Reviews list for Evanescence - The Bitter Truth (2021)

After reviewing the most well-known Evanescence album Fallen (well-known for both me and the world), I've decided to skip ahead to their recent album The Bitter Truth. After all, this band wouldn't have been there without this album reaching a sufficient amount of alternative metal votes (Thanks for adding them, Ben!). I also 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.

"Artifact/The Turn" opens the album with ethereal electronic ambience with Lee's angelic singing before you get your soul sucked into the action of the next track... "Broken Pieces Shine" thunders in with the band's resurrected rock sound. One of the best anthems here to delight fans with guitar theatrics! Lee's vocal talent shines again in "The Game is Over". Though it would get lost later in the album. "Yeah Right" has too much of the melodic electropop from Goldfrapp. Will I really enjoy that song? Yeah right!

"Feeding The Dark" has some worthy harmonic vocals. "Wasted on You" perfect adds into Lee's vocal agility. "Better Without You" starts off with a soft synthesized music box before an industrial earthquake. "Use My Voice" was inspired by the Stanford sexual assault cases and trial, and is the ultimate anthem in fighting back against those atrocities of the world. What makes it even more of an anthem is the amount of female vocalists singing in the background; Sharon den Adel (Within Temptation), Taylor Momsen (The Pretty Reckless), Lzzy Hale (Halestorm), and Lindsey Sterling.

Mechanical drumming and riffing allows you to "Take Cover" for a song that would fit well in one of the Terminator movies, leading up to a climax of calamity. The beginning of "Far From Heaven" is like Within Temptation gone Tears for Fears, with the piano and soft operatic singing. "Part of Me" brings back the strength. Same with "Blind Belief", concluding the album with a lookback at the band's heavier origins.

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....

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