Christian alternative music has been a steady selling market for several years now. The bands are frequently bland sounding rubbish, but then so is most alternative music regardless of the band's beliefs. Bands like Creed, 12 Stone and P.O.D. make music best described as a dirge, and accordingly such music is overwhelmingly bought on the basis of the religious element. Recently a new band has been heavily promoted in the UK and their religous beliefs have been glossed over by the UK distributor; in fact the band have been purposely kept away from the media.
Evanescence has just become the latest pet of the UK mainstream alternative press, especially since reaching number 6 in the UK pop charts. I believe they replaced Good Charlotte in Kerrang!'s eyes. In the UK, Evanscence are being billed as "the new Lacuna Coil", more-accuratly the radio-friendly Lacuana Coil alternative, also complete with a white painted female vocalist.
In the US, it appears that Evanescence have attracted most press coverage for their religious links and for having a female singer. A recent VH1 live show review stated that "even the Spice Girls on steroids couldn't deliver girl power with such a wallop as Evanescence on Wednesday night in their first New York performance." This is quite a contrast to their UK representation as the resergence of goth. If you have only heard of Evanescence from the UK press, you might be surprised to know that the 21 year-old singer Amy Lee is not the only member of the band. There is also a guitarist, Ben Moody - her longterm pal from church band-camp, just like American Pie. Should you see them live, you also get the pleasure of drummer Rocky Gray, guitarist John LeCompt and bassist Will Boyd.
The band are signed to Wind-Up Records, and licenced to Sony, who have the option to release CDs internationally should they choose. After their most recent album reached top 10 in the US pop charts, Sony opted to distribute it in the UK. They are desparitely trying to ensure good sales, a mission that can only be hampered by the band who keep opening their mouths. The US press had a field day over Ben Moody's apparently anti-Christian comments ("We're actually high on the Christian charts, and I'm like, What the (expletive deleted) are we even doing there?" and when he compared himself to the "the guy who was crucified next to Jesus"). I presume this is what Lee means when she says "the members have been gradually backing away from their faith backgrounds."
In the same ill-advised interview with Billboard.com, Moody said he was unsure how the band became embroiled in this are they / aren't they Christian rock controversy. I suggest that having jesusfreak.com/enclave/evanescence as their offical website may have contributed, as did the policy of their record label, because Wind-Up cares deeply about the Christian marketplace and a potential 50 million album sales. Wind-Up even joined forces with Christian music distributor Provident who control about 70% of the Christian music market. Whether they remember it or not, Evanescence actually worked their way to their current position through the Christian circuit.
While the religous controversy will not carry as much weight in the UK, audiences tend to give better reiceptions to bands who at least pretend to care. This ensures a need to avoid comments pertaining to the band's summer European festival dates, including a ridiculously high profile slot on the Download festival, such as "I don't remember the names of [the festivals we are playing] because I've never heard of them before."
This could explain why despite some costly adverts in most of the music press, there has not benn a single accompanying interview, the only interview in sight being a video one on the forthcoming CD single, at which point you have already made the purchase. Sony appear to be attempting damage control and instead are focusing on Evanescence's 'goth' aspects. The US media have described 'Fallen' as "baroque goth metal", claiming that the "disc has a refreshingly dark sound that blends Tori Amos, Mediaeval Baebes and Linkin Park." I can hear the Linkin Park aspects and that alone explanes their reasonable chart sales.
Despite Metal Hammer (UK)'s bizzare assessment that Evanescence are influenced by "Type O Negative and all that is gothic", Lee and company would rather not be stuck in one stereotypical music catagory: "I wouldn't call it goth. I would use dark instead. It's dark and epic, beautiful, heavy, rock." Unfortunately, someone forgot to tell VH1, who said of the bands live perfomance, "Lee has striped armbands and chains drooping off her right hip, adding a touch of A Nightmare Before Christmas-inspired Goth chic."
Ultimately Evanescence's fleeting moment in the spotlight is already passing and they will soon be replaced by an other band, Wind-up Records is rumoured to be on the verge of dropping them for damaging the label's reputation with the Christian community, and Sony is not financially stable enough to roster bands not guaranteed bankable at the present time. Goth was the hot fashion trend of two months ago, and assorted indie bands, led by Radiohead, are eager to dominate the press over the profitable festival season. But don't worry, soon the media will soon inform you who is to be your new favourite band.
