Even in Death

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General information

Written by: A. Lee, B. Moody and D. Hodges

Even In Death is the seventh track from Evanescence's demo album, Origin. It was written in 1996.

Amy Lee says that this song is about loving someone so much that you'd bring them back from the dead. 1 of 5 pre-Fallen songs to ever be played on radio^{[citation needed]} (The other four are Lies, Understanding, a demo version of Whisper and Give Unto Me). This song and Understanding are the only pre-Fallen songs ever performed live on radio. Even in Death was also played live during the band's Fallen tour.

David's backing vocals can be heard at the chorus, behind the guitars and Amy's voice. The intro uses a sample from White Zombie's Ratfinks, Suicide Tanks and Cannibal Girls, which was released four years prior. The same sample was also used later in Snow White Queen. The song also features a clip from The Crow.

Ben's quote about the song from Metal Edge magazine:

That was so long ago...I was like eighteen, and we just found this little loop thing, and we just thought it sounded really cool and crazy and we thought it would be really cool to build a song around it. Then, one day, Amy and I thought about someone who's in a relationship, they lose their loved one, and they kind of flip out, and they go and dig them up, kind of like [Tom Petty's] "Mary Jane's Last Dance" – We kind of thought we'd take that one step further.

Amy's quote about the song from the same magazine:

It's interesting – I don't understand why, but it's more sexual, not necessarily in the lyrical content, but just in the feel of the music for me, the song seems really sexual. I have no good reason for that, but that has always been that song for me, it's cool because that song is kind of different. The song wasn't written from life experience, it was basically just a cool story.

Part of The Ultimate Collection is a new/old song, Even in Death, which Lee explains is actually her way of embracing her musical past. “I looked through Origin for the first time in many years this year, through this experience, and that song has always been one that has a good heart and I still like the lyrics,” she says. “[But] our old recording of it is really bad, it’s us as kids with whatever we can find to record with. I think that’s the hardest part for me. You can always redo production but lyrics are lyrics; if the lyrics are dumb, I just can’t get my head around enjoying it. And I think that ‘Even in Death’ has some beautiful lyrics that actually are very much in the art and vision of what Evanescence grew into. So I took that song and redid it with my collaborator friend Dave Egger, on cello, in New York, and we made this really different version that I love. It just felt like redeeming the song”.

It really felt like redemption, like that song was truly redeemed because the early recording we have is not an enjoyable recording, but I really love that song. It was a beautiful experience to be able to take that and live in it now and give it the treatment I would give to any one of our songs with the ability I have now. Now I'm in love with that song again.

She explained the song in another interview:

That song was a little bit of storytelling about not wanting to accept the death of your loved one and just going nuts—to the point that I would go out and dig up the grave. We rerecorded it for the box set because the only recording I had was a rough demo from [when I was] a kid. [The album it’s on,] Origin, is made up of very old embarrassing journal pages from middle school. [The new version of] “Even in Death” is still a cool song; it honors the things I loved about the original, but it’s now in a beautiful light that speaks to who I am today. It feels like redemption.

She told AltWire:

I think that the production of the old version was really ‘tinny’ – like rough and cheesy because we’re just sort of kids! We were just kind of learning and trying to experiment to find ways to get the emotion across that we were trying to express, and it was pretty overdramatic. But being able to listen to it through (or past) the production, and into the heart of the song itself and the lyrics, I still love it, y’know? So I just stripped it down and did it in a new way, and treated it with the same feeling and emotion and ability that I have now, and did the same treatment that I would give any new song. And that felt really good to do because I’ve only had that old version for so many years. I don’t even know how long, it’s 2016…so that’s about twenty years ago, which is a really crazy thing to say.

In the 2016 version of the song, it can be heard the last part of the outro of Lost Whispers faded into the beginning of the song.

Versions

Studio Versions

Even in Death

• Recording date: 1999
• Status: Released
• Released on:

Origin (track #7)

The Gas Collection 25 (track #14)

• Length: 4:09

Even in Death (2016)

• Recording date: 2016
• Status: Released
• Released on: Lost Whispers (track #2)
• Length: 4:21

Live Versions

Even in Death [Live]

• Performing period: 2000-2003
• Status: Unreleased
• Example: Rock am Ring festival (June 7, 2003)

Even in Death [Acoustic]

• Performing period: 2003
• Status: Unreleased
• Example: the acoustic performance at Juanita's on January 13
• Length: 2:42

Even in Death (2016) [Live]

• Performing period: April - November 2016; April - May 2017
• Status: Unreleased
• Example: House of Blues, Lake Buena Vista, FL, USA (April 30, 2016)

Download

• Even in Death

Lyrics

Album version

Give me a reason to believe that you're gone
I see your shadow so I know they're all wrong
Moonlight on the soft brown earth
It leads me to where you lay
They took you away from me but now I'm taking you home

I will stay forever here with you, my love
The softly spoken words you gave me
Even in death our love goes on

Some say I'm crazy for my love, Oh my love [my love]
But no bonds can hold me from your side, Oh my love
They don't know you can't leave me
They don't hear you singing to me

I will stay forever here with you, my love
The softly spoken words you gave me
Even in death our love goes on
And I can't love you, any more than I do

I will stay forever here with you, my love
The softly spoken words you gave me
Even in death our love goes on
And I can't love you, any more than I do

People die, but real love is forever

Acoustic version

Give me a reason to believe that you're gone
I see your shadow so I know they're all wrong
Moonlight on the soft brown earth
It leads me to where you lay
They took you away from me but now I'm taking you home

I will stay forever here with you, my love
The softly spoken words you gave me
Even in death our love goes on

Some say I'm crazy for my love, Oh my love
But no bonds can hold me from your side, Oh my love
They don't know you can't leave me
They don't hear you singing to me

I will stay forever here with you, my love
The softly spoken words you gave me
Even in death our love goes on
And I can't love you, any more than I do

I will stay forever here with you, my love
The softly spoken words you gave me
Even in death our love goes on
And I can't love you, any more than I do

The 7ball Gas Collection - Volume 25

The cover of the CD which followed a magazine focused on Christian rock groups

See also: The Gas Collection 25

Even in Death was inserted in the 25th volume of The 7ball Gas Collection CD, which follows a magazine of the same name, whose focus is to advertise and promote bands with Christian backgrounds. It is important to remember that until the release of Fallen, Evanescence was continuously mistaken for a Christian band.

This CD features the same version of the song from Origin under the note "-SOMEBODY SIGN THESE GUYS-" alongside with another band which also didn't have a record label contract.

This magazine's issue was released in May/2001 and was, up to 2016, the only place where Even in Death was officially released. The song received an official release when Origin was made a box set exclusive vinyl and a reworked version was released on the compilation album Lost Whispers as part of the box set.

Guitar tabs & sheet music

• Piano sheet music - arranged by Michael McWilliams