All week, MTV News has been unveiling sneak peeks of Evanescence's much-anticipated new album, beginning with Monday's first listen to the band's booming comeback single, "What You Want."
On Wednesday, we drew the curtain back on another equally voluminous song, "The Other Side," and on Friday, we'll finish things up with a third tune, an epic, ethereal ballad called "Lost in Paradise."
And though we expected Evanescence fans would be pretty excited to hear new music, especially since it's been nearly four years since the band has released a single, we had no idea the response would be as overwhelming as it has been. Our first two sneak peeks were the most-read stories on MTVNews.com on the days they went up, and we're expecting the same for the third. And through it all, we've been receiving tons of comments from Ev supporters around the globe.
In fact, to demonstrate that response, on Thursday afternoon (July 14), I took to Twitter and asked fans to send me their reactions to "What You Want" and "The Other Side." Here's just a small sampling of what I received from Evanescence fans all across the world.
"New Evanescence jams are great, another welcomed chapter of their musical EVolution! Never disappointed by their sound!" @ET_123
"Evanescence is still alive, and Amy was right: they're back and better than ever. I've listened to 'What You Want' and 'The Other Side' so many times, my mom doesn't bother coming into the computer room anymore." @EverEvanescence
"Five years later, Evanescence comes back with a heavier and more mature sound. [The new] songs are PERFECT! It's definitely a new sound, combined with their classic one. Heavy, but fun! Vocals, guitars, bass, drums. They all sound perfect in the two sneak peeks." @TanyaThe1
"From the start Ev has carved its place in me; their sound has changed but I can't deny Amy's heart-achingly beautiful voice! [She] couldn't keep singing the same way (all angst and pain) [because] she is older and in a healthier place. [Her] voice would make a Lady Gaga or Ke$ha song sound like a beautiful masterpiece, like a million bucks!" @Oceankitties
" 'The Other Side' totally blew the F#*$ away! It's very heavy; the instrumentation and the theme of the song is brilliant!" @TabooEV
" 'The Other Side' is a fun, dark anthem. I was late for work because I was listening to it on replay." @Jimere_Music
"[It's] another exciting evolution of sound for Evanescence but with the same darkly romantic, moody energy they've always had." @Alastair992
"Despite years of absence from the music industry, Ev fans are ready to submerge themselves again in an ocean of sounds ... Evanescence brings back the 'smack u in the face' factor the music industry was missing with 'What You Want.' @1solavez
"They're looser, deeper, heavier but still dark with Amy's vocals intact. Her vocals are in harmony with the music more so than before, making the new music different and much more powerful at the same time." @aliigh
"The snippets were AMAZING. You can definitely tell that they've expanded their creative boundaries as musicians." @pinkglamgrrl35
"Evanescence is that band who grow with their fans, we're not the same kids from 2006, now we grow up and Evanescence too ... these new songs are a new chapter in our lives with Ev... an awesome, stronger, and beautiful way to started, thank you!" @EvanesMen
"Her voice stirs my soul awake, while the drums convey the pounding of my heart racing in anticipation of Ev radio domination." @tylerkellye
"Waiting 5 years will be worth it, not just for the return of Ev, but for the work done by the band. This is so f----- exciting, dude." @Adri_Ev
We still want to hear what you think of the new Evanescence songs! Share your reviews in the comments below.
The first time MTV News spoke to Amy Lee about Evanescence's upcoming album, she made a point of explaining exactly why the disc would be self-titled. Namely, because "it's about the band.
"It's more of a band record," she continued. "But I started thinking about it, and it's also that this whole record and the lyrical content and a lot of the things that it's about to me is about falling back in love with this thing, with Evanescence, with what I've obsessed over for a decade, longer than that."
And throughout the week, as we've unveiled sneak peeks at the songs on the album — roaring first single "What You Want" and the equally voluminous "The Other Side" — she continued to mention that the new tunes were very much full band creations: the result of endless back-and-forth between her and her mates.
But our third and final sneak peek is a little different. Because though "Lost in Paradise" features plenty of contributions from the other members of Evanescence, it is very much Amy Lee's song. And the emotional attachment she feels to it is readily apparent.
"That's the one that made us cry ... like, literally, just in here, working on it, there have been tears. I love that song," she told MTV News. "When I was writing it, it wasn't anything; it was just pure, it was just for me. I was literally just writing it for me, to soothe my own feelings by expressing them. And I just thought, 'Piano, vocals, I can record it by myself at my house, and that'll be the track. ... It'll be a B-side somewhere or something.'
"[But] then ... as we were working on other songs — focusing more on rock songs — I kept listening to it for fun, because it was mine, and I sent it to [producer] Nick [Raskulinecz] and I was like, 'I want you to listen to this. ... The more I listen to it, the more I think it means something,' " she continued. "And he, instantly, was like, 'We have to do that song.' And it was his idea to bring the band into it, and at first, I was totally like, 'I don't get that.' But once we did, it just blew the thing wide open, in a way I had never thought about before. It's perfect; it's meant to be the way it is."
Starting with little more than a somber piano and Lee's aching vocals, "Paradise" slowly builds, layering on stirring strings, booming timpani and, at the climax, some thunderous guitar chords. It is unapologetically epic and uncompromisingly raw, a song that manages to seem both all-encompassing and intimate, often at the same time. And because of that, it brings to mind rather unexpected comparisons to Björk's equally astronomic 1997 single "Jóga." And, no, Lee doesn't mind that one bit.
"That's a big inspirational song for me. That's a song through my life that I've listened to a whole bunch," she explained. "And to me, Björk, what makes her style are the strings, the orchestral elements, and that passion that it creates. ... It makes your heart pour out. That totally inspired me, and that song inspired me."