We Are The Fallen – Tear the World Down

We all remember the first time we met that one person that flipped our world on its side and caused us to question everything we thought we knew about love.  It’s weird, but it’s one of those things that happen so infrequently that we can’t help but remember not just the time and place, but also what they were wearing and…you get the picture.  It’s vivid and it’s an “everything” moment really. Most of the time, it doesn’t last and what we’re left with is a bitter sweet memory of a person that changed us for better or for worse into the person that we are today. Some people take that experience and learn from it.  And some just find someone else that looks just like the old girlfriend or boyfriend in hopes that they can resurrect that magic that died all too suddenly.  That was my first impression upon hearing that Ben Moody was getting together with some of the other former Evanescence band mates to create a new album under the We Are the Fallen moniker.  And that was the problem wasn’t it?  I had heard all of the rumors first before hearing Tear the World Down.  So maybe I was assuming too much.  Maybe I was.

By the way it’s hard to surprise me – maybe because I’m older and things really are starting to blend together.  But I can’t tell you how many bands that I have been recommended that sound like Evanescence.  It’s a lot.  Sometimes it’s just because the band features heavy guitars and a female singer.  Sometimes the similarities go further, but most of the time they do not.  So maybe it’s because I had also read that Tear the World Down sounded too much like Evanescence that I had all of these preconceived ideas about it probably being a letdown.  Could the sum of the parts really outweigh the whole that once made up the band that took the world by storm with the multiplatinum Fallen?  I had my doubts, after all, The Open Door was a huge letdown.  Amy Lee should be ashamed of the atrocious attempt to carry on without Ben in the fold.  But she did.  And when I recently revisited The Open Door by Evanescence, I still hated it.

Enter Tear the World Down and what turned out to be a really cool album.  On the first listen its the album that Evanescence should have released had the magic not suddenly died much to the shock and dismay of the rest of us that were left wondering if the music had died with the exit of not just Moody, but with the departure of John LeCompt and Rocky Gray as well.  But labeling Tear the World Down as Evanescence’s spiritual second album does We Are the Fallen a bit of a disservice.  The album is solid and it stands on its own – even without the knowledge of their lineage.  And while it’s true that sometimes the sound is hauntingly similar, the members of We are the Fallen did help create this sound in the first place.  And with the addition of Marty O’Brien and American Idol finalist Carly Smithson, We Are the Fallen is a force to be reckoned with.

This is an album with a singular purpose – to introduce an eclectic brand of music that includes roaring guitars, a swirling orchestra, haunting chorale arrangements and a lead singer who successfully takes on the burden of the front person while contributing strong vocals and lyrics.  Tear the World Down, takes the listener on a journey to the darker side of rhythm and symphony.  The gimmicks (if they can be called that) work.  The songs are chilling, haunting and deliberately executed to show us a darker side of the psyche of its members. There isn’t a bad song on it. And what is quickly forgotten after listening to this album is the old girlfriend.  The one that we know wasn’t really good for us anyway.  But it’s also the one we are indebted to for reasons we never expected because she’s the one that taught us a lot about ourselves at the same time.

Which brings us to the beginning of this story.  Sometimes we’re not supposed to be the judge of a union that works.  Yes, on the surface, it looked like the boys from Evanescence went looking for a new girlfriend that looked and sounded like the old one.  But that ends up not being the case at all.  Carly Smithson is a different singer and adds a different presence entirely.   We Are the Fallen marries the tatted up Irish princess with Ben Moody and princes of darkness.  And if this union proves anything at all it’s that We Are the Fallen is here to reclaim the throne once held by that other band.  If Tear the World Down proves anything it’s that We Are the Fallen isn’t going to let anything but their music do the talking for them.  And that it does.

By Paul Stamat

(Check out our conversation with We Are The Fallen guitarist John LeCompt here!)