Rock band Evanescence has finally returned with a taste of their upcoming fifth album, "The Bitter Truth," with new single "Wasted On You," uploaded yesterday, April 23.
Vocalist Amy Lee starts slow and strong as she sings the chorus accompanied only by a mellow piano. "I don't need drugs/I'm already six feet low/I'm wasted on you/Waiting for the bitter truth," she begins.
A short instrumental connects to the first verse, "Love, don't you remember/ We were the ones/Nothing could ever change and love," using an instrumental fade to leave Lee's sharp vocals to connect to the rest of the verse featuring a build-up of Evanescence's signature goth-metal sound.
By the second round of the chorus, the band pulls all the stops with the drums dropping to accompany Amy's vocals. The 4:22 track, which apparently illustrates an unhealthy relationship dragging the singer down, is a welcome return to form to the band behind gothic metal hits "My Immortal" and "Lithium."
Lee said in a statement that they were recording the track right up until they "couldn't go into the studio anymore" and that they finished "Wasted On You" remotely through file sharing and phone calls. She added that they are still writing and are away from completion. However, the 38-year-old vocalist said that Evanescence will be releasing their tracks individually as they create, noting that they intend "to live more in the moment" with their fans and their music.
She also added that "Wasted On You" was not the song initially planned to release first, saying that "when the whole world went into indefinite lockdown and everything changed, so did the feeling and meaning of what we wanted to say right now." Lee said that she didn't write the lyrics about the quarantine period, said that somehow that's exactly what they are.
The band frontwoman closed her statement by recognizing that the song release is in terrible timing as far as business is concerned, but the band believes that the people need "music now more than ever." Lee ends by stating that Evanescence is not going to wait on a tomorrow they're not sure is even coming.
Lee first revealed the title of their upcoming album in an Instagram post a week ago, which featured the cover art for the album. In the accompanying caption, Lee recalled that they promised their fans a new album this year. "We are proud to begin sharing our new album 'THE BITTER TRUTH' with you, one piece at a time, starting with our first song "Wasted On You" next FRIDAY" the caption read.
While the audio-only video was already available, the music video is already tentatively uploaded and is set to be released later, with fans all over the world waiting for the release.
Prior to the upcoming "The Bitter Truth," Evanescence's last album was "Synthesis" in 2017, which heavily featured an orchestra and electronic elements. It contained reworked versions of their hit "Bring Me To Life" and "Lacrymosa," as well as original songs such as "Imperfection."
Evanescence have also pushed the Europe and UK leg of their "Worlds Collide Tour" to the latter part of the year due to the global coronavirus pandemic. The tour will be co-headlined by Within Temptation, and will start on September at Glasgow's SSE Hydro.
