MOODY TIMES OVER FOR EVANESCENCE

EVANESCENCE face an uncertain future following the shock walkout of their guitarist.

It has emerged that founder member Ben Moody walked out of the band’s world tour on October 24 in Berlin. He immediately flew home and did not give a reason for his departure, according to MTV.

Furious singer Amy Lee told Rocksound magazine: "You don’t do that to your band. You wouldn’t do that to your friends or your family. You don’t do that to anyone."

The band are ploughing on with their European tour, and are expected to honour their US dates, which begin later this month. Second guitarist John LeCompt is filling in Moody’s parts.

Lee and Moody formed Evanescence together in the late ‘90s. This year they scored a worldwide smash with breakthrough single ‘Bring Me To Life’.

Originally posted by Giantrobo
didn't Stevie Ray Vaughn do this to Bowie? Anyway, I hope they can get another guitarist and move on. They shouldn't let one "moody" prick ruin their success.

Originally posted by candyrocket786
Didn't Moody write/co-write most of the songs?

Maybe he couldn't handle/or was fed up with all the mainstream success the group has received.

At first I believed these guys were destined to be one of the greatest bands in the world.....but it seemed like the record companies tried to gear Evanescence's music toward the Pop Generation.


* I also grew tired of them performing "Bring Me to Life" on every damn award show.

Originally posted by das Monkey
Lead singer with compelling voice gets more press than the rest of the band? Shocking!!! Welcome to the music business, jackass. Who cares who gets the "attention" so long as the music's good? It should be about the music.

das

Originally posted by Josh-da-man
Weren't Ben and Amy -er- involved?

Unless you're Fleetwood Mac, that's a surefire formula to screw up a band dynamic.

Originally posted by Josh-da-man
Evanescence is Lacuna Coil with the serial numbers filed off.

Originally posted by candyrocket786
Maybe he couldn't handle/or was fed up with all the mainstream success the group has received.

Originally posted by Giantrobo


I've never heard Lacuna Coil but I hear they're a great band.

Originally posted by candyrocket786
Yeah...they're up there with Nightwish, Within Temptation and The Gathering....some of the greatest talent you'll ever hear.

LC toured the US briefly this past spring.

Originally posted by das Monkey
Who cares who gets the "attention" so long as the music's good?

Originally posted by evenflow
And their lead singer is HOT! (Lacuna Coil, that is)

Are There Clues To Evanescence's Problems In Their New Video?

Now that the news is out that Evanescence co-founder, guitarist and songwriter Ben Moody walked out on his bandmates in the middle of their European tour, fans will undoubtedly look for signs that there were problems brewing before his departure.

The group's video for "My Immortal" may provide some clues. "The video is all about separation," said singer Amy Lee. "I wanted it to depict real human sadness."

Of course, the video treatment came not from the band, but from director David Mouldy, who wanted to parallel the lyrics of the song, which is about a spirit that haunts the memory of a grieving loved one. But there are parallels between the imagery in the video and the current state of Evanescence.

In the video, which was shot in black and white, Moody looks sullen and withdrawn. His shoulders sag and his head slumps forward as he delicately plays piano. Later, he sadly picks up his jacket as if he's about to leave. And when the song kicks into balladic rock mode, the band is shot performing in one room while Moody is in another, with only his piano for companionship.

Throughout the video, Lee is never filmed on ground level. She walks along the ledge of a fountain, sits in a tree and sings lying on top of a building. She also lies atop scaffolding and on the hood of a car surrounded with leaves. The shots are evocative and artistic, resembling a cross between a foreign film and a Chanel advertisement.

"The only rules that I set out were that we didn't want any fake stuff or imaginary things that couldn't really happen," she said.

Mouldy shot "My Immortal" on October 10 in the gothic section of Barcelona, Spain, two weeks before Moody left the band in Berlin. "We did it in a cool, old area of town," Lee said. "We shot some of it at this scenic point, and there was a rooftop where you could see Barcelona below. It was really neat."

The version of "My Immortal" used for the video and radio single isn't the same as the one off the band's record Fallen. Much to Lee's chagrin, Evanescence's label opted to use the band's demo version of the song on the record instead of the album recording.

"The label was stuck on the demo and wouldn't let us use the version we really wanted," Lee said. "We fought back and forth about it and finally we gave in, but we were all so angry about it."

A couple million album sales later, Evanescence have garnered the kind of clout that allows them to call some of the shots. So when "My Immortal" was decided upon as the next single, Evanescence elected to use their preferred recording of the song.

"The version that's on the album is the one everyone has gotten used to hearing, so it might be a little hard for them to accept a new version," she agreed. "But it's really hard for me to listen to the album version because we did it two years ago — it was just me and guitarist Ben [Moody], and I've grown so much as a performer since then."

Not only is Lee unhappy with her vocals, she dislikes just about everything about the demo version. "It's not even a real piano," she groaned. "And the sound quality is bad because we had to break into the studio to record it late at night when no one was around because we couldn't afford a real session."

The new version of "My Immortal" was recorded as a full band and features strings arranged by Beck's dad, David Campbell. While Lee sings the intimate lullaby, the song was written by Moody, and it is purely fictitious.

"That's the difference between us," Lee said. "Ben tends to write like a storyteller, and it's not necessarily from any kind of personal experience. I can't bring myself to write about anything I don't understand completely. For me, writing is always about some specific thing that's happened, so sometimes I feel a little distanced singing the song, but I still love it."

Evanescence's European tour ends November 10 in London. The band is scheduled to launch a new North American leg nine days later in Mexico City. Dates run through December 14 in Mississauga, Ontario, after which the group will head to New Zealand, Australia and Japan.

The "My Immortal" video is scheduled to air in the next couple of weeks.