Although the last decade has lacked an album full of brand new Evanescence songs, the band has been hard at work concentrating on songs old and new.

They had spent the early months of 2020 working on four new tracks, and ultimately feeling like they were headed toward a sound that was both reminiscent of their hard rock roots and inspired by their love of the 90s grunge era. Needless to say, they were eager to see where the rest of the album would lead.

“The path starts making itself and you start following that road,” lead vocalist Amy Lee said at a media event to promote what is now their fifth full-length studio album, The Bitter Truth.

Unfortunately, there was no warning that a global pandemic would block their path.

The path back to one another took time, and when they found a safe way to get together and finish the album, that is exactly what they did. Except this time, they had a different perspective on the future.

The Bitter Truth goes deeper, darker and into more difficult themes than any of their lyrics have gone before. It’s a battle cry that speaks to a demographic far beyond the reach of their previous work, and shows a different, more vulnerable side of Lee.

“So much has happened,” she said. “There’s been so much to say, and we were already on that path when the world turned absolutely upside down, so it was hard to go to some of those places but it was healing for me. I don’t know what I would have done - I think I would have gone insane last year if we didn’t have this album to make.”

“Don’t you speak for me”, a lyric from “Use My Voice”, became a phrase that Lee found herself repeating while watching the news. Although the political climate wasn’t the original inspiration for the song, with its lyrics being half written nearly a decade ago, it soon turned into an anthem for injustice and how everyone’s voice matters.

Another song with powerful lyrics, “Far From Heaven”, was incredibly difficult to write. Lee said that the song is about questioning her faith, and the emotions that overcame that questioning after the passing of her brother in 2018.

“It was hard to admit the questioning and the real struggle that I have been facing,” she said. “But it’s so worth it when you break through.”

Lee said that she has learned again and again that it is not what happens to a person, but what they do with it. It’s about creating something good from something bad and giving it a purpose. That is what she wanted the album to touch on, and learning that lesson again made her realize that there would never be a time more perfect than now to release new music.

She also wanted to make sure that the album spoke to her bandmates as much as it did to her. Every album has had a slightly different lineup, but that didn’t deter her from making sure everyone’s personal taste and personality came out in each song. Lastly, she wanted to make sure the album spoke to its listeners.

“I have found over the course of my career and my journey with this band that our music is a very special place not just for us, but for other people, people that I don’t personally know,” she said. “Those stories and those experiences and those parts of people’s lives that our music has been there for them in, that’s all just become part of this bigger story that I feel like I’m a part of. It just makes it better. It just makes it bigger. It just makes it more precious and I’m just very grateful to have our fans after all this time.”

When Lee was asked what the bitter truth was, she said it was the driving force behind the album. Life is short. Time is precious. In order for things to get better, the truth must be accepted. Facing the bitter truth is what leads to a better place.