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Author Topic: Evanescence - Anywhere But Home  (Read 2852 times)

Offline Al_Librero

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Evanescence - Anywhere But Home
« on: January 28, 2005, 10:53:13 AM »
I wrote three album reviews some weeks ago out of boredom and posted them in another forum. I might as well post all of them here as well. Here's the third:

Evanescence - Anywhere But Home


"Bring Me To Life" was one of my favorite songs in 2003. The Daredevil soundtrack really got their careers off the ground. Recently, with looming news of a new studio album, Evanescene releases a live album recorded from their performance in Paris, France.

"Anywhere But Home" captures the band at their finest. It's a very important thing for me to say for quite a few reasons. "Fallen" was an awesome album, but in some previous live performance I watched and listen to, singer Amy Lee was either struggling to stay in key or sang off-key altogether. I suppose it's tough to sing right while jumping, dancing and headbanging around the stage like a lunatic at the same time. Original guitarist and co-founder Ben Moody had earned little praise too, due to his apparent lack of chops which resulted to rather plain guitar tracks, as some might put it.

At least for this album, Lee's voice was in great form. Technically not the best out there, but great nonetheless, in its own distinct way. I always cringe when I see or here someone trying to sing "Bring Me To Life" or "My Immortal." Even the best singers our country has to offer can't nail those songs right, in my opinion, and that's saying a lot. That's dintinct for you.

Along with the singing was tight guitar riffery provided by the tandem of John LeCompt and Terry Balsalmo. While the riffs themselves were the same ones played in "Fallen," the album shows that these two guys at least act like they can play. Maybe we'll see more in the next album.

Evanescence here performs tracks from "Fallen" as well as an intriguing cover of Korn's "Thoughtless." The album ends with an unreleased studio track, "Missing." It was probably a leftover of "Fallen" not because it sucked, but because it didn't really fit with the rest of the tracks in that album.

Since most of the songs here have been heard before in a previous album, I won't comment on how good they actually are. Suffice it to say that, as I had implied, this is a solid live performance. It is, however, intriguing enough to note that the band made considerable use of pre-recorded/programmed tracks or loops of synths and drum machines. There was a time when that was as shunned as lip-synching. How times have changed. Well, at least Lee didn't do an Ashlee Simpson. Hahaha!

"Anywhere But Home" also includes a DVD containing the counterpart video for the CD (the cinematography does leave something to be desired, though). And as if the performance video was not enough, the disc also includes music videos of their singles. AND... there are these videos capturing the band backstage throughout their tour. At least from what is shown, we see that these are just normal people having loads of fun, despite the tremendous amount of work entailing the tour. Behind the Goth princess persona Amy Lee sometimes exude, the footage reveals a cooky, bubbly young girl who could just as easily be your typical neighbor. Really funny stuff in there, too. There's this scene with John LeCompt up close, drooling profusely. It's been days and the scene is still in my head. LOL!

For about PhP550, this is an incredible value for a great album package, considering that most other artists would release a separate DVD costing twice that amount aside from the audio CD. Anyone who remotely appreciates the music of Evanescence owe it to themselves to grab a copy of "Anywhere But Home."
Trashcan of Thoughts - http://www.allibrero.com