Evanescence frontwoman Amy Lee has shared some touching advice for a fan that was stung by cruel remarks about her looks. Taking part in an interview with The Guardian where the singer answers questions posed by fans, Amy was unimpressed to hear that one follower with ambitions to become a rock artist was put off her dreams by being called “ugly”.
“Show business’s obsession with beauty and sexualization to boost sales horrifies me,” the fan states, before asking Amy: “Is there even the slightest chance for an unattractive woman to be a rock singer?”
Amy’s reply is typically thoughtful and heartfelt, Evanescence’s leader noting that the fan’s question made her “feel sad”. “First of all, I would hope that whoever told you that you are ugly is not anyone you would call a friend,” she replies. “Don’t think of yourself that way and don’t listen to those people. They’re probably just jealous. Beauty is the deep stuff: being an artist, making music. That’s where the gold is, and beauty comes out through the inside, so focus on the inside and making something great for people to experience. Selling your product and being an Instagram star is not the important part. Anybody can make great music if it’s in your soul: that’s the most beautiful thing about you.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Amy also suggests she might well still be making music into her 60s. “I turn 45 in December, and 44 definitely doesn’t feel like I’d imagined – it’s better,” she says. “Turning 60 is only 15 years away, which doesn’t feel that long. I don’t know if we’ll be touring hard then, but they say use it or lose it, so I’m not ruling it out. It gives you so much life to be able to bring people together and share music, so it breaks my heart to imagine that we can’t do that any more for whatever reason. I’d have to be still making music or creating in some way. It doesn’t make sense to stop.”
Evanescence certainly show no sign of stopping right now. Following the release of new album Sanctuary in June, the band will hit the UK and Europe for an arena tour next month, before chalking up dates in the US, Malaysia, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
Wolves In The Throne Room have shared that they will drop their new full-length, Estuary, on October 23rd, 2026 via Century Media Records and Relapse Records. The black metallers have shared the album details, including cover and tracklist, and also the new track “Ghosts Among The Obelisks”. Read more…
Review: Hannah Wicklund – War On Women; Calling All Good Men Strawberry Moon Records – August 28th, 2026 Reviewer – David Brighouse This is the fourth studio album from the South Carolina born singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist, and it’s 13 songs have a tale to tell or a message to pass on, all of which come from a […]
CENOBIA has announced the details of their hotly anticipated debut EP ‘Lethal Devotion’, set to be released via the legendary Fearless Records.
The EP will be released on September 18 and is set to feature previously released singles ‘Devour Me’, ‘Throne Of Want’ and ‘Make Us Whole Again’.
The artwork will look like this:
And the full tracklisting like this:
1. Devour Me 2. Throne Of Want 3. Make Us Whole Again 4. Swallowed By The World 5. Hypoxia 6. Constellation
To celebrate the announcement, CENOBIA has also shared a new track from the release in the form of ‘Swallowed By The World’. A dramatic, sweeping, punishing piece of ethereal modern metal, it further expands the fascinating universe that is slowly being built via these curiously impactful songs. It also further showcases just how utterly stunning CENOBIA’s vocals are.
They had this to say about the track:
Cenobia gifts you her fourth chapter, ‘Swallowed By The World.’ Her end. Her beginning.’A divine awakening is upon us. Her eyes are yet to open.’ Devoured whole. A fractured rebirth. She was swallowed by the world, forged in trauma. Her quest to be made whole again draws to an end. Now, her divine awakening is upon us. She is Cenobia. She too will devour the stars.”
A rather impressive 12 years have passed since we last heard from Norwegian progressive power outfit Triosphere, which would normally indicate some level of internal upheaval or lamentable hiatus. Nope, just life and times, plus the added obstacle from our old friend the 2020 pandemic to further spice the pot. That stretched decade+ has essentially found the band comfortably optimizing songs—some written many years ago—and continuing to tour, with the biggest shift between 2014’s excellent Heart of the Matter to present date, beyond recruiting a “new” drummer (Kenneth Tårneby) waaaay back in 2014, bubbling up via a jump from AFM Records to Frontiers in 2025.
Release date: August 28, 2026. Label: Frontiers Records.
So, no tectonic shifts for fans to be concerned about, and if you’ve been keeping your thumb on the pulse of Triosphere across the last three months or so, you’ve now had several chances to literally hear the evidence that album number four, Oceans Above, Stars Below (love that album title, by the way), is testament to just how little has changed in the Trio-camp over the course of 12 years. As we often say, the more things change, the more things stay the same.
Despite what you may be thinking right now, the above sentiments are actually quite positive because: 1) Triosphere has always been really bloody good at what they do, and 2) Triosphere’s brand of power / prog slash prog / power that’s beholden to bands such as Nevermore, Evergrey and maybe a touch of Symphony X isn’t exactly the most traversed metal off-shoot in the year twenty twenty six, and even the bands that do play this particular style are hardly something most would consider prolific.
So, yeah, if the style happens to be your thing, you’re headed straight for nostalgic windfall territory. Add to that the fact that Triosphere vocalist Ida Haukland happens to be one of the best singers currently in the game, full stop, and suddenly the stakes are raised even higher. Brass tacks: I have always loved the instrumental side of Triosphere—excellent and plentiful soloing, seamless transitions into mellower stretches, and the way their more aggressive face has always reminded me of Forbidden. But Ida Haukland’s voice and her capacity to attach an intensely powerful hook to choruses and refrains on EVERY SINGLE SONG has always been the game winning goal / knock-down three / walk-off home run that ultimately makes Triosphere an essential piece to the heavy metal puzzle. For this reason, if the idea of a progressive power metal band being fronted by Ann Wilson (QUEEN) of Heart (my first concert in the ‘80s) piques your interest… My friend, you have just found your fucking Elysium.
I recognize that I alluded to the notion of ‘very little change’ in the Trio-camp since 2014, but longtime fans of the band will recognize a slight shift that pretty much falls in line with each of the shifts from one Trio album to the next, mostly dealing with the way the band continues to give a touch more emphasis on the power side of the equation as they move forward. Oceans Above, Stars Below is no different. No, I would not concede that they’ve lost their edge, as evidenced by “Of Tyrants” above, but the album does allow more wiggle room for mellow flourishes and R&R flourishes. Hell, there’s a beautiful little song that hits in the album’s back half called “Encore” that lands like Triosphere’s version of “Silent Lucidity” (hush! It’s a great song!), and I don’t recall them ever delivering a straight-up ballad before 2026. And even though they’ve flirted with a more commercial sound on songs in the past, a cut like “Shorelines” comes closer to a radio ‘hit single’ than they’ve ever managed to date. None of it feels corny, though, and “Shorelines” in particular mostly recalls how a modern band like Unleash the Archers similarly manages to bridge metal a more straightforward, hooky brand of rock.
Is the nostalgia angle necessary to fully connect with Triosphere and a record like Oceans Above, Stars Below in 2026? In other words, will progressive power metal of this ilk appeal to someone who remains unfamiliar with the style and didn’t experience its heyday as the late ‘90s rolled into the early aughts? I don’t believe so. But I did have to think about that for a minute. In the end, good music is good music, and Triosphere’s interpretation of the style doesn’t really sway deep enough into prog or power to sound too knotty or too sugary, so I choose to trust that anyone with an appreciation for catchy, melodic and powerful heavy metal could find plenty to enjoy with this record.
And as long as we’re on the topic of nostalgia, I think those who are quick to dismiss it due to some preconceived notion that it acts as a barricade to innovation are mostly just soreheads. I mean, I love innovation that pushes art as much as the next lunkhead, but there’s a reason granny’s peach cobbler recipe is guarded and lauded again and again as if it were shaped from a brick of gold. Humans are intrepid, make no mistake, but we also love reconnecting with great memories from the past, even when it’s someone / something new providing the connective tendrils. And with that in mind, I fully recommend grabbing a healthy slice of Oceans Above, Stars Below and reconnecting with, or introducing yourself to, the wonderful world of Triosphere.
