Origin

Origin
Demo album by Evanescence
Released	November 4, 2000
Recorded	1999-2000 (Sound Asleep Studios); 2000 (Ardent Studios)
Length	46:27
Label	Bigwig Enterprises
Singles from Origin
"Whisper" Released: 2000

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This article is about the album. For the song, see Origin (song).

General information

Origin was released on November 4, 2000, in Little Rock, Arkansas. Many different versions of Origin exist, but there’s only one true track listing. Only 2500 copies of the original were made. Bigwig Enterprises stopped selling Origin in early February 2003 (a day or two before the Daredevil Soundtrack album was released) and removed it from their catalogue. Amy Lee does not consider this an album, but rather a collection of demos that they "dressed up" to send to different major labels. The album contains early versions of songs found on Fallen: "My Immortal", "Imaginary", "Whisper". The majority of the album was recorded at Ardent Studios in Memphis, Tennessee, with help from the band Dust for Life.

Contrary to popular belief, the album was not intended as a "shopping" album for record labels (i.e. talent scouting), but a release to help in the search for studio musicians (touring band members). However, Evanescence were scouted by Wind-Up before they were able to complete this feat.

The original release contained a hidden track, which is located before the first track, pre-releases did not. In order to hear it, you have to rewind (while hearing what you are rewinding) the first song and reach -0:24 approximately (yes, minus). It is an outtake of the end of the bridge of Anywhere, featuring Amy Lee and David Hodges singing and a quote from the movie My Boyfriend's Back:

There's a lot of prejudice against the undead.

The front cover was created by Rocky Gray.

The end of the album was originally supposed to include the song "Listen to the Rain" between the songs "Eternal" and "Demise". Pre-releases of the album included this song, but the finished product did not include the song. Origin differs from other Evanescence records in that it features more electronic instrumentation and the tracks are more closely linked to one another. Pre-releases also did not contain "Where Will You Go" reprise at the end of song "Anywhere". Pre-releases contained some misprints on inserts and shorter total album and track times.

Amy Lee talked about the band's older songs in an interview:

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[sic] self- to remember things I'd forgotten. Besides the songs from Origin that were re-recorded and put on Fallen, we did play "Even in Death" live quite a bit, which was always fun, and I've always liked the idea of one day putting out a b-sides and rarities cd – there are some interesting songs that even the fanliest of you fans haven't heard.

Singles

"Whisper" was released as the lead single from Origin.

Track Listing

0. "Anywhere" (Hidden outtake)
1. "Origin"
2. "Whisper"
3. "Imaginary"
4. "My Immortal"
5. "Where Will You Go"
6. "Field of Innocence"
7. "Even in Death"
8. "Anywhere"
9. "Lies"
10. "Away from Me"
11. "Eternal"

Outtakes

• "Listen to the Rain"
• "Demise" (was eventually merged into "Eternal")
• "Catherine"
• "Spanish"

Lineup

• Amy Lee - vocals
• Ben Moody - guitars, bass, drums
• David Hodges - piano/keyboards

Guests

• William Boyd - bass on "Away from Me"
• Bruce Fitzhugh - vocals on "Lies"
• Stephanie Pierce - background vocals on "Lies"
• Suvi Petrajajvri, Sara Moore, Catherine Harris and Samantha Strong - female vocal ensemble on "Field of Innocence"

Artwork

Working version (september/october 2000) and definitive version (november 2000).

The following images are original concept art produced by MonstorGraphix and Adrian James. The disc is a scan, but only because original vector-based artwork doesn't begin to resemble the actual disc. These are as accurate as images of this disc can get, and are gently watermarked to discourage bootlegging.

The insert is a tri-folded demigloss, light-medium weight paper with one side of color images and the reverse side of grayscale. The tray insert is single-sided. The piece of plastic that the disc sits in is opaque. In the front of the front insert can be noticed a latin text from the Bible, Romans 6:4: consepulti enim sumus cum illo per baptismum in mortem ut quomodo surrexit Christus a mortuis per gloriam Patris ita et nos in novitate vitae ambulemus ('Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life').

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  Front Insert; Front

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  Front Insert; Back

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  Back Insert

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  Disc

Original Release

In the official label's website Origin was available for purchase at the price of 15$. The album could be ordered both online via PayPal.com or via mail. Shipping were available for USA, and after some time also for Canada (at the price of 16$) and even for Europe (at the price of 17$). Now, real and fake copies are bought on EBay for upwards of $300.

These are screenprints of the pages related to Origin and to Evanescence on bigwigenterprises.com (all the images have been found through the WayBack Machine):

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  Origin infos

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  Origin orders

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  Evanescence partial discography

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  "Out of Print" message

Fake Re-Releases

See also: Fake

Fake Release

In 2003, a "re-release" of Origin came out supposedly under the label 'Epic' although was in fact a fake. It contained most of the tracks from the real Origin, however with some tracks, different versions were used. In the case of "Whisper" and "My Immortal", the Fallen versions were used.

The audio portion of the CD was very poorly produced, and in most cases, the songs were either corrupted or of low quality (as if downloaded as an MP3 and then burned on the CD). This bootleg has very elaborate and professional looking artwork, with a silk screened, factory pressed CD and a fold out booklet with a small biography (which mostly rambles on about the 'Christian band' controversy).

The CD contained 'Bonus Tracks' such as "Missing" (which is very corrupted and of extremely low quality), the Nirvana cover 'Heart-Shaped Box', and a [rather bad] trance remix of "Bring Me To Life".

The CD itself has a red silkscreen with black bird design with the word "sorry" on it. The jewel case has a gothic red design with a speckled face on the back along with the track listing. The inside tray artwork has an image of the band (the one from the booklet in Fallen). The cover has a skull design that is similar to the actual album released by the band. The most noticeable difference is the Evanescence Logo, which is pointy and unlike any design officially released by the band.

On the back artwork the fine print/credits are actually copied from the back of Fallen.

Modern Bootlegs

Authentic ("All rights") and Fake ("All right")

Authentic printing vs. inferior bootleg

Recently, bootlegs are now becoming harder and harder to distinguish from the real thing. The authentic artwork, distinctive CD numbers and tracklisting—right down to the hidden outtake track—are all present and in (apparently) extremely good quality. There is some speculation that someone from Bigwig Enterprises is producing these items because of their immaculate authenticity, but this cannot be verified. Either way, these bootlegs are saturating the online auction market and making it nearly impossible to acquire a real copy of the album. They usually sell for around $40-$60 on eBay.

Pre-Releases

There are several ways to tell that a copy of Origin is pre-release. Manufactured and distributed by Big Wig Enterprises, it will have a grayish black and not as dark red to the album art where the finished product is pure black and dark red. When you look on the page that says "Evanescence is: "David Hodges" will be spelled incorrectly as "David Hodgos" in grayish blue (not white). On another pre-release "David Hodges" is spelled correctly but written in orange. Matrix / Run out for pre-releases contained the ring code CRT BWE0002 X0A21C, no IFPI, self-released by Evanescence. There is two versions of disc with this code, one being more of an earlier version with shorter track times and total album time, also disc has same code but discs are not identical in appearance, earlier version disc is darker black and bolder letter printing. The later version contains extended track listing of "Anywhere" ["Where Will You Go"] reprise and resembles appearance of album cover shown above, even the pre-gap for hidden track is there but contains just silence. "All Rights" and "Copyrights" symbols are incorrect on both editions, both versions were distributed in early 2000, but were manufactured in 1999 (hence the copyright date) 2000 of intended official release year, with these versions being demos. Recording date is officially not known.

Not all 'pre-releases' were published directly by Bigwig Enterprises. Bigwig distributed copies of Origin through UK Radioplay Regional Promotions in order to grab air time in the United Kingdom, a technique which apparently had little effect. However, instead of mailing production disks, Sony burnt and distributed their own copies to various small radio stations in early 2001, likely as part of a funding deal for local stations. Ironically, the versions that were sent out were not technically pre-release, despite the labeling. The audio is the same as the final Origin release, but track times are rounded down on the insert, often losing a second.

Download

You can download a Perfect Rip of the album here:

• Download Album In FLAC (with log and cue sheet) (Click Here For More Information)

—note that using the cue sheet to burn a copy of the disc will create a silent gap where the hidden track belongs, but will not actually have the hidden track.

• or download the mp3s Here