Evanescence

The Bitter Truth RCA

Long-gestating comeback has a mostly familiar feel.

Recorded under strained lockdown conditions, the first all-new album in a decade from Arkansas emo-rock diva Amy Lee and her globally scattered cohorts seems to be pitched squarely at loyal heartland fans.

With its faint echoes of Radiohead’s Creep, the sparkly piano-led power ballad Wasted On You feels like a future arenasized show-stopper, while a timely #MeToo urgency courses through Use My Voice, a defiant anthem of massed female vocals including Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale and Within Temptation’s Sharon del Adel. Several stand-out numbers recall the electroorchestral sound of Evanescence’s 2017 reboot album Synthesis, notably the breathy, glossy trip-hop torch song Artifact/The Turn and the soaring melodic, emotionally charged techno-metal epic The Game is Over. But too many generic tracks (Broken Pieces Shine, Feeding The Dark) find

Lee resorting to rote blustery bombast instead of mining fresh twists and unexplored depths from the Evanescence formula.

Not a great comeback, but just good enough. ■■■■■■■■■■