In The Begining
Evanescence Was Founded By Amy Lee And Former Lead Guitarist Ben Moody. The Two Met At A Youth Camp In Arkansas, Where Moody Heard Amy Playing Meat Loaf Songs On The Piano. They released two EP's ("Evanescence EP" and "Sound Asleep/Whisper EP") in 1998 and 1999.
Their First Record, Origin was released on November 4th, 2000. Writing credits include Amy, Ben, and David Hodges. Amy Herself Does Not Consider The Record To Be An Actual Album;
Rather, She Considers It Merely A Bundle Of Demo Songs (Some Of Which She Says Are Not Done Properly) That Was Sent To Record Companies. Only 2500 Copies Of This Record
Were Ever Made, And It Is Thus Not Generally Available In Record Stores. In Response, Amy Encouraged Fans To Download The Band's Older Songs.
The Fallen Era
David Left the band in December of 2002, four months before fallen was released. When thier debut Album released the band consisted of Amy Lee, Ben Moody, Rocky Grey
(Drums), John LeCompt (Guitar), and William Boyd (Bass). Evanescence's Debut Single 'Bring Me To Life' Was A Global Hit For The Band And Reached #5 On The American
Billboard Hot 100.
In October 2003, Moody Left The Band Abruptly In The Middle Of A European Tour. To This Day, He Has Not Fully Explained The Reason For His decision to Leave.
Terry Balsamo, Former Guitarist from "Cold" Joined The Band In Moody's Place.
During this time period a Live Album + DVD set titled "Anywhere But Home" was released November 22, 2004. This contained a show recorded at the Zenith in Paris, France on May 25, 2004. THe album contains backstage tour footage, music videos, along with the B-Side "missing".
The Open Door Era
Will Boyd left Evanescence on good terms officially in late June of 2006 after recording of "The Open Door" was compleated. He was later replaced by Tim McCord.
The Open Door is Evanescence's second official album and third album overall. It was released on September 30, 2006, in Australia and Italy, October 2, 2006, in Europe and October 3, 2006, in North America. The album was recorded at The Record Plant in Hollywood, California, and mixed at Ocean Way Studios in March of 2006. It debuted at #1 in the US, Australia, Germany, Greece, Japan, and Switzerland and was in the Top 5 in Austria, Canada, France, Holland, Hong Kong, Italy, New Zealand, Sweden, UK, Ireland, Korea, Norway, and Denmark.
John was officially "fired" from Evanescence on May 4th, 2007 for unknown reasons. Rocky officially left Evanescence on May 4th, 2007 for unknown reasons. Some people believe he did it in order to protest over John getting fired, but this wasn't the reason. Rocky had already decided to leave Evanescence in January (probably because he wanted to work on his side projects, but this is just a theory). His contract with Wind-Up said that he had to finish the tour first. He wasn't allowed to say anything about his plans about leaving either. When John was fired, he defied Wind-Up and told the fans anyway.
Will Hunt (Drums) and Troy McLawhorn (Guitar) from Dark New Day went on tour with Evanescence as guest members in 2007.