Most of the songs on this album have guitar, bass, and drum parts not unlike those used by modern hard-rock/melodic rock bands (Seether, Breaking Benjamin, etc) that are popular on the radio. They provide a heavy, but not crushingly so, base for the music. Keyboards layered on top add a nice, melodic feeling, even making the songs a little heavier and darker. Other elements include piano, strings, industrial percussion, and a choir. For the most part, they are not layered into the music so much as they come into prominence during a certain part of a song and then promptly disappear. However, these elements are quite unusual in modern mainstream rock music, giving Fallen a unique sound.

Here is where the goth metal comparison inevitably comes in. Evanescence is not a goth metal band, or even a metal band, but they do incorporate some gothic elements into their sound. “Whisper” features choral parts of epic proportions (They are even in Latin, for bonus goth points!) and an almost-metallic guitar riff. The strings riff in “My Last Breath” is very goth metal-lite. And “Bring Me to Life” features the male/female vocal dynamic so often used in goth metal, with a nu-metal twist: the male vocals are not growled, they are shouted and rapped.

Unlike goth metal, though, Evanescence comes nicely packaged and prepared for marketing to the masses. The songs are all quite short and follow the basic intro-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus-outro song structure of most pop songs. Most of the songs on this album sound alike; if you’ve heard “Going Under,” “Bring Me to Life,” or “Everybody’s Fool,” you’ve pretty much heard the entire album.

Vocalist Amy Lee is not out to compete with goth metal sopranos Sharon den Adel or Tarja Turunen; instead, she belts it out from the gut like a pop diva. Her lyrics about love and loss (with a big emphasis on loss) are accessible enough for mainstream audiences but tinged with just enough darkness to fit the music perfectly.

Evanescence gets so much shit for not being a goth metal band that they don’t receive recognition for what they really are – a band borrowing elements of goth, industrial, and pop to create easy-on-the-ears yet pleasingly heavy rock.

written by Laura Walters

Playing time: 44.21