Evanescence has made a return with a weird - and largely unnecessary - greatest hits album, of sorts.
Only, those hits have been stripped down and reworked, taking out a lot of what actually made them great in the first place.
The rock drums and power chords have been tunedout completely, in favour of an orchestral sound mixed with a strange kind of EDM influence which, frankly, has no place on any of these tracks.
There are two new tracks on the album: Hi-Lo and Imperfection - one features a guest, acclaimed violinist Lindsey Stirling, and the other draws on EDM and hip-hop influences. If ever you needed some kind of summary of the album, those two descriptors are probably it.
Synthesis isn't awful. Amy Lee's voice is as crystalline as ever and it's actually kind of nice to hear her ever-impressive vocals take centre-stage for once. The classical base of the album is chilled yet cinematic, and there's enough nostalgia in play to see them through for a little while.
However, the orchestral croonings get old fast, the nostalgia and pure guts are lost with the missing hooks which made Evanescence stand out back in the early 2000s, and the unnecessary attempts at modernisation have dated it all even further.
Evanescence, Synthesis
Artist: Evanescence Album: Synthesis Label: Sony Music Verdict: An unnecessary revamp maintains the talent but not the fire.
