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| The Open Door | 
 enlarge | Artist: Evanescence
Label: Wind-Up
Category: Music
List Price: $18.97
Buy Used: $3.68
You Save: $15.29 (81%)
New (43) Used (42) Collectible (1) from $3.68
Avg. Customer Rating:  471 reviews
Sales Rank: 776
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.5 x 5 x 0.4
MPN: 31202
UPC: 601501312021
EAN: 0601501312021
ASIN: B000FTWB7G
Release Date: October 3, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Escencially bland October 27, 2006
9 out of 15 found this review helpful
Upon receiving this CD in the mail I was anxiously awaiting to hear this long awaited sequel to "Fallen." The first two tracks were good! "Call Me If You're Sober" is definitely one of the best from this band. Unfortunately, the tracks after it are not so good. "Fallen" had a very smooth flow to all of the tracks, yet each song had its own distinct sound. Not true with this CD. Tracks 3 through 13 sound all too much alike. It is about an hour of the same guitar riffs and Amy Lee's screeching. It wasn't long before I got a headache and had to take a break at track 10 or so. This glass-shattering CD lacked the cool theme and distinctness of their original album.
Triumph of Mediocrity October 30, 2006
9 out of 24 found this review helpful
I don't like it. I try hard to digest how this group sells a lot. The tone of her heavy filtered voice is unacceptable and the compositions are totally uninspired. The repetition of nothing.
Some people think that this Evanescene thing is some special kind of music, when in real there are other groups out there far superior in this genre.
Try Listening to "The Gathering" from Holland. You will love Anneke's haunting voice.
If you have normal hearing abilities and some taste in music or even better some adequate musical education you will see what I mean.
Give out your money to the best and not to the commercial super market forgetable nonsense that has been promoted by the companies.
Not up to par! October 4, 2006
8 out of 11 found this review helpful
This really feels like an Amy Lee solo effort to me. It doesnt seem like a band effort at all. What was so great about Fallen was it was a great collaboration of band members. The guitar work was impressive, the vocals, background vocals, and the song writing, music, everything. It wasnt all done by one person. I think Amy Lee decided she was going to become Evanescence. Expect to see more revolving band members as time goes on. The rest of the group are like backup now. Now what does all this mean for the CD? It means there are definatly some good songs here, but a lot of VERY bad ones. Had Amy had all great songs to work with here, probably the solo mentality wouldnt have mattered as much. But it had a great affect on this CD. I am sure Ben left because he wanted his lead singer to have her way. And I am sure there is more to William Boyd leaving the band, you just didnt hear about it. You think someone is going to leave a band this popular just because of touring issues? I dont think so, there was more conflict here. Anyway, there are 5 great songs on this CD, a couple that arent bad but just don't quite catch my fancy. The WORST thing is, and where the other missing 3 stars are are the BAD half a dozen songs that never should have even been put on the CD!
The Great: 5 STARS
Sweet Sacrifice
Lithium
Cloud Nine
Your Star
All That I'm Living For
Good/Okay/Decent 3 STARS
Call Me When Your Sober- Very forumla though
Good Enough-Pretty but soooo slow
SoSo 2 Star
Weight Of The World-Gets boring Fast
The rest of the songs are really bad: 0 stars
Snow White Cloud
Lacrymosa
Like You
Lose Control
The Only One
Total score=33
Divided into 13 songs= 2.5 STARS
That's my real rating, but I cannot give it 3 stars, because expectations were way too high!
When you have 5 bad songs in a row on a CD, it really zaps the life out of the whole project. So is $14 worth the price of a half a dozen good songs? Not really, your better off going on ITunes and buying some individual songs in this case. And like I said, the whole reason for the downfall here is Amy Lee's desire to take over the band and control everything. So a good part of the CD sounds like her solo effort, with the trademark Evanescence sound added in. Evanescence needs to become a band again, otherwise she'd be better off to go out as Amy Lee and cut some solo CD's. That's more honest, no matter what the result of the projects
A very different sound... has to grow on you October 4, 2006
8 out of 11 found this review helpful
I'm going to go against the grain here and say that I'm disappointed in the new direction the band is headed. There, I said it. This will probably rub alot of other Evansesence fans the wrong way and get me negative reviews, but I figure honesty is the best policy. I pre-ordered this album since Fallen was one of my favorite CDs -- nearly every track on that album ended up in my favorite playlist. After listening to "The Open Door", none of them come across as favorites that I can listen to over and over.
Gone is the growling drive of the electric guitars. In fact, the guitars in "The Open Door" are much softer and tamer. I don't even hear the bass in the drum so the overall sound is very high pitched. I think this doesn't suit the sound very well, since the guitars were the main source of bass in "Fallen", and acted as an anchor of lower sound that complimented Amy Lee's vocals. There is a quality of "shrillness" to her voice that can be a bit overwhelming if you're not used to it, and "The Open Door" seems to turn up the knob on her vocals moreso than before to the point where the entire album seems focused on her vocals alone. I think your enjoyment of "The Open Door" will depend largely on if you're a big fan of Amy's vocals.
Along with change in the balance of sound, the pacing of the songs has slowed down. Most of the songs on "The Open Door" have a ballad feel to them. The phrasing kind of seems all over the place too, with what feels like arbitrary chord changes that ramble vs. something more intentional and streamlined.
In the interview, Amy talks about how in "Lithium", she tries to break free from her sorrow that she loved so much and that was the source of a lot of her writing. Also, that "Good Enough" was her way of coming to peace with herself. While I respect her personal and artistic journey tremendously, I think this does affect the sound of this new album, which is not as angry, not as black and dark as the first.
Hmmmm, I think I like it October 4, 2006
8 out of 13 found this review helpful
Here's a review from one of the people who bought Fallen and can still listen to the whole thing straight through in awe of how gorgeous the music is. Here's what I think of The Open Door, for which I had very high expectations:
1)Sweet Sacrifice: 7/10. It's not bad, but it didn't grab my attention like anything on Fallen did. The actual melody is good, but unfortunately the song gets a bit drab in the second half, as it's kinda repetitive and doesn't ever increase in intensity, which gets frustrating.
2)Call Me When You're Sober: 8/10. The first time I heard this song, I immediately loved it. I didn't give it a 10 because now it doesn't have the same effect after hearing it 20 times, while all of the Fallen songs never lost their impact. The cool thing about the song is how it keeps changing and keeps surprising you from beginning to end. It's not repetitive or monotonous, and has a great melody.
3)Weight of the World: 7/10. It has its good parts, it has its bad parts. The verse is strange and just doesn't match the chorus...I hate the ghost-y, Egyptian-y background singing. Sounds tacky and not Evanescence at all. But the chorus is very epic and strong, with nice strings pulling it together.
4)Lithium: 9/10. The first 35 seconds are uneccessary and strange, but once the song really starts, it's great. It's got a mystical, flowy melody, and has great epic parts... it starts out slow and dramatic, then by the end is exploding, which it a hallmark of this band. Excellent song.
5)Cloud Nine: 6/10. Ugh, starts out with more tacky 'ghost' noise, which unfortunately is in the background for a lot of the song. Luckily Amy overpowers them in the chorus, which is good, but the verses are strange and all over the place.
6)Snow White Queen: 5/10. The beginning is just boring and weird. The chorus has a good melody, but it's not as strong as it could be. This song is alright, but it just is very offcenter, and dull at parts.
7)Lacrymosa: 10/10. This is the one and only song on the album that could have been seamlessly added to Fallen and fit in with the other songs. It's also the only one that I absolutely loved the first time I heard it. It's gorgeous. It starts off with these wonderfully mysterious strings (Mozart's "Requiem Lacrymosa") and a haunting verse, then goes into this awesome, powerful chorus, and eventually reaches an indescribably awesome bridge, then gets into the end of the song which is as epic as Evanescence gets, an awesome ending with a high note by Amy, flooded with strings and riffs. And the melody is just perfect.
Like You: 10/10. Another great one. I've heard it a bunch of times and still love it. It hasn't gotten enough attention in these reviews, but it's one of the best songs on the CD. Starts off gloomy but pretty, and eventually is gloriously heavy, peaking at the bridge, which has this wonderful sequence of chord changes that just sounds awesome. The final chorus is powerful and climactic, very Fallen.
Lose Control: 3/10. Not a good one. Boring. All over the place. It starts out alright, but it goes downhill from there. The silly background singing (ooooh ooh) at the bridge is intolerably annoying. The sound doesn't have a peak or valley, just blah. You spend the whole 5 minutes in anticipation of something better, only to be disappointed.
The Only One: 8/10. Has a great, melodic chorus, and gradually gets stronger from beginning to end, which is always a good thing. The verses are too melancholy for my taste, but the chorus and bridge make up for it.
Your Star: 7/10. Hmmmmm. This was a hard one to score, because I just HATE the first 2 minutes, but I just LOVE the last 2. The verse is horrible; just weird and annoying, and when you first hear it you can't help but cringe. But surprisingly, the second half is awesome. Once the chorus plays for a second time, with a much cooler and intense vibe, the song suddenly erupts into this crazy and awesome bridge, and just sets off from there into more awesomeness. It sucks so much that they had to start the song off so horribly. I totally understand the split opinion that people are having.
All That I'm Living For: 10/10. I wish they wouldn't have started the song with the chorus; it would have been much more dramatic that way, but it doesn't change the fact that the verses, chorus, and bridge are all awesome. The verse is gorgeous, soft and flowy and gloomy, followed by an explosive chorus, and eventually makes its way to the climactic bridge. There isn't a dull moment in this one.
Good Enough: 10/10. So......*pretty*. The piano intro is just gorgeous. Doesn't at all match the rest of the song (because it was originally part of another piece that Amy was writing for the Narnia movie but got rejected), but it's so pretty I don't care. The main song isn't very structured, and has pretty much the same intensity throughout, but the melody is just so gorgeous, as chopped up as it is. A great end to the CD.
Overall, it is not a good as Fallen as a whole, but still a good album. Once you listen to it enough to get used to the new sound, it's a great album.
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