The Bitter Truth

Album review

Ten years after their last album of original material, alternative metal outfit Evanescence continued their late-era comeback with their fifth full-length, The Bitter Truth. In the decade following their enjoyable (but by-the-numbers) self-titled third set, Amy Lee and company -- guitarist Troy McLawhorn, bassist Tim McCord, drummer Will Hunt, and guitarist Jen Majura -- kept the brand alive with tours and album reissues, but the project wasn't fully reignited until the grand orchestral reimaginings of Synthesis arrived in 2017. Riding that creative wave, they got to work on what would become The Bitter Truth, barreling through the COVID-19 lockdown and completing the album with producer Nick Raskulinecz (Korn, Halestorm). Standing tall alongside their breakthrough debut, Fallen, and its follow-up The Open Door, Truth is one of the band's most engaging works, balancing sonic power with Lee's inimitable vocals and songwriting. Amidst world events, personal loss, and global turmoil, the group flips that pain and darkness by focusing on healing, self-growth, and emotional maturation. From the first keyboard twinkles on opener "Artifact/The Turn," Lee commands the show, setting the stage with a haunting Tori Amos-meets-Dido dirge that bubbles to life with atmospheric electronics. Everything clicks together once the band joins Lee on "Broken Pieces Shine," with pounding drums, lurching bass, chugging riffs, and minor-key harmonies buffering her soaring voice and stirring lyrics. Even through cries of "I'm not fine," she urges listeners to embrace the bad with the good, both for survival and empowerment. That sentiment courses through the album, as metallic muscle pushes her urgent messages, like when she declares "I will be more than my survival" on the yearning "Part of Me" and calls for redemption of a broken world on "Blind Belief." "Use My Voice" is a rallying cry that Lee penned to inspire personal awakening and female empowerment; to drive the point home, she recruited Sharon den Adel (Within Temptation), Lzzy Hale (Halestorm), Taylor Momsen (the Pretty Reckless), Lindsey Stirling, and many more for the inspirational gang chorus. The Bitter Truth also serves plenty of callbacks, such as the crunchy "The Game Is Over" and the corrosive "Feeding the Dark," which could have easily found a home on Fallen and The Open Door, respectively. Additional heavy highlights include "Better Without You," a whirlwind of down-tuned guitars, clattering production, dramatic piano chords, and a show-stopping chorus; the torrential "Take Cover," which blasts toward the horizon atop a frenzied attack that is the closest they toe the nostalgic nu-metal line; and the unexpectedly groovy "Yeah Right," which manages to sound like Muse meets Billie Eilish. For fans of quieter moments like "My Immortal" and "Lost in Paradise," Lee delivers the sweeping "Far from Heaven," a devastating beauty that once again recalls Tori Amos. Altogether, The Bitter Truth carries listeners on a journey both familiar and fresh, recapturing the heavy-yet-melodic hallmarks that made Fallen one of the most successful albums of the 2000s and pushing Evanescence into the future with a graceful maturity and worldly perspective.

© Neil Z. Yeung /TiVo