Wilfried F. Voss is the author of The Bleeding Hills. For more information see his website at http://wilfriedvoss.com.

I love Pandora! For those who don’t know (you’ll be surprised how many there are), Pandora (http://www.pandora.com) is basically Internet-based radio, playing only the music you like by allowing you to create your own program.

Here is not only the music I like; I also discover “new” artists that I’ve never heard of and I LOVE them. When I list “new” names like Evanescence, Missy Higgins, Plumb, Regina Spektor (I’m currently listening to “Soviet Kitsch”), and many more great artists, I can imagine people rolling their eyes.

“What rock are you living under?” they might ask. Well, my excuse is valid: Our local radio station plays only standard music they can actually afford, and that includes “Say what you need to say, say what you need to say, say what you need to say…” Yes, it’s the extraordinary prose of John Mayer, and that’s the maximum level of sophisticated music you get from our local radio station. See also my post Pandora Kills The Radio Star… And I Like It!

Well, talking about Evanescence, one of my favorite bands I discovered through Pandora (and never heard on our local radio station):

Click on image to buy from Amazon.Com

Evanescence is an American rock band founded in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1995 by singer/pianist Amy Lee and guitarist Ben Moody. After recording private albums, the band released their first full-length album, Fallen, on Wind-up Records in 2003. Fallen sold more than 17 million copies worldwide and helped the band win two Grammy Awards. A year later, Evanescence released their first live album, Anywhere but Home, which sold more than one million copies worldwide. In 2006, the band released their second studio album, The Open Door, which sold more than six million copies.

The line-up of the group has changed several times: David Hodges leaving in 2002, co-founder Moody left in 2003 (mid-tour), bassist Will Boyd in 2006, followed by guitarist John LeComptand drummer Rocky Gray in 2007. The last two changes led to a hiatus, with temporary band members contributing to tour performances. Billboard ranked Evanescence #71 on the Best Artists of the Decade chart.

Announced in June 2009, the newest line-up of the band eventually returned with Evanescence, their self-titled third studio album, and it was released on October 11, 2011. It debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart with 127,000 copies in sales. According to Examiner.com, the album also debuted at #1 on four other different Billboard charts; the Rock Albums, Digital Albums, Alternative Albums, and the Hard Rock Albums charts. The first single, “What You Want”, was released on August 9, 2011. The second single, “My Heart Is Broken”, will be sent to radio stations beginning October 31, 2011. The band is currently on tour in promotion for their new record along with The Pretty Reckless and Fair to Midland.

Critics vary in terming Evanescence a rock or metal band, but most identify them as some form of gothic band: Publications such as The New York Times, Rough Guides, Rolling Stone and Blender have identified Evanescence as a gothic metal act, while other sources such as NME,MusicMight, IGN and Popmatters have termed them gothic rock. They have been compared to a variety of bands from differing genres, such as nu metal ensembles like P.O.D. and Linkin Park, gothic metal groups like Lacuna Coil, and symphonic metal acts like Nightwish and Within Temptation. David Browne of Blender offers an elaborate description of the band’s music as “goth Christian nü-metal with a twist of melancholic Enya.” Adrien Begrand of Popmatters describes Evanescence as utilising “nu-metal riffage”. Adrian Jackson of My Dying Bride stated that he feels Evanescence is doing something similar to his own gothic metal group, only in a more commercial direction. Other genres and influences used to describe the band’s sound include alternative metal, alternative rock, hard rock, electronica and chamber pop. The band’s official website classed their musical genre simply as ‘rock’.

Evanescence was originally promoted in Christian stores. Later, the band made it clear they did not want to be considered part of the Christian rock genre, like fellow Wind-up Records artists Creed. Terry Hemmings, CEO of Christian music distributor Provident, expressed puzzlement at the band’s about-face, saying “They clearly understood the album would be sold in these [Christian music] channels.” After many Christian stores began to remove the band’s music from their shelves, Wind-up Records chairman Alan Meltzer then issued a press release in April 2003 requesting formally that they do this. In 2006, Amy Lee told Billboard that she had opposed being identified as a “Christian band” from the beginning.

Advertisement

THE BLEEDING HILLS
A Novel by Wilfried F. Voss

I have fought a good fight,
I have finished my course,
I have kept the faith.
- 2 Timothy iv. 7

The Irish War is officially a part of history, but not for Finnean Whelan, an IRA veteran of almost 40 years. British Intelligence has produced evidence that he is the mastermind behind a conspiracy to assassinate the First Minister of Northern Ireland. For Whelan this is not only a mission of revenge, but marks the beginning of a journey into the past and the return to the one true love: Ireland. [More...]

The Bleeding Hills is available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Nobel, and any other good bookstore.