Okay some of youse can't get past my Amy bashin. Let me tell you this though, if Bruce Dickinson decided that on the next album he was going to sing and play piano and the rest of the band were to be relagated to background musicians, would you say Iron Maiden have really fucked up this time, or, who the fuck does Bruce Dickinson think he is thinking that he is more important than the band. There, chow down on that little dilema!!!!
Anyway I feel I have the right to reply about all the shit this review has caused (Sorry it is a wee bit long):
The Silent Man Wrote:
I don’t really like Evanescence that much. Some songs are ok, My Immortal being the only one I heard that I would listen to by my own choosing. I don’t see the point in making fun of the band though, at all. What is the point of this review? There might be 4 sentences in that whole page that properly talks about the album.
Ross’s Reply:
I did not make fun of the band. What I did and what the point of the review is, 95% of the music is Amy Lee playing the piano and venting her spleen on people who have done her wrong. The four sentences that properly talk about the album is the other 5%. How can I elaborate on 5% on the album, especially as that 5% isn’t really all that good? I felt I had to concentrate on the majority content of the album and tell potential listeners what to expect - Which is Amy Lee whining about everyone who has dumped on her. Had Ben Moody still been with the band then I would have expected a far more powerful and diverse album. As you may have read in my review, gone are the crunchy, chugging guitar riffs and the soaring, memorable choruses. Had Ben Moody anything to do with this album then I’m sure all that and more would no doubt have been included.
The Silent Man Wrote:
"..even though more credit should probably be given to Mozart or Beethoven than to any original Amy Lee piano arranging." - I also don’t understand the point in this sentence here. How can they be compared at all?
Ross’s Reply
" ….the latter of which is derived from Mozart's Requiem. Though Lee deserves credit for sampling a piece composed in the 18th century, it is telling that that the only memorable hook in "The Open Door" comes from a work from the Classical period.
Dago Wrote:
How did their other album get a 95.
Ross’s Reply:
Fallen was a damn good album!!
Cenotaph Wrote:
I might take the time to say though that I don't think the score of 60 seems to fit well with the review in general.
Ross’s Reply:
Did you read the review? ‘The Open Door’ has just gone platinum in the US. How can I justify giving an album that went platinum a score of 30 and a Crap Of The Month Skeleton like what I was going to do?? Granted a lot of owners of ‘Fallen’ will buy it blind expecting something as powerful and haunting as ‘Fallen’ and I will believe they will be disappointed. But I digress, if an album has gone platinum, surely it would be wrong for me to come straight out and say it’s crap – One million people can’t be wrong; can they??? As I also said in my review, all the girls sitting on the stairs crying at the end of a party, all those who’s hearts are broken when they get dumped and persons of that ilk are going to love this album. As for listening for ENJOYMENT, I don’t think so!
Lyrics etc that Amy Lee uses to have a dig at her wrongdoers:
‘Call Me When You’re Sober’ – Aimed at Shaun Morgan
Other stuff I gleaned courtesy of various places on the Interweb while researching this album are:
"The Open Door" begins with a breath. Clearly, Amy Lee has a lot to get off her chest.
“The Open Door” loses the punchy power rifts and instead persuades the listener with piano and airy vocals.
“Fittingly, then, Lee alone is the main event on "The Open Door," the newest album from the band. Tumultuous relationships and loneliness manifest themselves clearly on the tracks, all of which are written by Lee in the first person. It feels as if each one is cathartic for her, and she seems to have a song for everyone.
"You know you live to break me," she accuses in "Sweet Sacrifice," apparently addressing Moody. "Are you still too weak to survive your mistakes?" A number of tracks appear to be aimed at her ex, especially the first single, "Call Me When You're Sober," and a piano number entitled "Lithium," which is sung from his apparently pathetic perspective.”
“Rather than remain subsumed in the music and part of a larger experience, Lee grabs the reins of the musical production, making the album her own and relegating the rest of the band into obscurity.”
“Lee spends some significant time on the same tired themes of breaking up and the disdainful thought of, “Gosh, it’s sooo tough being me since I’m so successful.” (she dips into that pool on a song called “Weight Of The World”. Natch)
“Take “Snow White Queen”, an almost-Industrial haunt relating to – and identifying with – a stalker. This is certainly a place where it’d be easy to take the trite-and-true route of “get out of my life”; however, Lee is still young enough to see where her obsessed fan is coming from, as she could have been that girl herself if things had gone differently.”
“In the final track, “Good Enough”, Lee wonders if she’s good enough for her man...God.”
And here is the one that really made me go “Oh c’mon Girl, get a fuckin grip!”:
“In "Like You," Lee addresses her sister, who died in childhood, singing that she longs "to be like you, lie cold in the ground like you." – now how many tearstained young girls whose life has just fallen apart because their boyfriend has just dumped are going to look at old Amy as a kindred spirit. How many of you out there read into this that she has thought about suicide somewhere along the line! How many kids are going to hear this and say “Yup, That’s for me – Goodbye cruel world!”
In Summary:
You have said I have not reviewed the album. Okay here it is in a nutshell – 90 percent of the album is a platform for Amy Lee to vent her spleen on all those who have dumped her. There are no crunchy, chugging riffs with memorable choruses only Amy singing along on her piano. She even does the backing vocals. Sorry I can’t say too much about the Guitars, Bass and Drums as they weren’t used enough to form an opinion. – If you’ve read my review carefully, you may have noticed that all I have just said is in there; you just chose to ignore it and accuse me of Amy bashing!
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