It sold 17 million copies and scooped two GRAMMY awards, but it was the personal impact that Fallen made on the band’s fans that positioned Evanescence above the alt.rock pack, elevating the Arkansas gang to superstardom. On the 17th anniversary of the record’s release, we’ve handed the keys of Kerrang! over to The Noise Cartel publicist Donnay Clancy, to tell just one of those 17 million stories and explain what made Fallen so special…



It’s no secret to anyone who knows me that I adore Evanescence. From the moment I first heard the ethereal piano intro to Bring Me To Life at the age of 13 years old, I was completely and utterly transfixed. Fifteen years later, that song still incites the same reaction, whether it’s dropped at a ’00s nu-metal club night or pops up on shuffle on my morning commute. As cliche as it sounds, the album from which it is taken, Fallen, quite literally changed my life. Before I got into Evanescence, I had never really listened to rock music before. Like most of the kids at my school, I was listening to UK Garage, R&B and mainstream chart stuff that dominated music channels. Whilst I enjoyed that music, none of it hit me in the chest or made me feel. With Fallen, I felt like I was truly experiencing music fully for the first time, in a new and exciting way, and it began my lifelong passion and love for heavy music.

I had always been ‘different’ from the other children at school (which was so often and unkindly pointed out to me) and I was relentlessly bullied for pretty much the entirety of my school years. Things were bad at home too, and at times I felt like there was no escape from the misery I was enduring everyday – that was until I had Evanescence. When I’d had an awful day at school I would lock myself away in my room, blare Fallen at full volume and belt out every word, completely immersed in my own little world. It was my emancipation from all the pain and negativity. It gave me an outlet through which to vent my anger and depression, and turn it into something positive.