In an Age of Digital Lies, Evanescence Is Fighting for Something Real

While researching this interview, I came across a video of Amy Lee singing alongside a daughter I didn't know she had. The girl looked just like her: sleek black hair, alabaster skin, even the same eyebrow piercing. They sang in flawless harmony. I later realized this extremely convincing video wasn't real; it was just one of countless Lee deepfakes circulating online.

"There's nothing creepier than scrolling through and seeing an AI version of myself," says Lee, speaking over Zoom from her home studio. "It's genuinely unsettling. It's like people want to 'fix' me — erasing the lines on my face. They even changed the 'Sanctuary' album cover."

The unreality of the digital age we live in has become the driving force behind 'Sanctuary,' the band's first full-length album since 2021's 'The Bitter Truth.' Where 'The Bitter Truth' confronted reality head-on, 'Sanctuary' feels like a desperate search for humanity in a post-truth world.

"In a lot of ways, music is my sanctuary," Lee says of the album's title. "But it's also a sanctuary from lies, from everything that isn't real."

Having sold over 31 million albums to date, Evanescence ranks among the all-time best-selling hard rock and metal artists. The band, which reshaped mainstream rock with 2003's 'Fallen,' has once again found its footing at the center of the alt-metal and nu-metal revival. "Afterlife," written for Netflix's 'Devil May Cry' series, became the band's first Number One on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Airplay chart, while "Who Will You Follow" topped three separate charts.

Following the album's release on June 5, the band launched a massive two-year world tour, with Spiritbox, Poppy, Nova Twins, and K.Flay joining the lineup across the North American and European legs.