Evanescence are dragging their core sound into the present with hard-nosed confidence
Few bands were as massive as Evanescence in the early 00s, with their debut, Fallen, alone shifting north of 17 million copies. But after turning platform-booted stadium goth into a generation-defining phenomenon, the band spent many of the years that followed frustratingly quiet, releasing just one album of original material in the last decade.
Lately, though, the Bring Me To Life stars have looked very much revived. Between a support stint with Metallica and Amy Lee’s team-up with Poppy and Courtney LaPlante on single End Of You, Sanctuary arrives just when Evanescence feel vital again. On their latest album, rather than chase the candlelit melodrama of 2006’s The Open Door or simply rehash the alt metal trappings of Fallen, Evanescence are dragging their core sound into the present with hard-nosed confidence.
Opener Beautiful Lie crashes through the door on staggered riffs and an electronic pulse before unfolding into a gleaming, off-kilter chorus that feels close to contemporary prog metal bands like Tesseract. Likewise, Tell Me When You’ve Had Enough thrives on the tension between its blunt-force nu metal DNA and the immediate, radio-sized chorus perched on top of it.
Crucially, Evanescence’s electronic streak is no longer skulking in the background. Self-Destruct throbs with nightclub synths beneath its metallic chassis, Calm Down mutates from spectral ambience into mechanised plodding, and throughout the record the programming adds genuine muscle.
Most striking, though, is the shift in Sanctuary’s overall demeanour. The baroque melodrama that made The Open Door such a fan favourite has largely been swapped for something tougher, steelier and far more confrontational. The title track surges with droning tension and hulking emotion, Rapture finds the band dabbling in full-blown stomp-stomp-clap, sports- montage bombast, and even the blockbuster heft of Afterlife, written for Netflix’s Devil May Cry adaptation, surprises with a doomy outro.
Amy, once the lachrymose starlet at a grand piano, emerges victorious as the band’s battle-hardened ringleader sounding newly emboldened throughout the 12 tracks. For all its brawn and self-belief, Sanctuary is not flawless. The band’s sheer force of personality occasionally masks songwriting that is good rather than exceptional, with Who Will You Follow drifting perilously close to Evanescence-by-numbers despite the fact it hits hard.
More problematic are the ballads, which sap the record’s momentum whenever they appear. How Do I Heal and Forever Without You offer ample proof that Amy Lee can still sing the absolute paint off a cathedral ceiling, but neither lands with the melodic or emotional potency required to justify slowing the pace so dramatically.
Those issues stop Sanctuary from truly entering the top tier of Evanescence records, but they don’t dull the sense that Evanescence have made their most vital record in years. Confident, contemporary and frequently colossal, it succeeds not by retreating into nostalgia but by dragging the band’s core identity into the present with surprising conviction. If the metal world has indeed started paying close attention to Evanescence again, Sanctuary makes a compelling case that it should keep doing so.
Sanctuary is out this Friday, June 5. Read all about the album in the latest issue of Metal Hammer, out now
