Fallen

Fallen
Studio album by Evanescence
Released	March 4, 2003 March 4, 2013 (10th anniversary) November 17, 2023 (20th anniversary remaster)
Recorded	August–December 2002; Track Record Inc. & NRG Recording Studios, Ocean Studios, Conway Recording Studios
Length	54:15
Label	Wind-up Records
Producer	Dave Fortman
Evanescence chronology
Mystary (2003) Fallen (2003) Anywhere but Home (2004)
Singles from Fallen
"Bring Me to Life" Released: April 22, 2003 "Going Under" Released: September 9, 2003 "My Immortal" Released: December 8, 2003 "Everybody's Fool" Released: April 28, 2004

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Fallen is the debut studio album by Evanescence, released on March 4, 2003 by Wind-up Records.

The album was recorded at Ocean Studios (Burbank) and Conway Recording Studios (Hollywood) both in California. It was recorded and mixed between late August and early December 2002. The tour in support of the album ended on August 14, 2004.

Fallen was the eighth best-selling album in the U.S. in 2004, with about 2.61 million copies sold that year. It was Grammy nominated for Album of the Year in 2004. The album reached 7x Platinum status on 24th June 2008 in the U.S. Fallen has sold over 17 million copies worldwide and over 7 million in the US alone. The album debuted at #7 and stayed above #40 on the Billboard Album Chart until mid-2014. The album stayed in the top 10 for 43 non-consecutive weeks. On December 2, 2022, the album was certified Diamond by the RIAA for 10 million sales in the USA.

The album was re-released in January 2004 with the "band" version of "My Immortal" (used for the single) added to the tracklist as a hidden bonus track.

A limited edition purple vinyl version of Fallen was released on the 10th Anniversary of its original publication (March 4, 2013).

Writing

Fallen includes songs from Amy Lee and Ben Moody's early independent EPs, Evanescence (1998) and Sound Asleep (1999). "My Immortal", "Imaginary", and "Whisper" appeared as demos on their early recordings. The version of "My Immortal" on Fallen is the demo from Origin.

Songs were recorded as demos in pre-production of Fallen before the recording sessions.

In a MTV interview, Ben said that he wrote with Amy "maybe two or three times in eight years". Amy said she and Ben did not write songs together; she would write songs alone on piano or acoustic guitar and the two would combine their parts on the songs. She said she always wrote alone since she started making music as a child, and she didn't feel safe writing with him and it wasn't a constructive environment. Amy said she and him had major creative differences, and he also did not allow her to play piano or organ on the album, despite her writing the pianos. "At one point, all my pianoplaying rights were stripped away from me because Ben felt like I was getting too much attention, so we hired a keyboard player." Amy and Ben wrote many of songs when they were 15 years old. Most of the album was written by Amy and Ben; Amy wrote "a lot of the music" on the album and she said she "never really got credit for" it. She wrote the lyrics for all the songs except for "My Immortal"'s. Half of the album was written during artist development for two years after Wind-up signed them. Most of Amy's writing on the album was inspired by a three-year relationship she was in with an abusive unnamed boyfriend. She later indirectly confirmed that Ben Moody was the abuser she wrote about.

Amy stated the reason for the album's title: "We've all fallen, but at the same time we're not broken. There is the hint that we are going to get up again."

"[The album's message is] just honestly about human emotion. It's about our life experiences and the things that we've felt and what we've been through. We're just sharing them to be an outlet for other people so that they know they're not alone and that we've been through some crap too."

Ben in an interview said that Fallen was made to let people know that they aren't alone when they feel alone or feel pain.

Record label executives initially refused to release the album unless the band would agree to add a full-time male co-vocalist in 8 out of 11 songs on the album. When the band would not agree to this demand, the label relented and insisted only on having a male vocalist on the album's lead single, Bring Me to Life, to make it marketable. Amy was still not happy about this but agreed to it.

John LeCompt received a co-writing credit on "Taking Over Me" and Rocky Gray received a co-writing credit on "Tourniquet", which is a cover of his band Soul Embraced's song for which he wrote the guitar. They joined as tour players for the Fallen tour.

Amy expressed that the making of Fallen was stressful because "we had to remember [that] at least one big single had to be totally radio-friendly. And I'm really ready not to think that way." She said: "I feel like with Fallen, a lot of those songs sound like I was trying to prove myself and establish what we were and our sound," she explained. "I was trapped having to feel a certain way."

She said the album "really is a lot of compromise. It definitely leaned toward what [Ben] wanted a lot of the time" due to his commercial inclination, with him saying in a 2003 interview that he focused on making it "as accessible as possible, to as many people as possible."

Recording Process

Amy, Ben, and producer Dave Fortman at NRG Recording Studios in the Fallen recording sessions.

The album was recorded from late August to early December 2002 at Track Record Inc. and NRG Recording Studios, Ocean Studios (Burbank), and Conway Recording Studios. The guitars (Gibson Les Paul, Gibson SG, Mesa Boogie, Marshall Amplification) for the album were cut at Mad Dog Studios in Burbank with an old Mesa Boogie guitar cabinet. Amy's vocals, pianos and the background vocal by the Millennium Choir were recorded at NRG Recording Studios. Drum tracks were recorded at Ocean Studios, with Josh Freese playing on selected songs to click tracks of stereo guitars and vocals. The orchestral parts, consisted of a 44-piece string section, were recorded and mixed at The Newman Scoring Stage, Twentieth Century Fox.

The production cost was estimated to be $250,000 by Dave Fortman, and some of that budget went to recording a real orchestra that Amy insisted on having in many of the songs.

Recording work for the album started at Ocean Studios in Burbank, Calif., where most of Bring Me to Life was recorded for the Daredevil soundtrack, prior to full album production. The last song written and recorded for the album was Going Under.

Ben on the recording sessions:

I didn't want it to sound too fabricated. I love electronics and I love digital manipulation, but I wanted to first establish us as a real rock band. We're actually playing all of those parts: The strings are real, the choirs are real, the piano is real. [...] I think one of the most positive features about [the album] is that it's like watching a movie from front to back.

Producer Dave Fortman said he was impressed with their music when he heard the demos for the album:

One of the greatest parts of this record was the band's vision and their dream about it being theatrical and like a movie soundtrack. I think that gives it a special emotion, really. Every song takes you through this journey.

Amy noted that even though she wrote the piano parts on the album, she didn't play them in the recording sessions as David recorded them. After the album's completion, Ben said David left the band due to creative differences, noting that "We just ended up going in different directions" and "we chose to split ways before we built the whole image of the band based on somebody that wasn't going to be there." In a 2018 interview, David claimed that after the label had a meeting with the band, Ben and Amy informed him that he wasn't going to be a part of it anymore.

The version of My Immortal used on the album is the same on Origin and it was included at the label's request, but with strings arranged by Graeme Revell. This recording, with demo vocals and a MIDI keyboard, was recorded at the radio station where Amy's father worked after it was empty late at night. When the song became a single, Amy and Ben chose their preferred version of the song, the "band" version they originally recorded for the album, for radio and its music video. This version has David Campbell's orchestration.

Artwork

Alternate album cover on all digital releases.

The album cover was taken by Frank Veronsky on Amy's 21st birthday.

The photo that’s on the cover of “Fallen” was taken on my 21st birthday, and I had been working on this band every day since I was 17, and it goes all the way back to when I was 14.

Promotion

Singles

The first single released from the album was Bring Me to Life, which was commercially released on April 22, 2003. It was written by Amy Lee, Ben Moody and David Hodges, and most of it was recorded at Ocean Studios in Burbank, California for the Daredevil soundtrack. It went on to peak at number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The second single, Going Under, was released on September 9, 2003. The music video for it was filmed in Berlin, Germany in May 2003. Imaginary was released as the third single in Spain only in November 2003. My Immortal was released as the third commercial single worldwide on December 8, 2003. It peaked at number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Everybody's Fool was released as the fourth and final commercial single in May 2004. The music video for it was directed by Philipp Stölzl, the same director of the Bring Me to Life and Going Under music videos.

Tour

See also: Fallen Tour

The tour in support of Fallen started on October 7, 2003 in Lisbon, Portugal and ended on August 14, 2004 in the band's hometown, Little Rock, AR. During the tour, the band performed the Fallen B-sides, as well as a reworked version of Even in Death.

Live DVD: Anywhere But Home

The band filmed their concert in Paris on May 25, 2004 and released a live CD/DVD titled Anywhere but Home, which includes one hour of backstage footage, all four music videos from Fallen and a studio version of the b-side, Missing.

10-Year Anniversary Vinyl & Digital Scrapbook

On the tenth anniversary of Fallen's debut, Amy Lee announced that 1,500 copies of the album would be released on a purple vinyl along with a digital scrapbook. The scrapbook was made available to view on Evanescence's official website on March 19, 2013.

20-Year Anniversary

Fallen (20th Anniversary Edition) cover

In an interview with Rock Sound published on November 18, 2022, Amy Lee said that the band was not planning to do a Fallen-only tour, and that she has an idea of what to do to commemorate Fallen's 20th anniversary but it wouldn't be "what everyone expects."

On January 19, 2023, HipDot Cosmetics partnered with Evanescence and released a Fallen-inspired eye shadow palette for the 20th anniversary. Initial stock sold out within an hour of it going on sale. It has since been re-stocked and is available in the official merch store.

In early 2023, the band toured opening for Muse and would acknowledge the 20th anniversary of Fallen during the set which included most of the singles released from Fallen. In May, the band announced a five-date Australian tour from August 24 to September 2, 2023. It was labeled by the promoter as "Celebrating 20 years of Fallen, performing highlights from Fallen + career spanning set". The band played highlights from Fallen and their whole discography, including two medleys.

Fallen 20th Anniversary Cassette Player (Limited Edition)

On September 28, Evanescence released a remaster of a 2002 demo of Bring Me to Life. On the same day, they announced the special edition releases of the album which were hinted at on the day of the album's 20th anniversary, March 4, 2023. The re-release features reimagined artwork with a holographic/rainbow color motif, remastered editions of the album on 2-LP, 2-CD, digital, and in a Super Deluxe Edition box set. The double vinyl, 2-CD, and digital remasters were available on November 17th, with the deluxe box sets to be released on February 23, 2024 but were pushed back a week, to March 1, due to various production factors. The remaster isn't significantly different from the original and serves to enhance what was already there, according to Amy:

I never wanted to truly re-record, re-version, redo Fallen. I could, but that's kind of what live is for and the album is precious in a special way. I liked being able to remaster it because it just sounds beautiful and polished; you can hear little things pop out better.

All physical formats include previously unseen Frank Veronsky photos from the era, a handwritten foreword, and a rare selection of B-sides and recordings. Multiple different styles of vinyl were released including colors exclusive to certain retailers.

The limited edition box set was made available exclusively via Craft Recordings releasing only 5000 copies—500 of which include signed photos (at random). This set is housed in a shadowbox with butterfly motif and also includes a cassette of 10 previously unreleased demos with voice notes, a book featuring new track-by-track notes, a custom turntable slipmat with zoetrope pattern, a set of rare Frank Veronsky photo prints, and enamel pin set. Also exclusively available via the band's webstore is a custom-branded Evanescence cassette player commemorating the album's anniversary, which is sold separately and also included in the Super Deluxe Edition Box Set + Cassette Player Bundle. New Fallen merch was also made available on the band's online store including an album cover shirt, logo hoodie, and a tote bag with the new butterfly motif.

Ben Moody's Departure

During Fallen's European tour, Ben left the band on October 24, 2003, around two weeks after filming the music video for My Immortal. In a MTV article, it says that on the morning of their show in Berlin, he packed up his gear and flew home, leaving the band's manager to break the news to everyone.

On August 24, 2010, Ben published an open letter talking about his leaving Evanescence and asked fans to not cause any more drama about it. When Amy was asked about the letter in an interview with Spin in October 2011, she said that she didn't respond and that "[they're] probably both better off not being in each others' lives".

Christian market controversy

The album was initially promoted by the label in the Christian market. Amy and Ben publicly made it clear in an April 2003 interview that they were not a Christian band and did not want to be associated with Christian rock. The label's chairman Alan Meltzer claimed their decision to promote Evanescence in the Christian market was made with the band's consent. However, Amy said that she had always opposed the promotion in the Christian market and the "Christian band" identification from the beginning, while Ben had supported it in early, pre-Fallen interviews.

Amy told in an interview with Rock Sound in 2003:

"The album isn't a Christian record at all. There are personal things on there about isolation, solitude, longing, sadness, anger and pain even. People connected with those feelings when they heard 'Bring Me To Life' on Daredevil soundtrack and on the radio. But we're not a Christian band."

Track List

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Going Under"	A. Lee, B. Moody, D. Hodges	3:35
2.	"Bring Me to Life" (feat. Paul McCoy)	A. Lee, B. Moody, D. Hodges	3:56
3.	"Everybody's Fool"	A. Lee, B. Moody, D. Hodges	3:16
4.	"My Immortal" (Origin version with strings)	A. Lee, B. Moody	4:23
5.	"Haunted"	A. Lee, B. Moody, D. Hodges	3:05
6.	"Tourniquet"	A. Lee, B. Moody, D. Hodges, R. Gray	4:38
7.	"Imaginary"	A. Lee, B. Moody	4:16
8.	"Taking Over Me"	A. Lee, B. Moody, D. Hodges, J. LeCompt	3:49
9.	"Hello"	A. Lee, B. Moody, D. Hodges	3:40
10.	"My Last Breath"	A. Lee, B. Moody, D. Hodges	4:07
11.	"Whisper"	A. Lee, B. Moody	5:27
Total length:			41:36

Second edition bonus track
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
12.	"My Immortal" (Band version)	A. Lee, B. Moody, D. Hodges	4:33

Japanese edition bonus track
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
12.	"Farther Away"	A. Lee, B. Moody, D. Hodges	3:58
13.	"My Immortal" (Band version)	A. Lee, B. Moody, D. Hodges	4:33

Limited edition bonus DVD
No.	Title	Length
12.	"Bring Me to Life" (Music video)

10-Year anniversary edition (Purple vinyl) - 2013

Side A

• Going Under
• Bring Me to Life
• Everybody's Fool
• My Immortal
• Haunted
• Tourniquet

Side B

• Imaginary
• Taking Over Me
• Hello
• My Last Breath
• Whisper

20-Year Anniversary Remaster - 2023

Deluxe Edition / Remastered
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Going Under" (Remastered)		3:35
2.	"Bring Me to Life" (Remastered)		3:56
3.	"Everybody's Fool" (Remastered)		3:16
4.	"My Immortal" (Remastered)		4:23
5.	"Haunted" (Remastered)		3:05
6.	"Tourniquet" (Remastered)		4:38
7.	"Imaginary" (Remastered)		4:16
8.	"Taking Over Me" (Remastered)		3:49
9.	"Hello" (Remastered)		3:40
10.	"My Last Breath" (Remastered)		4:07
11.	"Whisper" (Remastered)		5:27
12.	"My Immortal" (Band Version / Remastered)		4:36
13.	"Breathe No More" (Remastered)	A. Lee	3:47
14.	"Farther Away" (Remastered)		3:58
15.	"Missing" (Remastered)	A. Lee, B. Moody, D. Hodges	4:15
16.	"My Immortal" (Strings Version / Remastered)		4:34
17.	"Bring Me to Life" (Demo 2002 / Remastered)		3:52
18.	"Bring Me to Life" (AOL Session / April 15, 2003 / Remastered)		3:37
19.	"Going Under" (Live Acoustic / 2003 / Remastered)		3:15
20.	"Bring Me to Life" (Live on Triple M's Garage Session / June 2020 / Remastered)		3:41
21.	"My Immortal" (Live at O2 Arena, London / November 14, 2022 / Remastered)		4:50
Total length:			1:24:45

Cassette from Fallen 20th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition Box Set
No.	Title	Length
1.	"Imaginary" (Demo 10.10.01)	3:48
2.	"Whisper" (Demo 10.10.01)	3:38
3.	"Haunted" (Demo 10.10.01)	3:12
4.	"Everybody’s Fool" (Final demo 10.03.02)	2:39
5.	"Taking Over Me" (Demo 11.15.01)	3:13
6.	"Missing" (Final demo 10.03.02)	3:13
7.	"Going Under" (Demo 8.8.02)	3:18
8.	"Tourniquet" (Demo 7.24.02)	3:45
9.	"My Last Breath" (Demo 11.15.01)	3:29
10.	"Bring Me To Life" (Demo 3.18.02)	3:54
11.	"Fallen Voice notes"	6:35
Total length:		40:30

Note in the inside of the cassette tape:

We made multiple demos of almost every song, so I chose versions that are rare or interesting for this tape. The date isn't necessarily when a demo was first made, just the last time we messed with it. So many of these are older than they say.

B-sides

• "Farther Away"
• "Missing"
• "Breathe No More"

Album Credits

Lineup

• Amy Lee - Vocals, choir arrangements
• Ben Moody - Guitars, programming, tribal percussion, additional ProTools engineering, producer (track #4)
• David Hodges - Piano/keyboards, additional programming, string arrangements (except track #4)

Additional musicians Francesco DiCosmo - Bass Josh Freese - Drums David Campbell - Orchestral arrangements on all tracks except "My Immortal" Graeme Revell - Orchestral arrangements on "My Immortal" The Millenium Choir - Background choir (tracks #3, 5, 7, 11) Paul McCoy - Guest vocals on "Bring Me to Life" Technical Dave Fortman – Producer (all tracks), mixing (tracks 1, 3–11) Zac Baird – Additional programming Chris Johnson – Additional programming Jay Baumgardner – Mixing (track #2) Jeremy Parker – Engineering Ted Jensen – Mastering Jason Cupp – Engineering assistance Dean Nelson – Engineering assistance Ai Fujisaki – Engineering assistance Sergio Chavez – Engineering assistance Sam Storey – Engineering assistance Mark Curry – Strings recording, strings mixing John Rodd – Strings recording Bill Talbott – Strings engineering Artwork Ed Sherman – art direction Frank Veronsky – photography

2023 reissue credits

Produced for release by Amy Lee

Technical

• Ben Moody - producer (track #12)
• Jay Baumgardner – mixing (track #12)
• Nick Raskulinecz – mixing (track #21)
• Ted Jensen – mastering at Sterling Sound, Nashville, TN

Artwork

• Carrie Smith – art direction
• Paul Moore (StudioMoore) – design
• Ryan Jebavy – editoral

Chart Performance

Chart (2003) Position Australian Albums (ARIA) 15 Australian Heavy Rock & Metal Albums (ARIA) 2 Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria) 17 Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) 38 Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia) 17 Danish Albums (Hitlisten) 25 Dutch Albums (MegaCharts) 23 European Albums (Billboard) 3 Finnish Albums (Musiikkituottajat) 16 French Albums (SNEP) 10 German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) 9 Hungarian Albums (MAHASZ)< 81 New Zealand Albums (RIANZ) 6 Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE) 15 Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan) 5 Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) 3 UK Albums (OCC) 15 US Billboard 200 8 Worldwide Albums (IFPI) 7

Chart (2004) Position Australian Albums (ARIA) 7 Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria) 15 Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) 12 Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia) 16 Danish Albums (Hitlisten) 52 Dutch Albums (MegaCharts) 10 European Albums (Billboard) 5 Finnish Albums (Musiikkituottajat) 59 French Albums (SNEP) 20 German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) 10 Hungarian Albums (MAHASZ) 28 Italian Albums (FIMI) 41 New Zealand Albums (RIANZ) 14 Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan) 39 Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) 15 UK Albums (OCC) 59 US Billboard 200 6 Worldwide Albums (IFPI) 43

See also

• Fallen releases by country
• Fallen songbook
• The making of Fallen
• Fallen Journal

Guitar tabs & sheet music

• Fallen Songbook

Buy/Stream Fallen

• Apple Music
• Amazon
• Spotify