Those changes, among others, mean that The Bitter Truth will be their first album with the current lineup of Evanescence. When the band got back in the studio, it was to reimagine their past hits with orchestral arrangements for the 2017 LP Synthesis. Lee took some time to work on solo projects, including a children’s album. After the release of Evanescence, the group went on hiatus to deal with a legal dispute with their former label. The near-decade leading up to The Bitter Truth has been both eye-opening and invigorating for Lee. Even on the days that I don’t want to, I come out here and I go, ‘Let’s do this. Now, the guys are back at their homes, and I am wading through the aftermath of all the music, piecing it together and finalizing the record.” In some ways, she says, lockdown has been a blessing: “The upside of this time is that I’ve had to buckle down and focus. Since August, when her U.S.-based bandmates took tour buses to join her in Nashville (guitarist Jen Majura has remained in Germany), they’ve been powering through the rest of the album. They began with a wealth of material and inspiration, along with a couple decade-old songs that finally feel ripe for release. When the band began making a concerted effort to work on new material last year, their one rule was that there would be no rules. “I’m just trying to live in the moment, feeding my soul with the music.”
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In April, they released the sobering power ballad “ Wasted on You” as the lead single from their very much in-progress LP, The Bitter Truth, which is due to be released in early 2021. While the pandemic slowed them down, the group has forged onward, working remotely at first and later, after getting negative Covid tests, at a Nashville studio. That’s not the only plan she’s had to readjust: Earlier this year, her alt-metal band, Evanescence, returned to the studio with producer Nick Raskulinecz, writing and recording songs for what will be their first album of new material since 2011’s Evanescence. “We haven’t gotten as much as we would have liked to because of Covid, but now we are here, and we will be set up for a better next year,” she adds optimistically. Lee had hoped to be closer to her family in Arkansas and friends in Nashville when she moved, only to find herself stuck at home with the rest of the world. “The perfect year,” she says with an eye roll over Zoom.
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She lived there for 12 years with her husband (and later their son, born in 2015), before they left their apartment for Nashville a year ago.