Away from the metal world, some may underestimate just how commanding Amy Lee remains. At Manchester’s Co-op Live, however, there was no mistaking her status as one of gothic heavy rock’s most powerful and distinctive frontwomen.
Those who know, though, know. Especially anyone who witnessed the sheer carnage of the crowd that descended on Evanescence at Download Festival a few years ago. I missed out on seeing them fully that time, so finally getting the chance to catch them now felt long overdue.
This really felt like Evanescence’s crowning glory. Fiercely independent in both character and as a band, they have fought hard for the freedom to create on their own terms, stepping away from the constraints that had shaped much of the previous decade and making it abundantly clear they were done doing things the way other people wanted.
There was a real sense of defiance in that journey, a huge middle finger to compromise, control and creative restriction. And tonight, you could see exactly what that freedom has given them. This was a band completely in command of its own identity, proving just how powerful unrestricted creativity can be.
Nothing captured that freedom more brutally than the confidence to load the set with material from their new record ‘Sanctuary’.
With no desperate dash for nostalgia, they backed the new material with real conviction and then tore through it like a band with nothing left to prove. Opening with four back to back, “Sanctuary”, “Tell Me When You’ve Had Enough”, “Afterlife” and “Rapture”.
And that’s the real story of Evanescence in 2026.
They could come out, play Fallen, give everyone “Going Under”, “My Immortal” and “Bring Me To Life”, collect the adoration and disappear again. Nobody would have complained. Maybe that’s what some people were expecting, but it was a breath of fresh air to tip the whole thing on its head.
There’s something fucking brilliant about watching a band this far into their career still trust themselves that much.
Amy Lee is still utterly magnetic. That voice somehow still sounds enormous enough to swallow an arena whole, then seconds later she’s behind the piano and everything shrinks down until it feels like she’s singing directly at you.
“Lithium” follows and turns the scale of Co-op Live into something much more intimate, before “Like You” gives way to the newer “Self Destruct” and “Calm Down”. By the time “Call Me When You’re Sober” arrives, the old and new material are no longer competing with each other. They’re part of the same thing.
That intimacy doesn’t last long – ‘Bring Me To Life’ – we all lose our absolute shit.
Still creating. Still angry. Still heavy.
Still capable of making an arena erupt during “Bring Me To Life”, Evanescence delivered something that reminded you exactly how enormous this band can sound. With huge bursts of pyro tearing across the stage and the arena completely alive around them, it would have been the obvious place to end the night.
Instead, they had the confidence to take things somewhere completely different. “Wide Open Heart” brought the set to a more unexpected, emotional close.
Few bands this far into their career are still capable of sounding this vital, this powerful and this relevant. After a night like this, it’s hard not to come away completely in awe of them.
Evanescence are still an absolutely phenomenal live band, Amy Lee remains one of the best voices in rock, and after all these years, seeing them still feels every bit as special as I hoped it would.
