Origin (album)

Infobox Album
Name = Origin
Type = demo
Artist = Evanescence


Released = November 4, 2000 (U.S.)
Recorded =
Genre = Alternative metal
Length = 46:27
Label = Bigwig Enterprises
Producer =
Reviews =
Last album = "Sound Asleep EP"
(1999)
This album = "Origin"
(2000)
Next album = "Mystary EP"
(2003)

"Origin" is the first full length CD released by the alternative metal band Evanescence on the Bigwig Enterprises label. Although it is occasionally considered to be Evanescence's first album, lead singer Amy Lee has explicitly said that she doesn't consider it to be an album but rather a "dressed up" demo CD. Released in 2000, "Origin" was only sold to concert audiences in their hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas and on the Bigwig Enterprises website. Only 2,500 discs were printed, but due to the band's increased popularity, significant numbers of pirated copies have been produced and sold (sometimes in the form of a "Russian Re-Release" with 19 tracks). These fakes make an actual copy less likely to be found. Members of Evanescence have stated that they prefer their fans to copy/download the CD rather than buy it.cite web |url=http://evanescencereference.info/music/ |title=Evanescence EPs |work=EvanescenceReference.info |accessdate=2007-02-07]

Evanescence re-recorded three songs from this CD for their début album "Fallen". While "Whisper" and "My Immortal" are fundamentally the same on both discs, "Imaginary" exhibited a major change in structure between "Origin" and "Fallen". In addition to these three songs, the band continued to play "Even in Death" in concert until late 2003.

Outtakes

Outtake track zero

Official versions of the CD have a hidden track prior to the start of the CD containing an outtake from the song "Anywhere" that can be accessed in some CD players through the use of the 'previous track' button at the beginning of the first track.

This outtake features David Hodges doing vocal ad-libs into his high range. He then says to the person controlling the recording, "You're not saving that." This is followed by Ben Moody saying, "There's a lot of prejudice against the undead," which is a reference to a line in the motion picture "My Boyfriend's Back".

Omitted tracks

Two songs, "Listen to the Rain" (a song Amy Lee wrote for her high school graduation which included her school's choir) and "Demise", were cut from the album. The band originally had "Eternal" as track 11, "Listen to the Rain" as track 12, and "Demise" as track 13. However, it was decided to merge "Eternal" and "Demise" and cut "Listen to the Rain" from the album. "Demise" became the outro of "Eternal".

Two other songs that didn't make it onto the CD were "Catherine",cite web |url=http://www.mtv.com/bands/e/evanescence/news_feature_040227/index2.jhtml |title=Evanescence: The Split |publisher=MTV News |first=Joe |last=D'Angelo |date=February 27, 2004 |accessdate=2007-10-10] a song written by Lee and Ben Moody and played live to only a handful of people,cite web |url=http://www.evanescencewebsite.com/AmyLeeInterview.php |title=An Interview With Amy Lee...Exclusive! |work=EvanescenceWebsite.com |date=October 1, 2007 |accessdate=2007-10-08] as well as "Spanish".

Track notes

Various tracks on "Origin" are themselves notable, and some have relations with other tracks, albums and even other artists. "My Immortal" is nearly identical to the version on the album "Fallen", minus strings. "Even in Death" uses an intro sample from the White Zombie song "Ratfinks, Suicide Tanks and Cannibal Girls", and its outro consists of a sample of the film The Crow, featuring words spoken by Rochelle Davis' character Sarah. "Anywhere" features an ending that is a simpler version of the outro on "Where Will You Go". "Lies" has been remade into another version with different lyrics, but the first chorus intro is used in both versions. The track "Origin" has been incorporated into demo versions of the songs "Haunted" and "Whisper", the latter of which appears on the "Automata 3.0" magazine CD. "Origin" also has two lines from a film called "Terror in the Haunted House".

The track "Eternal" has been through several revisions. The final version begins with an orchestrated rock tune, transitions into a thunderstorm and piano solo, and finishes with a sixteen note repeating melody. This ending was once intended to be the album's twelfth track, titled "Demise", but was eventually combined with "Eternal" to form one long piece. At one point, however, the final track was an even longer fourteen minute compilation of the tracks "Away From Me", "Eternal", "Listen to the Rain" and "Demise".

Album art

The CD's front cover features a black and red background with various iterations of the word "Evanescence" printed across it, both forward and backward. Barely visible amongst the background is a woman. The back features the same color scheme with three stacked images depicting different angles of the "Angel of Grief" sculpture, an image of which is also featured on the "Evanescence EP" CD cover.

Track listing

0. "Anywhere" (Outtake) – 0:25

Tracklist
writing_credits = yes
title1 = Origin
note1 = intro
length1 = 0:35
title2 = Whisper
note2 = "Origin" version
writer2 = Moody, Lee
length2 = 3:56
title3 = Imaginary
note3 = "Origin" version
writer3 = Moody, Lee
length3 = 3:31
title4 = My Immortal
note4 = "Origin" version
writer4 = Moody, Lee
length4 = 4:26
title5 = Where Will You Go
note5 = "Origin" version
length5 = 3:47
title6 = Field of Innocence
length6 = 5:13
title7 = Even in Death
length7 = 4:09
title8 = Anywhere
length8 = 6:03
title9 = Lies
length9 = 3:49
title10 = Away from Me
length10 = 3:30
title11 = Eternal
note11 = Instrumental
length11 = 7:22

Personnel

*Evanescence:
**Amy Lee — vocals
**Ben Moody — guitar, bass, drums
**David Hodges — piano/keyboard, vocals
*Additional musicians:
**William James Boyd Esquire, III — bass on "Away From Me"
**Bruce Fitzhugh (Living Sacrifice) & Stephanie Pierce — vocals on "Lies"
**Suvi Petrajajrvi, Sara Moore, Catherine Harris & Samantha Strong — female vocal ensemble on "Field of Innocence"

References