Evanescence - The Open Door

My ghosts are gaining on me / Should it hurt to love you?

Mar 31, 2024

This post was originally published on March 30, 2024.

Release Date: October 3, 2006
Genre: Alternative metal, gothic metal, symphonic metal
Label: Wind-Up Records
Producer(s): Dave Fortman

My last Evanescence post was about their debut album and how I discovered it online when I was in fifth grade. I grew up a lot in the year-and-a-half after that, but considering Fallen was once my entire personality, I was more than willing to buy their next one when it released.

Of course, with the departure of Amy Lee's main co-writer Ben Moody and the fact that their new writer Terry Balsamo suffered a stroke during its creation, The Open Door was always going to be a bit different than Fallen. The sonic evolution is obvious, leaning more into orchestral and string sounds rather than just pure guitars. There's definitely a sense that the band had more freedom this time around, based on the amount of less mainstream-friendly stuff here. There was only one big single. It's still unmistakably Evanescence, but I think the decision to focus on mood rather than hooks makes it a fairly uneven album, with fewer memorable moments than its predecessor.

Highlights

"Sweet Sacrifice" is a pretty decent opener. It's not quite up to the standard of "Going Under," but it still goes pretty hard.
"Call Me When You're Sober" was the aforementioned big single, and again, it's pretty good. It sounds the most like Fallen, which probably explains its success. If it's not broken, don't fix it. (I've been slacking on the American Idol videos, so here's one of the show's underrated rocker chicks, Gina Glocksen, performing this just a few months after its release.)
"Snow White Queen" is a ghostly song about Lee's experience with stalkers and obsessive fans. It plays it straight, building into a huge bridge but remaining slow and cold-sounding, with a lot of the singing happening at the bottom of Amy's range. I wouldn't call it the absolute best song here, but it's one of the more successful experiments.
"The Only One" is the high point of the album and perhaps my favorite Evanescence song. I think I might over-use the word "anthem" too much on this blog, but that's the kind of song it is. In a catalog full of big songs, this one does just about everything right, from the hum of industrial guitars under the verses to the little shake in Lee's voice on the bridge. From the broad strokes to the little details, this one just reaches a level that a lot of the mid-album cuts don't quite.
Penultimate track "All That I'm Living For" helps keep up the momentum near the end with its nice alternation between negative space and lush piano. The album title drop here is badass.

Least Favorites:

A lot of the weaker songs here are either lesser copies of something on Fallen, or just very similar to each other. "Lithium" is a piano ballad that swells into a full-band moment, not unlike "My Immortal." I'm sure it means a lot to people given the subject matter, but it just doesn't have the juice.
"Cloud Nine" and "Lacrymosa" are the kind of songs where they're fine as I listen, but then I can't for the life of me remember them once they end. It's never a good sign when I've had an album for almost 18 years and still can't tell some of the songs apart.

Final Thoughts

For Evanescence's sophomore effort, lightning did not strike twice. There are just a few too many deep cuts that blend together, and an over-reliance on the same bag of tricks over and over. These songs didn't make their way into online infamy like before. Still, the good songs are very good; Lee certainly proved that she can do it as well with Balsamo as she could with Moody. It still went double platinum, a figure most metal bands could only dream of. Because of the very long gap until their next album, it was the last release of theirs I listened to, but I will circle back around to the rest of their discography here when the time comes.