Evanescence – The Bitter Truth

It’s been eight years since Evanescence released their last studio album of original material. But although it’s been a while, the band have kept fairly busy. Frontwoman Amy Lee put out two solo albums: the largely instrumental Aftermath and a children’s record called Dream Too Much. In early 2017, the band released a boxset of their three studio albums and b-sides, and later that year we got their electronic-meets-symphonic album, Synthesis. After plenty of touring, they put out Synthesis Live in fall 2018. But what about an album of all-new music? Luckily, Evanescence was entering into a “creation year,” and over Memorial Day weekend in May 2019, they began writing for their next album.

By early 2020, the writing was nearly done, and the band said they had a good collection of songs prepared. Amy Lee said that they’d record the songs in batches, working with different producers to ensure a diverse sound. Starting in January 2020, they recorded four songs with Nick Raskulinecz, who previously produced their 2011 album, Evanescence.

Amy also revealed the band’s plans to release songs as they go instead of making fans wait until the full album is done.

On Friday, April 17th, Evanescence made their big announcement: Their new album, The Bitter Truth, is due out later in 2020, and fans can see the album artwork now. Moreover, the lead single, “Wasted On You,” was announced to be released on Friday, April 24th. It came out with a music video – filmed by each of the band members in their own homes. It’s an excellent song that harkens back to sounds from highlights on earlier Evanescence albums while also pushing new territory.

At the beginning of July, Evanescence shared “The Game Is Over” as their second single. It was the first new song the band wrote for this album back in spring 2019. Its music video followed on Friday, July 3rd.

Early in August, Evanescence teased a new song being used in a PSA with HeadCount, encouraging US citizens to register to vote. On August 14th, “Use My Voice” was released in full. Amy stated that she worked on the song for a few years, writing it in response to what’s been going on politically and socially.

On December 4th, Evanescence released “Yeah Right” as the fourth single from the album. It was originally written ten years ago for the band’s 2011 self-titled album. That day, Evanescence also finally confirmed that The Bitter Truth would be out on March 26, 2021, and they revealed the full 12-song tracklist. In addition to the four singles, one surprising inclusion is their old song “Take Cover.”

Just three weeks before the album’s release, Evanescence released “Better Without You” as its fifth single.

On March 26, 2021, The Bitter Truth was finally released! To celebrate the release, Evanescence shared the lyric video for “Better Without You” (they were filming the music video that same day) and put out the documentary, Embracing The Bitter Truth.