Tear The World Down

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