis was released worldwide on November 10, 2017, and marked a stylistic change in the band's sound by using symphonic and electronic elements for the base of the band's most acclaimed hits. Two new songs appeared in the collection: "Imperfection" and "Hi-Lo".

The band is now finishing recording its fourth full-length, The Bitter Truth, almost one decade after their last studio effort. So far, it has been promoted by the release of four singles, for which three videoclips were made: "Wasted On You", "The Game Is Over" and "Use My Voice"; Evanescence also released "Yeah, Right". While Amy Lee promised the new album would have much of their second disc The Open Door's dark aura and heaviness, the singles showed a poppier approach with some 90's grunge heaviness in the mix, which resembles nothing from their second studio album. The Bitter Truth is set to be released on March 26th, 2021.

Source: imdb.com