Evanescence
Evanescence formed in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1995 around singer-pianist Amy Lee and guitarist Ben Moody, who bonded over a shared taste for both classical drama and downtuned heaviness. Their 2003 debut 'Fallen' and its inescapable single 'Bring Me to Life' made them one of the defining rock acts of the early 2000s, welding Lee's classically trained piano and soprano to nu-metal guitars, orchestral swells, and choir-like textures. The result — gothic, symphonic, and radio-sized all at once — carried a strain of theatrical hard rock into the mainstream and opened doors for a wave of women-fronted heavy bands.
Evanescence's Amy Lee has cited Tori Amos as a formative influence, and it registers most plainly whenever Lee sits alone at the piano: the same confessional, classically shaped songwriting and the tendency to let a bare keyboard carry raw emotional weight before any band arrives.
listen forPut on Amos's spare, piano-and-voice 'Silent All These Years,' then Lee's 'My Immortal' — both build entirely from an intimate piano figure and a trembling, exposed vocal, trusting stillness rather than volume to land the ache.
Lee has named Björk among her inspirations, pointing to a love of electronic textures and dramatic, unconventional singing; you can hear it in Evanescence's more atmospheric moments, where programmed beats and orchestral color frame a voice that leaps and swoops rather than simply belting.
listen forSet Björk's string-swept, emotionally volatile 'Bachelorette' beside Evanescence's 'Good Enough' — both drape a big, theatrical vocal over lush orchestration, letting the melody surge and recede like weather.
Evanescence came up in and toured within the nu-metal wave that Korn defined, and have cited them among their influences; the debt shows in the band's heavy side — detuned, chugging guitars and a percussive low end pressed up against Lee's melodies.
listen forCue Korn's grinding, downtuned 'Blind,' then Evanescence's 'Going Under' — hear the same thick, drop-tuned riff churn and stop-start groove driving a song that swings between a sung hook and a near-scream.