After a 5-year hiatus, Evanescence returns with a musically intense self-titled album, featuring allegoric lyrics about love and emotional stress. Amy Lee’s vocals are as burly and beautiful as ever and the lyrics are still emotive and well-developed. The album is cohesively thematic, as if it is a film soundtrack. While the cohesion is a plus, there’s also a downside to it. At times, the album sounds musically repetitive to where there isn’t a significant difference between songs. This issue is fortunately not seen throughout, however. Overall, this album is one of the few in mainstream music that is fine crafted on all fronts: vocally, musically and lyrically. Absolute smash.