Evanescence

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1. Disappearance like a vapor.
2. The name that Amy Lee and Ben Moody decided to call their band after looking in a dictionary and finding the original definition of evanescence. Evanescence has become a household name.
3. The name of the EP of the very first collection of Evanescence songs officially released in 1998. Features early versions of the songs "Where Will You Go", "Imaginary", and "Understanding" (which is the second song ever written for the band). 100 copies of the EP were produced and then sold out after an early performance by the band.
4. The name chosen for the band's third studio album, released on October 7, 2011 and produced by Nick Raskulinecz.
5. The name of a lesser-known album by a band called Scorn. Many confuse the Scorn album with Evanescence’s works.

Biography

Evanescence circa 2000: Ben Moody, David Hodges and Amy Lee.

1995–2001: In the beginning...

Evanescence was founded by Amy Lee and former lead guitarist Ben Moody. Ben said during an Enclave interview on Fall 1998 that the two met at a youth camp in Arkansas, where he heard Amy playing the piano intro to Meat Loaf's "I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)", but according to what Amy revealed during an interview, they met in camp when Amy played on the piano Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and two measures of Meatloaf songs. 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. Five of Lee and Moody's songs were played on local radio stations ("Give Unto Me", "Understanding", "Even in Death", "Lies" and "Whisper"), 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"). They released two EPs (Evanescence EP and Sound Asleep EP) in 1998 and 1999, respectively. Very few copies of these CDs were made, and both were distributed by Bigwig Enterprises.

When this band started I was about 14 or so, and it was nothing more than a lot of song-writing and home recording. Throughout my high school years Ben and I (and later, David) filled all our spare time obsessing over songs, demoing them the best we could out of our parents houses, and playing the occasional club or cafe gig. Origin is a collection of our best home made recordings as of 2001 (I think. Maybe 2000...) Anyway, back then we were still finding ourselves- learning how to write. I've always felt that our music has grown and improved tremendously since then and want to keep doing better and better than before, instead of looking back. To be honest, its hard to listen to the really old stuff without laughing at myself a little. But of course those songs will always be special to me, and remind me of a time in my life that was both wonderful and terrible. It's so cool to have them recorded, so I can go back and listen to my teenaged self- to remember things I'd forgotten. —Amy Lee in a 2007 interview

Their first record, Origin, was released on November 4, 2000. Writing credits include Amy, Ben, and David Hodges. Amy herself does not consider the record to be an actual album; rather, she considers it merely a bundle of demo songs (some of which she says are not done properly) used to help scout session (or touring) band members. A portion of the album was recorded at Ardent Studios with help from Dust for Life earlier in the year. Only 2500 copies of this record were ever made, and it is thus not generally available in stores. In response, Amy and Ben encouraged fans to download the band's older songs.

Evanescence were discovered by Wind-Up Records after members of the band Dust for Life, who helped record tracks on Origin, played a copy of the newly-released album to their manager.

2002–2005: Fallen era

David left the band in December of 2002, four months before Fallen was released, because he thought he was leading the band to the Christian rock scene more than Ben Moody and Amy Lee wanted to. Just before Fallen, in January, Mystary EP was sold during a concert as a "Fallen Sampler". When their debut album was released by the major Wind-up Records, the band consisted of Amy Lee, Ben Moody, Rocky Gray (drums), John LeCompt (guitar), and William Boyd (bass). The same day as Fallen, the Daredevil movie soundtrack was released featuring Evanescence's "Bring Me to Life" and "My Immortal". "Bring Me to Life", the first single off Fallen, was a global hit for the band and reached #5 on the US Billboard Hot 100. Fallen spent 43 weeks on the Billboard Top 10, was certified 7x Platinum in the United States and sold more than 17 million copies worldwide; the album was listed for 104 weeks on the Billboard 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 in the middle of the European tour, reportedly because of creative differences. His explanation of the event can be read in his open letter to the fans, published about 7 years later. In an interview several months later, Amy Lee said:

It's actually been a relief, I don't mean that as a negative toward Ben, but we've all been through a lot and we were at breaking point. And the thing is, we'd gotten to a point that if something didn't change, we wouldn't have been able to make a second record.

Terry Balsamo, former guitarist from Cold, joined the band in Moody's place.

The three other singles released from Fallen during 2003 and 2004 are "Going Under", "Everybody's Fool" and "My Immortal", which later became one of the most popular Evanescence songs.

In 2004, Evanescence released a live album + DVD set: Anywhere but Home was released November 22, 2004, and consists of a concert at the Zenith in Paris on May 25, a behind-the-scenes footage and the music videos off Fallen. Also on the CD are the live songs "Breathe No More" (from the Elektra movie soundtrack, released in 2005), "Farther Away", and the band's cover of Korn's "Thoughtless", along with the studio version of the B-side "Missing".

2006–2009: The Open Door era

A spokesperson for the band's label confirmed on July 14, 2006, that Will Boyd had left Evanescence on good terms in late June for "not wanting to do another big tour" and wanting "to be close to his family", after the recording of The Open Door were completed. In an interview with MTV, posted on their website on August 10, 2006, Lee announced he would have been replaced by Tim McCord. 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. The Open Door is Evanescence's second official album and third album overall; it was released on September 25, 2006. The album was recorded at The Record Plant in Hollywood, California, and mixed at Ocean Way Studios in March of 2006. It debuted at #1 in the US, Australia, Germany, Greece, Japan, and Switzerland and was in the Top 5 in Austria, Canada, France, Holland, Hong Kong, Italy, New Zealand, Sweden, UK, Ireland, Korea, Norway, and Denmark. The album was preceded by the single "Call Me When You're Sober", the music video for the song, based on a Little Riding Hood concept, was released on September 25. 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). They also co-headlined on the Family Values Tour 2007 along with Korn and other bands.

Evanescence circa 2007: Tim McCord, Will Hunt, Amy Lee, Terry Balsamo and Troy McLawhorn.

John was officially "fired" from Evanescence on May 4th, 2007. Rocky officially left Evanescence on May 4th, 2007, some people believe he did it in order to protest over John getting fired, but this wasn't the reason. Rocky had already decided to leave Evanescence in January. His contract with Wind-up said that he had to finish the tour first. He wasn't allowed to say anything about his plans about leaving either. When John was fired, he defied Wind-up and told the fans anyway. Wind-up issued a press release on May 17, 2007, stating that Will Hunt (drums) and Troy McLawhorn (guitar) from Dark New Day would go on tour with Evanescence as guest members until the end of the Family Values Tour in September 2007, but both continued to play with the band through The Open Door Tour. Amy revealed on EvThreads that the reason John was fired is because "they were very vocal about the fact that they didn't really care about Evanescence at all, and just stayed around for the money. I knowingly let this negative energy grow within my band for a very long time because I was afraid of the appearance of falling apart, when in reality, trying to hold on to these guys is what was holding us back. I treated both John and Rocky with nothing but kindness and respect, and I got nothing but jealousy and resentment in return. They were miserable. They are no longer playing with us because I love this band too much to see it driven into the ground." The Open Door Tour ended on December 9, 2007.

2009–2012: Evanescence era

In a news posting to the Evanescence website in June 2009, Amy Lee wrote that the band was in the process of writing new material for a new album scheduled for release in 2010. She stated that the music would be an evolution of previous works and be "better, stronger, and more interesting". On September 1, 2009, Amy Lee announced Evanescence's headline appearance at the Maquinária Festival in São Paulo, Brazil, which took place on November 8. On November 4 Evanescence played a "warm-up show" in New York, Manhattan Center Grand Ballroom. "Together Again", an outtake from The Open Door, was released as a digital download in January 22, 2010, to benefit the United Nations Foundation for their Haiti earthquake recovery efforts. The download was free with a 5$ minimum donation. It later received wide release as a digital download on February 23, 2010.

As announced on January 8 through Twitter, Evanescence entered the studio for the third album on February 22 to begin recording. Will "Science" Hunt joined the band as primary drummer and programmer, while Will Hunt returned as secondary drummer. David Campbell, who previously worked on The Open Door, was brought back to handle string arrangements, and the album was to be produced by Steve Lillywhite. The sound of the new album has been described as "synthetic and atmospheric" quoting influences like Portishead, Massive Attack and Björk. The album was intended to be released during Fall 2010, however, on June 21, 2010, it was announced that Evanescence had temporarily left the studio to work further on the album and "get our heads into the right creative space" and indicated that Wind-up Records was going through "uncertain times", which may further delay release of the album.

Evanescence circa 2012: Will Hunt, Troy McLawhorn, Amy Lee, Tim McCord and Terry Balsamo.

On Amy's birthday in December 13, 2010 Amy posted on EvThreads that she has "high hopes for 2011" and she's in Northern California writing music with Terry and Tim, and finally on February 2, 2011 Amy announced on EvThreads that the band is starting pre-production on the album, but it was revealed that the band switched producers to Nick Raskulinecz. Amy later revealed on Twitter that the album will be released on October 4, 2011 and Troy McLawhorn joined the band again. Later, on July 11, 2011 it was reported by MTV News that the release date for the album had been pushed back to October 11, and that the first single from the album will be "What You Want". The album was released on October 7, 2011 in Australia, Germany and Ireland, October 10, 2011 in the United Kingdom and Poland, and October 11, 2011 in the United States. The tour to support the album began on August 17, 2011. The band paused their tour to take part in the Carnival of Madness Tour alongside Halestorm, Cavo, New Medicine and Chevelle. This tour began on July 31, 2012, in Springfield, Illinois, and ran through September 2, 2012, ending in Buffalo, New York. The tour wrapped with a series of shows in the UK, ending on November 9, 2012, in London's Wembley Arena. In an interview with NME on September 2012 when asked if the band will be writing a fourth album, Amy said, "I'm thinking we'll take a break first. I'm really not sure what I'll do next. At the end of any really long tour you need to get your head in order. I think at the end of the run we'll go on a break for a while and figure things out." And she also said in the interview that she doesn't know how long the break will be, although she doesn't want it to take another five years, she "can't put a timeline on it either."

2012–Present: Hiatus and Synthesis era

After Evanescence finished touring their third album, they were on hiatus for some time. And with that, the band members started working on their new projects away from Evanescence.

In a Rolling Stone interview in August 2014, Amy said that "for the foreseeable future, [she] don't have any plans to do anything with the band" which made fans think that Evanescence are no more. Because of this speculation, Amy posted to Facebook that "[she] never said Evanescence was over" and that "[she] has a completely open mind for the future".

On April 26, 2015, Evanescence announced that they will be playing at Ozzfest Japan on November 21st - their first live show since 2012. Then in July the same year, they added three U.S. dates in Nashville, Dallas and Los Angeles that would act as a "warm-up" before Ozzfest.

On August 7th, Evanescence announced that Terry Balsamo had parted ways with the band, and that their new guitarist is German musician, Jen Majura. It's unknown publicly why Terry left, but it's clear that it was not on bad terms.

Evanescence played their first live show in three years at the Marathon Music Works in Nashville, Tennessee on November 13th. Jen made her debut with the band and New Way to Bleed was performed for the first time.

After the band concluded their small winter tour at Ozzfest, Amy expressed interest in playing live again next year if they are given opportunities. It didn't take long before more live show announcements were made, the first being Moonstone Music Festival and then SunFest that will both take place in May 2016.

To be continued...

Line up history

1995–1998	Amy Lee – Voice, piano, keys Ben Moody – Electric guitar, bass
1999–2002	Amy Lee – Voice, piano, keys Ben Moody – Electric guitar, bass David Hodges – Piano, keys, backing vocals, drums
2002–2003	Amy Lee – Voice, piano, keys Ben Moody – Rhythm guitar, bass John LeCompt (on tour) – Rhythm guitar, bass Rocky Gray (on tour) – Drums
2003	Amy Lee – Voice, piano, keys Ben Moody – Main guitar, rhythm guitar Francesco DiCosmo (on recording sessions) – Bass Josh Freese (on recording sessions) – Drums
2003	Amy Lee – Voice, piano, keys Ben Moody – Main guitar John LeCompt – Rhythm guitar Will Boyd – Bass Rocky Gray – Drums
2003–2006	Amy Lee – Voice, piano, keys Terry Balsamo – Main guitar John LeCompt – Rhythm guitar Will Boyd – Bass Rocky Gray – Drums
2006–2007	Amy Lee – Voice, piano, keys Terry Balsamo – Main guitar John LeCompt – Rhythm guitar Tim McCord – Bass Rocky Gray – Drums
2007	Amy Lee – Voice, piano, keys Terry Balsamo – Main guitar Troy McLawhorn (on tour) – Rhythm guitar Tim McCord – Bass Will Hunt (on tour) – Drums
2007–2010	Amy Lee – Voice, piano, keys Terry Balsamo – Main guitar Tim McCord – Bass
2010	Amy Lee – Voice, piano, keys, harp Terry Balsamo – Main guitar Tim McCord – Bass Will "Science" Hunt – Drums, programming Will Hunt – Drums
2011–2015	Amy Lee – Voice, piano, keys, harp Terry Balsamo – Main guitar Tim McCord – Bass Troy McLawhorn – Rhythm guitar Will Hunt – Drums
2015–present	Amy Lee – Voice, piano, keys, harp Jen Majura – Main guitar Tim McCord – Bass Troy McLawhorn – Rhythm guitar Will Hunt – Drums