21. February 2025
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Media Review

Evanescence – The Bitter Truth

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

Evanescence - The Bitter Truth

Evanescence - The Bitter Truth
3.9

Rating

 3.9/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Exceptional vocal performance by Amy Lee
  • Well written songs, good instruments

It has been quite amazing for me to read that The Bitter Truth is only the fifth studio album by the US rock band Evanescence so far. Despite their massive global success and being a key act of the international rock scene, they are not too frequently releasing new sounds. The album has been released on 26th March 2021.

 

Evanescence – About The Artists

Evanescence is an US-American band from Little Rock, Arkansas. The band has been founded in 1995. There were two breaks: one between 2007 and 2009 and another one between 2012 and 2015. The most well-known face of Evanescence is for sure lead singer Amy Lee, who is also playing the keyboards and the harp. She founded the band with Ben Moody, who did played the guitar, bass and even the drums, but left the project in 2003. Nowadays, Amy Lee is on stage with Troy McLawhorn (guitar), Jen Majura (guitar), Tim McCord (bass) and Will Hunt (drums). The band has been nominated for six Grammy Awards, of which they won two, both in 2014: the award for the Best New Artist and the Best Hard Rock Performance. The latter was for Bring Me to Life taken from their 2003 debut album Fallen. The song was the international breakthrough of the band and received several platinum records and chart leads in multiple countries. Their third single My Immortal was the only Evancescnce single which thereafter topped a singles chart ranking (in Canada).

On the album side, however, the band stayed a global success. The second album, The Open Door, released 2006, sold five million units worldwide and topped the charts in the USA, Australia, Germany and Switzerland. Overall, the band released four studio albums so far.

 

Evanescence – The Bitter Truth – Track by Track

The twelve track album lasts 47 minutes.

1. Artifact / The Turn

Despite its duration of 2:26 minutes, Artifact / The Turn is just an intro track to the album, which directly connects to Broken Pieces Shine.

2. Broken Pieces Shine

The first full track of the album comes with quite industrial metal sounds. Especially the beginning of the song reminded me of songs by Die Krupps and similar bands. The song becomes more melodic once Lee is starting to sing. The song initially connects to the intro in a way that the news-style spoken words stay part of the background sounds.

3. The Game Is Over

The Game Is Over feels like a battle between the dark and hard guitar riffs on the one side and the melodies sang by Lee. The battle is a victory when the song is in its chorus. this one is quite a surprise – a very present pop-rockish sound which strongly reminds me of Creep by Radiohead:

Change me into something I believe in
Change me so I don’t have to pretend
Sweet words, they mean nothing, they’re not true
‘Cause the game is over

4. Yeah Right

The very melodic Yeah Right almost comes with a pop music touch. A song which feels like Evanescence for people who did not have contact to harder guitar riffs so far. Lee’s voice is driving the song and it is a good listen – but it still feels like a surprise.

5. Feeding The Dark

Feeding In The Dark is a powerful and energetic song, but it is surrounded by catchy and special tunes, which gives this song a hard time. Not a bad song, but the others are just better.

6. Wasted On You

Wasted On You is a very soulful power ballad, which starts with intimate piano sounds, but is taking over by the guitars and hammering drums more and more over the curse of the song. The most impressive song of the album to me.

I don’t need drugs
I’m already six feet low
I’m wasted on you
Waiting for a miracle
I can’t move on
Like we’re frozen in time
I’m wasted on you
Just pass me the bitter truth

7. Better Without You

After a couple of quite surprising vibes, the album is presenting two singles in a row. Better Without You clearly bears the hallmarks of Evanescence. The song has that signature sound – you should however not compare it to their biggest hits – it just feels a bit too thin against it, even though it is not that bad. I would have tried a more courageous approach for a single release.

8. Use My Voice

Whether you like it or not, you’re gonna take what I got
If we can’t talk about it, we’ll just keep drowning in it
Give me credit or not, I give a lot, give a lot
But don’t you speak for me
No, don’t you speak for me

Use My Voice, the first single of the album, starts a bit of slow, but the backing vocals at the chorus turn the song to a catchy track with a lot of stadium rock potential – even if you don’t get the lyrics, you can easily enjoy cheering to the band performing this song.

9. Take Cover

Take Cover is very powerful, almost feels like thrilling and threatening. Again, there is a touch of electronic sounds in the background as well.

10. Far From Heaven

Another rather slow song again: Far Away From Heaven comes with a lot of atmosphere, piano and Lee’s voice. The song creates an incredibly intimate feeling along its five minute duration.

11. Part Of Me

Not on your life
Won’t let it break me
Won’t give up the fight
But on this last thread, I’m holding so tight
Feed my imaginings, don’t let a sweet dream die
Not on your life
I’m not abandoning
I have survived
Somehow still standing through death and through time
I need your love like a drug keeping me alive

Part Of Me with its powerful guitars is quite a contrast to its predecessor at first side – but the song turns out to be quite a slow song. Nice one for the heart.

12. Blind Belief

Blind Belief is a straight Evanescence song at the end of the album. The angry vocals might be the most characteristic element of this song.

 

Evanescence – The Bitter Truth – Spotify

Here is The Bitter Truth on Spotify:

 

Evanescence – The Bitter Truth – My View

Congrats, Amy Lee! Yes, your colleagues on the guitar and drums do a good job on The Bitter Truth, but the singer of Evanescence just does an amazing performance on this album. Together, they are showing a wide range of songs. The album sounds good in power ballads as well as in metal-alike songs. For an exceptional rating, there are unfortunately too few exceptional songs.

 

Media Reviews – US Hard Rock / Heavy Metal

Here are all my hard rock / heavy metal postings in the Media Reviews related to the USA:

 

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