Evanescence is an American rock band founded in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1995 by singer/pianist Amy Lee and guitarist Ben Moody. After recording private albums, the band released their first full-length album, Fallen, on Wind-up Records in 2003. Fallen sold more than 17 million copies worldwide and helped the band win two Grammy Awards.A year later, Evanescence released their first live album, Anywhere but Home, which sold more than one million copies worldwide. In 2006, the band released their second studio album, The Open Door, which sold more than six million copies.The line-up of the band has changed several times: David Hodges leaving in 2002, co-founder Moody left in 2003 (mid-tour), bassist Will Boyd in 2006, followed by guitarist John LeCompt and drummer Rocky Gray in 2007. The last two changes led to a hiatus, with temporary band members contributing to tour performances. In June 2009, it was announced on the Evanescence website that the band was working on new material for a third studio album. Billboard ranked Evanescence #71 on the Best Artists of the Decade chart.
aEvanescence was founded by singer, pianist and songwriter Amy Lee and former lead guitarist and songwriter Ben Moody. The two met in 1994 at a youth camp in Little Rock, where Moody heard Lee playing "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" by Meat Loaf on the piano.Their first songs together were "Solitude" and "Give Unto Me", both written by Lee, and "Understanding" and "My Immortal", both written by Moody. The songs were edited by both artists, and they shared equal credit.
Two of Lee and Moody's songs were played on local radio stations, raising local awareness of the group and demand for a concert. The band eventually appeared live, and became one of the most popular acts in the area. After experimenting with band names, such as Childish Intentions and Stricken, they decided on Evanescence, which means "disappearance" or "fading away" (from the word evanesce, which means "to disappear").
The band released two EPs. The first is the self-titled Evanescence EP (1998), of which about 100 copies were made and distributed at the band's early live performances. The second is the Sound Asleep EP, also known as the Whisper EP (1999). There was also a third EP album called Mystary EP. For their first full-length demo CD, Origin, about 2,500 copies were produced and sold to concert audiences. Origin and the EPs contain demo versions of some of the songs on their debut album, Fallen. During a radio interview, Lee and Moody encouraged fans to download the band's older songs from the Internet.
In early 2003, the lineup was completed by Amy Lee and Ben Moody's friends, John LeCompt, Rocky Gray and Will Boyd, all of whom worked on Evanescence's earlier songs. Meanwhile, Evanescence signed on with their first major label, Wind-up Records, and began work on their first album, Fallen. While they were looking to promote Fallen, Evanescence accepted an offer from the video game company Nintendo to perform on the "Nintendo Fusion Tour", which they headlined in 2003.Fallen spent 43 weeks on the Billboard Top 10;was certified 7x Platinum in the United States; and sold more than 15 million copies worldwide,including 7 million in the US. The album was listed for 104 weeks on the Billboard Top 200, and it was one of eight albums in the history of the chart to spend at least a year on the Billboard Top 50.
On October 22, 2003, Moody left the band during the European tour for Fallen, reportedly because of creative differences.In an interview several months later, Amy Lee said: "...we'd gotten to a point that if something didn't change, we wouldn't have been able to make a second record." This became a point of confusion, as Moody and Lee stated on the Fallen album liner notes that they were best friends.Lee said it was almost a relief that Moody left because of tensions created within the band.During an interview, Lee has said "I don't know, I just think it's exactly what I would've expected. He's more about kind of the pop influence sort of thing and also, you know, about being commercial and I mean selling albums: That's the part of him we often disagreed on. I wanted to do the more artistic weird thing and he'd wanna do the thing that people would want to hear..." She adds "So that's a lot of the reason [why] it's been so fun writing now, is [that] we're not thinking about that. It's like 'what do we like?', 'what's fun?', like 'what do we want to do that's different?'"Moody was replaced by Terry Balsamo from Cold.
Evanescence's major label debut single "Bring Me to Life", featuring guest vocals from Paul McCoy of 12 Stones, was a global hit for the band and reached #5 on the American Billboard Hot 100.It provided Evanescence with their first UK #1 single,where it stayed for four weeks from June–July 2003. The song also became the official theme for WWE No Way Out 2003. The equally popular "My Immortal" peaked at #7 in the U.S. and UK charts,and both songs were featured in the soundtrack for the action movie Daredevil. "Bring Me to Life" was recognized at the 46th Grammy Awards in 2004, where the band won the Best Hard Rock Performance and Best New Artist awards and were nominated for two others.The two other singles off Fallen are "Going Under" (#5 U.S. Modern Rock Tracks,#8 UK Charts) and "Everybody's Fool" (#36 U.S. Modern Rock Tracks,#23 UK Charts); all were promoted by a music video.
Evanescence performing at the concert in Le Zénith, Paris, featured on Anywhere but Home
In 2004, Evanescence's new lineup released a DVD/CD compilation entitled Anywhere but Home. The DVD includes a concert in Paris, as well as behind-the-scenes features, including shots of the band backstage signing autographs and warming up. Also on the CD are the live songs "Breathe No More" (from the Elektra movie soundtrack), "Farther Away", and the band's cover of Korn's "Thoughtless".
A spokesperson for the band's label confirmed on July 14, 2006, that bassist Will Boyd had left the band for "not wanting to do another big tour" and wanting "to be close to his family." Amy Lee originally broke the news to the fans in a post on an unofficial Evanescence site, EvBoard.com.in an interview with MTV, posted on their website on August 10, 2006, Lee announced that Tim McCord, former Revolution Smile guitarist, would switch instruments and play bass for the band.The album progressed slowly for several reasons, including Amy Lee's desire to maximize the creative process and not rush production, other band members' side projects, guitarist Terry Balsamo's stroke, and the loss of their former manager.Although Lee stated on the fan forum Evboard that Evanescence's new album would be completed in March 2006,the release was pushed back allegedly because "Wind-up Records...wanted to make a few changes to the upcoming single "Call Me When You're Sober", which hit modern rock and alternative rock radio on August 7, 2006. The 13-track album The Open Door was released in Canada and the United States on October 3, 2006;the United Kingdom on October 2, 2006; and Australia on September 30, 2006.The album sold 447,000 copies in the United States in its first week of sales and earned their first #1 ranking on the Billboard 200 album chart, becoming the 700th #1 album in Billboard since the chart became a weekly feature in 1956.The music video for "Call Me When You're Sober" was shot in Los Angeles and is based on the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood. The Open Door became available for pre-order on the iTunes Store on August 15, 2006; the music video for "Call Me When You're Sober" was also made available.
The tour for The Open Door began on October 5, 2006, in Toronto and included locations in Canada, the U.S. and Europe during that year. This first tour continued on January 5, 2007 and included stops in Canada (alongside band Stone Sour), Japan and Australia (alongside band Shihad) and then returned to the U.S. for a second tour in the spring (alongside bands Chevelle and Finger Eleven).As part of their tour, Evanescence performed on April 15, 2007 on the Argentinan festival Quilmes Rock 07 along with Aerosmith, Velvet Revolver and other local bands.They also co-headlined on the Family Values Tour 2007 along with Korn and other bands.The group closed their European tour with a sell-out concert at the Amphi in Ra'anana, Israel, on June 26, 2007,and finished the album tour on December 9, 2007.
On May 4, 2007, John LeCompt announced that he had been fired from Evanescence, and also stated that drummer Rocky Gray had decided to quit.Wind-up issued a press release on May 17, 2007, stating that two Dark New Day members, drummer Will Hunt and guitarist Troy McLawhorn, would be joining the band to replace LeCompt and Gray.It was initially stated that Hunt and McLawhorn would tour with Evanescence until the end of the Family Values Tour in September 2007,but both continued to play with the band through The Open Door tour.
Band members
- Current
- Amy Lee – lead vocals, piano (1995–present)
- Terry Balsamo – lead guitar (2003–present)
- Troy McLawhorn – rhythm guitar (live, 2007; 2011–present)
- Tim McCord – bass (2006–present)
- Will "Science" Hunt – drums, programming (2010–present)
- Will Hunt – drums (live, 2007 and 2009; 2010–present)
- Former
- Ben Moody – lead guitar (1995–2003)
- David Hodges – keyboard, piano, drums, backing vocals (1999–2002)
- Rocky Gray – drums, percussion (2002–2007)
- John LeCompt – rhythm guitar, backing vocals (2002–2007)
- Will Boyd – bass (2003–2006)
Awards and nominationsYear | Award | Category | Nominated work | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Kerrang! Awards | Best International Newcomer | Evanescence | Won |
| 2003 | MTV Europe Music Awards | Best Song | "Bring Me to Life" | Nominated |
| 2003 | MTV Europe Music Awards | Best Group | Evanescence | Nominated |
| 2003 | MTV Europe Music Awards | Best New Act | Evanescence | Nominated |
| 2004 | Grammy Award | Best New Artist | Evanescence | Won |
| 2004 | Grammy Award | Best Hard Rock Performance | "Bring Me to Life" | Won |
| 2004 | Grammy Award | Album of the Year | Fallen | Nominated |
| 2004 | Grammy Award | Best Rock Album | Fallen | Nominated |
| 2004 | Grammy Award | Best Rock Song | "Bring Me to Life" | Nominated |
| 2004 | World Music Awards | Best Rock Artist | Evanescence | Won |
| 2005 | Grammy Award | Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals | "My Immortal" | Nominated |
| 2006 | MTV Europe Music Awards | Best Rock | Evanescence | Nominated |
| 2007 | Kerrang! Awards | Sexiest Female | Amy Lee | Won |
| 2007 | MTV Australia Awards | Album of the Year | The Open Door | Won |
| 2007 | MTV Europe Music Awards | Rock Out | Evanescence | Nominated |
| 2008 | Grammy Award | Best Hard Rock Performance | "Sweet Sacrifice" | Nominated |
"Bring Me to Life" is a song by American rock band Evanescence. It was released on April 22, 2003 as the lead single from their debut studio album, Fallen, and the soundtrack for the 2003 film, Daredevil. It was written by Amy Lee and Ben Moody. It features guest vocals from Paul McCoy of 12 Stones. The single has since become a commercial and critical success. It is also the band's highest charting single, peaking within the charts of more than 15 countries internationally, and winning the Best Hard Rock Performance at the 46th Grammy Awards."Bring Me to Life" was released on April 22, 2003 as the first single from their debut album, Fallen. The album's opening track, "Going Under", was initially planned to be the first single, however, the release of the Daredevil soundtrack impacted the decision to release it as the album's second single. The single includes "Farther Away" as a B-side and refers to it as the album version, however, the track order of Fallen was not finalized at the time of its release, and the track was eventually dropped from the album. The first pressing of the Australian single contained the track "Missing" as a B-side, but was mysteriously dropped from later pressings, and was eventually released as a bonus track on the band's first live album, Anywhere But Home.
Earlier versions of "Bring Me to Life" were recorded and released as demos before Fallen's release, both containing a considerably different sound, featuring more industrial pieces of music and the absence of Paul McCoy's guest vocals. An acoustic version was recorded and released on the Bring Me To Life DVD. Several other versions of the track have been released, such as remixes, acoustic, and altered versions. The live version featured on the Anywhere But Home DVD contains a piano and vocal solo before the intro of the song, and features John LeCompt performing Paul McCoy's guest vocals.
"Bring Me To Life" charted #73 on Billboard's 'Best of the 2000s Rock Songs' Chart, and is the only song by a female-led band to be on the chart.
everybodys fool clip vidio
