Fallen is the debut studio album by American rock band Evanescence, released on March 4, 2003, by Wind-up Records. Co-founders singer and pianist Amy Lee and guitarist Ben Moody began writing and recording songs as Evanescence in 1994, and after independently releasing two EPs and a demo CD, they signed to Wind-up in January 2001. Several of the songs from their earlier independent releases feature on Fallen. The album was recorded between August and December 2002 in several studios in California. It is Evanescence's only studio album to feature Moody, who left the band in October 2003.
The album yielded four singles: "Bring Me to Life", "Going Under", "My Immortal", and "Everybody's Fool". "Bring Me to Life" and "My Immortal" charted in the top 10 of over 10 countries, including the US, UK and Australia. Fallen is Evanescence's most commercially successful album to date, selling 10 million copies in the US and over 17 million copies worldwide, making it the seventh best-selling album of the 21st century. It debuted at number seven on the Billboard 200 with 141,000 copies sold in its first week, peaking at number three in June 2003. The album topped the charts in more than 10 countries. It was certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in November 2022.
Fallen received generally positive reviews from music critics. Evanescence received five nominations at the 46th Grammy Awards: Album of the Year, Best Rock Album, Best Rock Song, Best Hard Rock Performance, and Best New Artist, winning the latter two. At the following year's ceremony, "My Immortal" was nominated for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. Evanescence embarked on their first headlining concert tour, the Fallen Tour, in 2003. A live album and concert DVD with behind the scenes footage was released in 2004, titled Anywhere but Home.
Background
Lee and Moody met as teenagers in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1994. Lee's musical vision for Evanescence was "the idea of combinations that were unlikely".
They recorded two independent EPs as Evanescence, self-releasing them in the late 1990s. and signed with Wind-up Records in 2001. Origin and their earlier EPs contain demo versions of some of the songs that would later appear on Fallen. She indicated that with Moody there was a "pressure of wanting to rule the world". She stated that at one point, all her "pianoplaying rights were stripped away" from her because Moody felt she "was getting too much attention", so a keyboard player was hired. He later conceded that they had different approaches, adding that Lee is "more creative" and "more educated musically", and he is "more commercial minded" and likes making "songs people can adhere to."
Lee 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." Lee deemed the "fight for credibility" as a creator to be one of the biggest challenges she faced early on, explaining: "It was the mentality of labels to tell, especially newer artists, that they need to have writers. ... And the reason that they wanted [men] to do it was because that's where the money was. That's where the power was. Everybody else wanted to be able to say they did that when I did that". She also noted that, for being the frontwoman "people assume that it's not yours. And some of the people around me were more than happy to let them believe that."
In a 2023 retrospective for the album's 20th anniversary, Lee stated that there are musical elements "that exist in the way that I hear things in my head that aren't in the mix on the album", such as some string arrangements and electronics. Lee reconciled with the mix of Fallen after bringing more of those elements to the forefront with Evanescence's 2017 album Synthesis. The two wrote some of the songs when they were 15 and 16. She wrote songs alone first on the piano or on acoustic guitar, and for Fallen she would write a song and work with Moody to "take it to the finish line." Lee wrote the album's lyrics except "My Immortal"'s, the melodies, much of the music, pianos, and all the choirs; The version on the album was a demo from 2000 using a MIDI keyboard and Lee's vocals as a teen, which the label chose over Lee and Moody's re-recording for Fallen. During the production of Fallen, strings by Daredevil composer Graeme Revell were added to the demo recording. The re-recording Lee and Moody made for Fallen was used for the single, dubbed "band" version, featuring guitar, drums and bass after the bridge and a new string arrangement by David Campbell. Lee later said she also dislikes it because she "sounds like a little kid" and the album version of the song does not use David Campbell's orchestration. A 22-piece string section was recorded in Seattle, and later mixed at the Newman Scoring Stage and Bolero Studios in Los Angeles. In another interview, he said that Hodges mostly contributed string arrangements on the album. She noted that Evanescence "has never been a Christian band" and lyrically never had a religious affiliation.
On January 13, 2003, After the song was released on the Daredevil soundtrack, a grassroots fanbase grew and listeners began requesting air play for it, compelling radio stations to reconsider the band.
After the album's completion, Evanescence's touring lineup was hired, including guitarist John LeCompt, drummer Rocky Gray, and bassist Will Boyd. Evanescence performed on radio shows and on the festival circuit for weeks in early 2003. They embarked on their first headlining tour from April to May in the US. In June, they had to cancel shows in Germany due to Moody reportedly falling ill. Evanescence filmed a Paris concert of the Fallen tour for their first live album and concert DVD, Anywhere but Home (2004).
Critical reception
Fallen received generally positive reviews from music critics. Johnny Loftus of AllMusic wrote that the album includes "flashes of the single's PG-rated nu-metal ('Everybody's Fool,' 'Going Under'). But it's the symphonic goth rock of groups like Type O Negative that influences most of Fallen." According to Village Voice critic Robert Christgau, "their faith, as embodied in Amy Lee's clarion sopralto , lends their goth-metal a palpable sweetness", concluding, "Now if only it wasn't goth-metal at all." In 2025, Rae Lemeshow-Barooshian of Loudwire ranked Fallen at number 11 on a list of the top 50 nu-metal albums of all time.
Commercial performance
Fallen has sold more than 17 million units worldwide, with 10 million in the US, since its 2003 release.
Evanescence
- Amy Lee – vocals, choral arrangements
- Ben Moody – guitars, tribal percussion, programming
<!--The album's liner notes have only Lee and Moody's names separate from the additional musicians credited -->
Additional musicians
- David Hodges – piano, keyboards, additional programming; string arrangements
- Francesco DiCosmo – bass
- Josh Freese – drums
- David Campbell – string arrangements
- Graeme Revell – string arrangements
- Zac Baird – additional programming
- Chris Johnson – additional programming
- Millenium choir – background choir: Beverly Allen, Geri Allen, Eric Castro, Melanie Jackson, Karen Matranga, Joanne Paratore, Lesley Paton, Dwight Stone, Rick Stubbs, Talaya Trigueros, Susan Youngblood
- Paul McCoy – guest vocals
Technical
- Dave Fortman – production ; mixing
- Jay Baumgardner – mixing
- Ben Moody – production ; additional Pro Tools engineering
- 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
Charts
Weekly charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|+ Weekly chart performance for Fallen
! scope="col"| Chart (2003–2024)
! scope="col"| Peak<br />position
|-
! scope="row"| Argentine Albums (CAPIF)
| 3
|-
|-
! scope="row"| Australian Heavy Rock & Metal Albums (ARIA)
| 1
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
! scope="row"| Croatian International Albums (HDU)
| 14
|-
! scope="row"| Czech Albums (ČNS IFPI)
| 7
|-
|-
|-
! scope="row"| European Albums (Music & Media)
| 7
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
! scope="row"| Singaporean Albums (RIAS)
| 2
|-
!scope="row"|South African Albums (RISA)
| 6
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
! scope="row" | US Top Rock & Alternative Albums (Billboard)
| 16
|}
Monthly charts
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|+ Monthly chart performance for Fallen
! scope="col"| Chart (2004)
! scope="col"| Peak<br/>position
|-
!scope="row"| Russian Albums (NFPF)
| 3
|}
Decade-end charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|+ 2000s decade-end chart performance for Fallen
! scope="col"| Chart (2000–2009)
! scope="col"| Position
|-
! scope="row"| Australian Albums (ARIA)
| 15
|-
! scope="row"| UK Albums (OCC)
| 13
|-
! scope="row"| Australian Albums (ARIA)
| 18
|-
! scope="row"| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)
| 9
|-
! scope="row"| Hungarian Albums (MAHASZ)
|13
|-
!scope="row"|Japanese Albums (Oricon)
| 54
|-
! scope="row"| New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)
| 15
|-
! scope="row"| Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)
|9
|-
! scope="row"| Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)
| 11
|-
! scope="row"| Australian Albums (ARIA)
| 5
|-
! scope="row"| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)
| 10
|-
! scope="row"| Hungarian Albums (MAHASZ)
| 41
|-
! scope="row"| New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)
| 5
|-
! scope="row"| Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)
| 50
|-
! scope="row"| Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)
| 32
|-
!scope="row"|Belgian Midprice Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)
| 24
|-
! scope="row"| UK Albums (OCC)
| 45
|}
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|+ 2007 year-end chart performance for Fallen
! scope="col"| Chart (2007)
! scope="col"| Position
|-
!scope="row"| US Catalog Albums (Billboard)
| 22
|}
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|+ 2008 year-end chart performance for Fallen
! scope="col"| Chart (2008)
! scope="col"| Position
|-
!scope="row"| US Catalog Albums (Billboard)
| 36
|}