Admittedly, I haven’t really listened to Evanescence since Fallen, their incredibly popular album from 2003, so seeing that the band has new music in 2026, I was interested to see just how the band has evolved over the past two decades, and boy, they haven’t lost it, have they?
While I would say I’m quite familiar with their earlier hits Bring Me To Life and Going Under, anything beyond this is a bit murky. So diving headfirst into Sanctuary might have been a bit of a risky one, especially as music production has progressed a lot in 23 years. That being said, Sanctuary feels like I haven’t missed a day with this band. Amy Lee is still as fantastic as ever, being able to hit some incredible highs over some brilliant lows that the band provide. Modern production methods have definitely been used here, but it doesn’t feel like it’s over-polished like a lot of modern metal.
After a bit of research, I’m now aware that the band have had a few creative changes over the years, notably Amy Lee and Ben Moody parting ways and Evanescence becoming more of an established band rather than a duo. This led to several albums generally praised favourably by critics, most noting that the band feels a lot more established, and I have to agree. The 00s were an interesting time for female-fronted metal bands; alongside Evanescence, you had Nightwish, Lacuna Coil, and Arch Enemy (to name a few), the former of the two sharing similar operatic vocals to Lee. Of those, I feel none quite had the lasting impact that Evanescence had on the heavy music scene, and even today, she’s rightfully held up high among metalheads.
Sanctuary feels like a love letter to that time. It’s heavy, but also throws in dark orchestral elements, haunting stage piano, and even gritty gothic electronic, providing a canvas for Lee to paint a stunning picture with her vocals that honestly sound as good as they ever have. If we were already impressed with Fallen, Sanctuary will truly blow you away.
A bit of a side note: I’m actually surprised I’ve enjoyed this album as much as I have, not because I fell off from anything Evanescence has done since the 00s but because of Jordan Fish having a hand in co-writing and co-producing several songs on the album. Not that there’s anything wrong with Fish’s production, but stylistically he tends to create an overly polished, quantised style of metal that all sounds the same, in my opinion.
So props where props are due, I guess. Maybe Fish’s style works well with Evanescence’s vibe; maybe the other producers, Zakk Cervini and Nick Raskulinecz, were able to spice his sound up a bit? Either way, I’m pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed a Fish-produced record as much as I have.
Sanctuary feels like an amalgamation of everything Evanescence has had their hands in since Fallen. There are crushing alternative metal anthems, dark emotional ballads, nu-metal-tinged tracks, and gothic electronic synth-drenched songs that all play out cohesively as one. It’s a mix of everything many have praised about the band over the years in one bloody fantastic album. Track after track, Lee delivers some incredible vocal performances across the whole album, diving into topics from heartbreak to political punches in the gut. Not that she has to, but Lee is proving that she’s still got it, and honestly, who doubted her anyway?
I think coming at this album only really knowing Fallen has worked out perfectly for me, especially seeing that the band have dabbled on and off with remixing and reworking classic tracks on later albums. I feel diving into this with only that in mind held my expectations kinda high, which makes Sanctuary all that more impressive to me. While it does sound like a modern metal record, it also sounds like it could have been a follow-up to Fallen or The Open Door.
Overall, Sanctuary has really impressed me. It perfectly encapsulates everything that Evanescence have put out over the years into a body of work that hits really fucking hard. Production is polished, but not to a point that it falls into sounding like every other Fish-produced record. It’s a great alternative metal record that pulls no punches and affirms Amy Lee as an incredible voice in metal.
Score: 7.5/10
Evanescence released Sanctuary on June 5, 2026 via BMG.