Anywhere But Home
EVANESCENCE
(Wind Up)
Most bands wait until they have some semblance of a back catalogue before they release a live album. In that respect, Evanescence's "Anywhere But Home" is an oddity to be sure. With only two albums to their credit - 2002's "Origin" and the haunting 2003 release "Fallen" - some would say the Goth-inspired rockers from Arkansas are being a bit presumptuous - and they would be right.
If listening to the epic "Fallen" is comparable to sitting by a fireplace and sipping brandy with Edgar Allen Poe as he relates mournful tales of lost love and the supernatural, "Anywhere But Home" is like supervising Ed Wood as he produces a Metallica album. Actually, that would probably be a positive thing seeing as how the once ground-breaking Metallica is now one step away from releasing an album of crusty, old standards and making yearly appearances on Dick Clark's "Rocking New Year's Eve." No. Wait. That would be Rod Stewart. My bad.
Where were we? Ah, yes. Sounding like it was recorded in the dolphin tank at Marineland, "Anywhere But Home" is murky and dark for all the wrong reasons. Everything...the drums, the guitars and the atmospheric accompaniments are strangely muffled as if one of H.P. Lovecraft's nameless monstrosities swallowed the band whole before they even set foot on stage.
Even Amy Lee's distinctively mournful and chilling voice sounds weak and strained during the performance taped at Le Zenith in Paris. It seems as though the vampiric siren, who has laid claim to Sarah McLachlan's throne ever since the Canadian songstress overdosed on happy pills, lost her edge and morphed into Celine Dion right before our very eyes, can't cut a break. In some really sloppy editing, one of her chats with the audience is inexplicably hacked short leaving the listener wondering if Jason Voorhees has found other uses for his infamous machete.
With 10 of the 14 cuts coming from the "Fallen" release and not really sounding any different when played live, one wonders what the disc's selling point might be? The three new songs - "Missing," "Breath No More" and "Farther Away" - are washed out due to the overall stifled production so we can't really get a true feel for them. The band's take on Korn's "Thoughtless" is interesting but doesn't really stand out as it probably should've.
The bonus DVD includes the entire concert as heard on the audio disc, the band's music videos and some hilarious out-takes. Mirroring the audio disc, the concert footage on the DVD is marred by poor production. Consisting of mostly extreme close-ups, blurred images and dizzying cuts, director Hamish Hamilton (U2, Peter Gabriel) empties his entire bag of tricks, turning the concert into an irritating hour-long music video that puts the focus on the "magic" of filmmaking and editing rather than the musicians on the stage.
"Anywhere But Home" is essentially nothing more than a blatant holiday cash grab, something that buys the band more time in the studio and gives ravenous fans something to spin as they wait for what they really crave: a new album. Whether that release will top the extraordinary "Fallen" now that co-founder and songwriter Ben Moody took a powder is a tale for another time. For now, we can chalk up "Anywhere But Home" to inexperience and hope there are lessons learned.
Track Listing
1. Haunted
2. Going Under
3. Taking Over Me
4. Everybody's Fool
5. Thoughtless
6. My Last Breath
7. Farther Away
8. Breathe No More
9. My Immortal
10. Bring Me To LIfe
11. Tourniquet
12. Imaginary
13. Whisper
14. Missing
