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Elly Roberts reviews
at the NEC BirminghamSaturday 22nd May 2004
CD: Fallen
Explosive Evanescence rocked the NEC Birmingham,on their UK debut appearance. With one hit album and three singles successes,theyre rapidly turning the tourniquet on inferior American bands, like Kornand Slipknot. Central to their popularity is their new Princess of Rock Amy Lee. (right)
The raven-haired tiny chanteuse, a hybrid of Goth and Grunge, she belts outone hell of a sound. As with many rock singers, the vocal clarity is sadlymissing in the din: and its a big shame. With consummate easy she flutteredthrough the lower and upper registers. She is without doubt one of the bestfemale Rock singers on the planet few of her contemporaries could competewith this level of performance. In addition, she has charisma and presence.
Madonna ring a bell? Oh no, shes way above her in natural talent and in thesinging department. Song writing skills are of the highest order, particularlythe ballads, which just for the record are hair-raising, eg. My Immortal.Highlights of he show were the three song piano solos, My Immortal, BreatheNo More and Thoughtless, as the arena lit up with swaying cigarettelighters. Gentler moods seem to suit her singing better, and they got thebiggest applause. This is when she comes from the soul, and not from the head.
The set list.
So, what about the rest of their material ? Its powerful, and occasionallyanthemic, but only occasionally. Rapid chord pounding makes up a great deal oftheir sound, like Bring Me To Life, Imaginary with little emphasisplaced on individual guitar technique and style : and theres a lot of posturingby a couple of band members. But, when you add the angelic choric backgroundto it, lush with soaring harmonies ; it is quite stunning, and very religiousin atmosphere, as found on Tourniquet.
Amy Lee, who is the main attraction for the fans, or was it the Addams FamilyConvention , put her heart and soul into every note, as she frenetically struttedher stuff for just over an hour. Yes , it was that short a gig. Nevertheless,they have phenomenal potential. One album in the bag, they are setting thepace, and key to their potential greatness,(and they could be huge one day),is the willingness to evolve at pace as well.
Hopefully, their next album will show more maturity, or at least progress, andthat evidence is locked away in some of the Fallen CD tracks. There is much toadmire about this band, and they are on course to be one of Americas supergroups. They have already won two Grammys “Best New Artist” and “Best HardRock Performance”, and they deserve them, but theyre not the finished articlejust yet. New single Everybodys Fool is out Monday 24 May.
More infoEvanescence.com
Elly Roberts passed away in 2011, but he was a man who was so passionate about all types of music and loved meeting his musical heroes, such as Mick Hucknall at a book signing at the Trafford Centre, Manchester in 2007.
A former teacher and also a music journalist, DJ and radio presenter on local community station Calon FM, plus appearances on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio 2, Elly started doing reviews for DVDfever.co.uk in 2004 and he did the majority of the CD and concerts reviews on the website.
I know also that he loved getting away for the summer to Spain and I hope that wherever he is now he is enjoying the hot sunshine and, as one of his friends has said on his Facebook page, that he is interviewing his musical heroes.