In 1995 Amy Lee (vocals, piano) and Ben Moody (lead guitar) formed Evanescence in Little Rock, Arkansas. The number of member changes (7) nearly equals the number of released singles (8) up to now. This includes Ben Moody, which makes Amy Lee the only remaining founder of Evanescence.

I find them to be too rocky to be labelled Goth Metal and too metal to be classed as Goth Rock. I think they're somewhere in-between.

In 2003 John LeCompt (guitar), Rocky Gray (drums) and Will Boyd (bass) joined the band and Fallen, their debut album, was released shortly afterwards.
Fallen reached Platinum multiple times as well as top spot in most country's charts. Overall it sold approximately 15 million times.

Four singles were released, Bring Me To Life, Going Under, My Immortal and Everybody's Fool.

Their first single Bring Me To Life was extremely successful. Not only did it reach top spot in most major charts, it reached silver and platinum as well as winning a Grammy Award.
Going Under was released five months later but never got anywhere near the success of their first single.
My Immortal achieved #1 in a few charts. Everybody's Fool's success was very slim.

This album is what I call a masterstroke. While Evanescence is not Mainstream they became known amongst admirers of all different kinds of music.

Amy Lee clearly is the star, accompanied by powerful yet monotonous guitar chords and very basic drums. Occasionally it seems as if vocals and instruments don’t play well together and sound like two different songs in one.

The four singles are tracks one to four on the album. The remaining songs, though still very good are not as good as the singles and sound a bit alike.

I consider it a very good album but if you have the singles you have virtually all you need.

At the end of 2003 Ben Moody left the band. One theory states that he and Amy Lee had different plans with Evanescence. While he wanted to make as much money as possible Amy Lee wanted to develop artistically. Moody was replaced by Terry Balsamo.

In this formation they released their second and current album The Open Door in 2006. This album reached Platinum, too and sold approximately four million times. It peaked at #1 in the USA, Australia, Germany, Greece and Switzerland.

Four singles were released, Call Me When You’re Sober, Lithium, Sweet Sacrifice and Good Enough. Weight Of The World was only released in Columbia.

The first two singles had a somewhat modest success and the success – or the lack of it – of the other two singles isn’t even worth mentioning.

If you hadn’t already guessed but tracks one to four on The Open Door are four of the five singles. Good Enough is the last track on The Open Door. 

As soon as the album was in the shops I asked some of my friends whether they like the album. I just couldn’t imagine that Evanescence was able to make another album as good as Fallen. And I was right. The singles, well Call Me When You’re Sober, Lithium, Sweet Sacrifice and Weight Of The World are the best songs by a mile. Musically they’d fit on the album Fallen but as additions rather than potential singles. After that the songs become slow, depressing and increasingly similar.

Before The Open Door was released Will Boyd left the band and was replaced by Tim McCord, a guitarist who switched to bass. Not much fuss was made about this but the departures of John LeCompt and Rocky Gray leave a lot of questions unanswered. It is rumoured that Amy Lee, who has a reputation as a spoilt diva, is behind all this.

The current band members are Amy Lee, Terry Balsamo and Tim McCord.

I believe that Evanescence are very talented musicians but it has never been about Evanescence. More suitable would be something like Amy Lee & Co. Look at all the videos. They are 97% Amy Lee and 3% the rest of the band. I would not be surprised if Amy Lee went – or had to go for that matter – solo.

On The Open Door Amy Lee’s voice is wasted. Her voice is so strong and powerful it is not well suited for slow ballads (My Immortal on Fallen is the exception). Her voice has to dominate like it does on Bring Me To Life or Going Under.

I like their music. I really do but if their next album is like the other two, meaning songs one to four are good and songs five to last are less good and sound alike, then I will just download the singles for free and spare me the other 2/3 of the album.

    
http://www.evanescence.com

21-09-2008, 13:23 Geschreven door music_critic  

Music Review

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04-09-2008, 00:00 Geschreven door music_critic  

Panic At The Disco, now without the exclamation mark, was formed in 2004 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The current band members are:

Brendon Urie (vocals, guitar, keyboards)
Ryan Ross (guitar, keyboards)
Jon Walker (bass guitar)
Spencer Smith (drums, percussion)

The original bassist was Brent Wilson, who’s departure was everything but amicable.

I find it extremely hard to label PATD as they experiment with many different musical styles. That makes it usually easy for me to just call them a Crossover band but they consider themselves as Rock, Big Beat and Techno. I could settle for Alternative Rock but Big Beat and Techno are the last genres that come to mind when you listen to their second and most recent album.
I do agree with PATD though that labelling their music Emo is bullsh*t.

Pete Wentz, bassist of the Fall Out Boys got them signed to Fueled By Ramen/Decaydance, the label that has Paramore under contract, whom I also reviewed.
A noticeable similarity between PATD and the Fall Out Boys is that they sometimes use lines from movies as song titles.

In September 2005 PATD released their first album called A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out. Due to the lack of an army of PR people the album failed to reach a top ten spot in the major charts but hit #1 in the US Billboard Independent Album Charts. Then again, competent people in the music business happen about as often as a blizzard in the desert. Their popularity grew however, as they toured and easily outplayed higher viewed bands. A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out reached platinum.

The first half of the album emphasises an electronic style (synthesiser and drums) but changes after the Intermission (track #8) to actual instruments. If you think about it, the intermission symbolically starts with a synthesiser and ends with piano play.
Most remarkable is Brendon Urie’s singing, the trademark of the band I’d say. I am (was) a vocalist but as inviting as the songs are to sing along, I am about 50 times off-key by the time I reach the chorus.

As the beat’s another focus of the band guitar and bass are supporting instruments rather than being significant for the songs.
They released five singles, The Only Difference Between Martyrdom And Suicide Is Press Coverage, I Write Sins Not Tragedies, But It’s Better If You Do, Lying Is The Most Fun A Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off and Build God Then We’ll Talk, with rather modest success.

To me this is one of the best albums I have ever heard. I Write Sins Not Tragedies and Lying Is The Most Fun A Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off are songs you will never forget. The musical intermission from But It’s Better If You Do to I Write Sins Not Tragedies is beautiful and couldn't be any better.

Calling this album Emo is like calling Michael Jackson Caucasian. This album has speed and persuades you to move along and/or sing along. It’s what I call good mood stuff and quite frankly may well be an anti depressant. Is that the relation one sees with PATD and Emo?

In March 2008 PATD released their second album Pretty. Odd. It peaked at #1 in Australia and #2 in the UK and the USA.
It is a completely different style though. Partly recorded at the famous Abbey Road Studios some of the songs show a resemblance with the Beatles. They also experiment with Folk and some style from a century ago, the kind of music you could hear on the radio during wartime.
Like A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out, which has a short instrumental Introduction and an Intermisson, they are using short songs on Pretty. Odd. but they really don’t do it for me.

They’ve already released three singles, Nine In The Afternoon, Mad As Rabbits and That Green Gentleman (Things Have Changed), with Northern Downpour as the soon to be fourth single.

In my opinion only Nine In The Afternoon and That Green Gentleman (Things Have Changed) remind you of the early PATD. Brendon Urie and Ryan Ross share the vocals on She Had The World and is, according to me, the best song on the album.
While their first album makes you cheery and merry, Pretty. Odd. is not an album I recommend if you are depressed. It sure as hell will get you over the edge.

Don’t get me wrong, I still think it is a musically good piece of work but it doesn’t appeal to my taste buds after being spoilt with A Fever You Can’t Sweat out.
This album reminds me of a carnival/circus. It’s the kind of music I’d expect there. Actually, PATD are known for their circus style shows during their performances.

I still believe that PATD are one of the best bands around. They are certainly one of the most underrated bands ever but I hope they go back to their roots.

www.panicatthedisco.com

01-09-2008, 13:19 Geschreven door music_critic  

Paramore from Tennessee formed in 2004. The band members are:

Haley Williams (vocals, keyboard)

Josh Farro (guitar, background vocals)

Jeremy Davis (bass guitar)

Zac Farro (drums)

Their music has been given several labels, surprisingly even some punk genres, but pop is most fitting. After all they are built to produce and hit the charts.

Other than the USA and UK their success is fairly modest, which is no surprise as these are the two main markets that sell low quality products for exorbitant prices and actually manage to find buyers.

In 2005 they released their debut album “All We Know Is Falling”. Before they started recording Jeremy Davis left the band for personal reasons but returned 5 months later after being asked to by the band. The theme of the album fittingly is about Jeremy Davis’ departure and the void he left according to the band.

The album fared decently well in the UK, #8 and made the Heatseekers Charts but failed to reach the Billboard 200 in the USA. Other countries seemed to take no notice of Paramore. Understandably.

On their debut album they sometimes leave the impression that they actually got some talent, but they only show it sporadically.

Haley William’s singing lessons either didn’t pay off or she has decided to follow her own style. Guitar and drums sound basic and overly repetitive. If you put your ear very close to the speakers you may even hear a bass guitar every now and then. 

I couldn’t help but feeling very tired the more I listened to the album.

The length of the album is an incredible 35 minutes and 47 seconds. This alone tells me that the album has been produced with the least amount of effort solely to sell and make money.

They released three singles; Pressure, Emergency and All We Know.

In 2007 they released Riot! which has often been mocked Rot! I couldn’t agree more. I bought this album to see what the hype is about but only got the confirmation of my theory that anything with a huge PR and marketing machinery is desperate to sell and rip off.

USA, UK and New Zealand are the only countries where it had some sort of success yet it reached Platinum status.

Some of the melodies have become catchier but the music has become poorer and poorer. I have yet to see a busker with less skill and the drums sound like they’re from a toy store.  

I don’t really want to go into the lyrics but let’s just say that Haley must have had more bad luck in love at her sweet age of 18 than the average person would have in 5 life times. But this is what you get when someone writes about something they have no clue of yet.

The album is exactly 3 minutes longer which makes it even less effort if you consider it has one song more than the previous album. But let’s face it both albums should be freebies rather than goods for sale on a shelf.

They released four singles; Missery Business, Hallelujah, Crushcrushscrush and That’s What You Get.

In early 2008 the band cancelled a few shows in Europe to “work out their personal issues”, according to a message on their website. Apparently Josh Farro had voiced his anger about the media’s focus on Haley. He may be right but honestly this is what Paramore is about. Get a seemingly pretty girl and put a few Sideshow Bobs around her. Skills don’t matter; just make sure they look pretty-ish. Seeing that many teenage girls understand bisexuality as a trend and must-be to fit in rather than a sexual orientation, you have a recipe for success; a band that appeals to both sexes.

Apparently a split did not take place as the band is working on a new album.

For my final verdict I would like to quote my former friend and DJ Little Jeff who passed away too early. When a clubber requested McFly he took the microphone and said something like “This is a rock club and I don’t play Mac F***ing Fly here.” I think this quote is applicable for Paramore as well!   

www.paramore.net

16-08-2008, 22:27 Geschreven door music_critic  

Hello,

I'll be using this blog to write about artists from the past, presence and future.

My time is limited but I hope to write at least one review per week.

Readers of this blog are welcome to request reviews. I will mainly cover Rock, Metal, Grunge, Punk and such.

If you leave a comment/guestbook entry please try to keep it clean, i.e. no offensive material, profanities, obscenities, racism, sexism, harassment etc etc.


Thomas

06-08-2008, 10:32 Geschreven door music_critic  

Neen, uw blog moet niet dagelijks worden bijgewerkt.  Het is gewoon zoals je het zélf wenst.  Indien je geen tijd hebt om dit dagelijks te doen, maar bvb. enkele keren per week, is dit ook goed.  Het is op jouw eigen tempo, met andere woorden: vele keren per dag mag dus ook zeker en vast, 1 keer per week ook.

Er hangt geen echte verplichting aan de regelmaat.  Enkel is het zo hoe regelmatiger je het blog bijwerkt, hoe meer je bezoekers zullen terugkomen en hoe meer bezoekers je krijgt uiteraard. 

27-09-2005, 16:32 Geschreven door music_critic