April 2022 Feature Release - The Gateway Edition

So just like that we find that a new month is upon us which of course means that we’ll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we’re asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter. We’re really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on our chosen releases so don’t be shy.

This month's feature release for The Gateway, nominated by me (Shadowdoom9 (Andi)), is last year's recent 5th album from popular Arkansas-based alternative rock/metal band Evanescence, The Bitter Truth. Despite the band's success, it's overlooked and ignored by the metal community, and while that's understandable, some of their albums have reached alt-metal territory in their songs, almost close to nu metal, enough to finally enter The Gateway. The Bitter Truth marks their heavy comeback after a couple non-metal albums and features guest appearances from vocalists of other similar well-known bands. Any of you fellow MA members feel free to give this album a listen and see if you agree.

https://metal.academy/releases/34396

Here's my review summary:

It's good for me to return to listening to a band from around 10 years ago. I wouldn't have heard beyond this band's singles if it wasn't for my alt-rock/metal-loving brother. I'm glad to still have him around... Especially since two of the band members have suffered family tragedy. Vocalist Amy Lee's brother Robby passed from epileptic complications (her second fallen sibling, 30 years after Bonnie), and guitarists Tim McCord's stepdaughter Alyssa died by suicide. Despite this dark agony, their new album let them let it out in shards of heavy hope. While the electronic/orchestral elements of Synthesis is still around, they resurrected their rock guitars and brought them to the frontstage. Of course, Amy Lee's angelic singing is what really takes the spotlight. But the ultimate anthem is "Use My Voice", fighting back against the sexual atrocities of the world. What makes it even more of an anthem is the amount of female vocalists singing in the background including Sharon den Adel (Within Temptation), Taylor Momsen (The Pretty Reckless), Lzzy Hale (Halestorm), and Lindsey Sterling. Evanescence returned with the first original album in nearly a decade, The Bitter Truth, redeeming their earlier heaviness. And you can find a lot more in the deluxe edition box set. The Bitter Truth is out there....

3.5/5

Recommended songs: "Broken Pieces Shine", "The Game is Over", "Wasted on You", "Use My Voice", "Take Cover", "Blind Belief"

For fans of: Within Temptation, Lacuna Coil, Linkin Park

Back in their prime when they were revelling in the glory of tracks such as Going Under, Bring Me To Life and My Immortal I actually didn't mind Evanesence.  There were certainly worse nu-metal acts out there at the time and Amy Lee could most certainly sing (still can based on this album).  Time clearly has not been kind to Evanesence as they are lacking virtually all of the bite that they had back in the day.  Everything here is very sugar-coated and therefore always liable to fall into my sights with a negative undertone.  

You mention this was a more "metal" based release Andi, but I personally struggle to see little more than heavy rock at play here and I am thankful that I have only revisited them on this record and not their previous outputs.  That electronic element is very dominant and at the expense of the raw edges needed to really give this any hope of lasting attention from me.  

Fair play to the band for carrying on under what sound like horrific personal circumstances and also for using their outlet for talking about serious stuff too.  This music no doubt has an audience in more than one regard but beyond the clear strength of character in the members I remain very unimpressed with this.  To me this is prime fodder for your Hall of Judgement submission thingy to say this is not metal.

2/5

I can't believe I didn't cross over my review of this album from RYM when I reviewed it last year. Although it wouldn't surprise me that I completely forgot about it since this is even less metal than the earliest Evanescence albums of the 2000s. Either that or I just forgot about its existence until now.

What I remember from it is that it sounded like a Breaking Benjamin album, from the production to the riffage. Amy Lee can still sing, but the hooks are empty and there isn't much in the way of a driving force keeping this moving forward. Evanescence's claim to fame was as a mainstream alternative to symphonic metal giants Nightwish and Within Temptation, but they cannot even get that right here. This wasn't even worth it for the nostalgia.

4/10

My experience with Evanescence going into "The Bitter Truth" was limited to just the one song as far as I'm aware (you know the one). I've always assumed that they'd be too commercially focused for my taste & were unlikely to offer much in the way of genuine metal so I can't say that I was looking forward to immersing myself in this album for a couple of hours, particularly not after reading the couple of reviews listed immediately above this post. But my fears were quickly eased once I chucked the record on because it opens quite splendidly in all honesty. It certainly doesn't maintain that high standard throughout the tracklisting but there's easily enough quality here to keep me interested. In fact, I have to say that I'm surprised at the poor ratings for this one as it's nowhere near the artistic failure that I was being led to believe it might be.

There are two major stumbling blocks for "The Bitter Truth" though with the first being the production. After reading the reviews on RYM I was expecting to find that Amy's vocals were the issue with a couple of long-time fans noting that her voice sounds distant & muffled. In reality that isn't the case at all with her vocals sounding quite clear & sitting well towards the front of the mix. The issue is with the guitar tone which is fuzzy & weak. It's certainly not a deal breaker but I was left with the feeling that the weaker moments could have been done a few more favours by a heavier guitar sound to hide the flat hooks. The second issue is the inconsistency in the quality of the song-writing. Unlike many reviewers I actually believe that there are some very solid outings included on "The Bitter Truth" with a couple of them even reaching pretty close to alternative metal classic status for me personally. The opening atmospheric piece "Artifact / The Turn" & the anthemic "Use My Voice" are nothing short of phenomenal while "Broken Pieces Shine", "Better Without You", "Far From Heaven" & "Blind Belief" all became ear worms after a few spins through their use of some quality vocal hooks. It's just that there are also some duds along the way too with "Yeah Right", "Wasted on You", "Take Cover", & "Part of Me" all doing very little for me even though I wouldn't class any of them as being complete shockers.

Is this a metal album then? Well, yeah I think it is. There's no question that it falls under the pop metal banner but I don't think that Evanescence have ever tried to fool us that they were anything else, have they? There are certainly a few tracks that don't even try to be metal included here but more than half of the tracklisting draws its sonic palate from the metal toolkit. As usual though, I couldn't care less whether it's a metal releases or not. My ratings are based entirely on the quality of the work as a piece of art &, despite it's faults, "The Bitter Truth" is a long way from a creative failure. Amy's vocal skills are really pretty special in all honesty & I can't deny that each repeat listen saw her drawing me in a little further. I have to wonder whether the lack of the band's signature symphonic component has actually worked to this record's advantage with me as I've never been too fond of that element within my metal. Overall, I think everyone should put their preconceptions aside & give "The Bitter Truth" a few active listens before making judgement. It's very easy to identify the reasons that many metalheads don't like a band like Evanescence upon first listen but there are some diamonds to be found here if you're patient enough to sift through a few rocks.

3.5/5