Rock & roll breakups are rarely as acrimonious as that between
Ben Moody and Amy Lee of
Evanescence. Just as their 2003 debut,
Fallen, was turning into an international sensation, the guitarist left the band, the bad blood between the two spilling into the press, Lee’s post-
Moody album
The Open Door, and even
Moody’s long-delayed post-
Evanescence project
We Are the Fallen, whose very name defiantly claims
Evanescence’s hit album as the property of
Moody and his two fellow refugees from the band, guitarist
John LeCompt and drummer
Rocky Gray. Based on their 2010 debut,
Tear the World Down,
We Are the Fallen are not wrong to say they were responsible for the sound of that 2003 hit: with former American Idol contestant
Carly Smithson as their frontwoman (and metal veteran
Marty O’Brien on bass), the group sounds exactly like
Evanescence, lacking only the sour charisma of Lee. Where Amy Lee pushed against
Moody’s roiling minor-key melodic dirges, creating a good deal of genuine tension,
Smithson eagerly follows along, happy to be part of such a prominent project. After dealing with Lee,
Moody wanted somebody who would play the game and that’s what he has in
Smithson, somebody who will play the part of goth rock queen without actually being it. And so
Moody winds up with the record he would have released in 2006 if he were still part of
Evanescence: big, slick, heavy, and melodic, pleasing those who like the sound of
Fallen but could do without all the sulkiness. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine