Propelled by the success of hit singles like "Bring Me to Life" and "My Immortal", Fallen sold more than four million copies in the US by January 2004, garnering Evanescence two Grammy Awards out of six nominations.

With Balsamo, guitarist Troy McLawhorn, bassist Tim McCord and drummer Will Hunt, the band reconvened in 2009 to work on music for their next album, Evanescence.

In 2016, Lee stated that Evanescence was working on a fourth album, Synthesis (2017), composed of orchestral and electronica arrangements of their previous material alongside two new songs.

After pandemic delays, Evanescence released their fifth studio album, The Bitter Truth, in 2021, which reached the top five of the Billboard Independent, Alternative, and Hard Rock charts.

[12] Lee had a 16-track recorder and she and Moody would use it and Pro Tools, "fake strings and choirs" on her keyboard, and layer sounds and beats for their early material, which they mixed and produced.

"[20][13] Perceiving "similarities between the drama of classical music and the heavier stuff I was listening to" inspired her to "bring those things together for myself",[21] and she infused in Evanescence her love of contrasting sounds.

[25][4] Moody expressed dissatisfaction with their pre-Fallen material, stating in an interview, "What we had in our head was Fallen, although it was a long time ago and we didn't have the technology, so a lot of our early recordings were just shit.

"[12][25] They were relocated to Los Angeles, given an apartment and rehearsal space and enrolled in a gym, according to Meltzer,[34] and Lee, who was very introverted, received help from an acting teacher to overcome her stage fright.

[37] A few weeks later, the label relented, informing them that they would release their album if they agreed to have a male rapper on its lead single, "Bring Me to Life", in order to give something familiar to listeners.

[40] Lee prefers "Bring Me To Life" without the label-forced rap, and expressed dissatisfaction that it "stamps a time period" on the song; however, she made peace with it because they were able to "survive past it" and "people were able to, for the most part, understand who we are without us getting stuck in that place.

[50] After the album's completion, the touring lineup was hired: guitarist John LeCompt, drummer Rocky Gray, and bassist Will Boyd,[51][27] the first two old friends of Moody.

[62][12][63] After the song was released on the Daredevil soundtrack, a grassroots fanbase grew and listeners began requesting air play for it, compelling radio stations to reconsider the band.

[99] Lee had begun writing music again by November, including the songs "Lacrymosa" and "Together Again", which she initially wrote for the soundtrack of the 2005 film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe but were rejected by the studio.

[20][35][111] Lee deemed the "fight for credibility" as a creator to be one of the biggest challenges she faced early on with the Fallen era, explaining: "It was the mentality of labels to tell, especially newer artists, that they need to have writers.

[113] The album progressed slowly for several reasons, including Lee's desire to maximize the creative process and not rush production, Balsamo's stroke, and turbulence with their former manager.

[128][27] Former Evanescence player David Hodges commented on LeCompt and Gray's attitude, stating: "The only thing I would have done differently than Amy in the last two years is distance myself sooner from [them].

[145] The band played a "secret show" at the Manhattan Center Grand Ballroom in New York City on November 4, 2009, with label mates Civil Twilight.

[159][160] The band reentered the studio in early April 2011 with Raskulinecz, who had produced music for Alice in Chains, Deftones, and Foo Fighters, to continue work on the third album.

[161] On June 12, 2011, Lee announced through her Twitter account that guitarist Troy McLawhorn, who worked with Seether for a time and left,[163] was officially back with Evanescence, and the release date for their new album would be October 4, 2011.

[172] After a series of events in North America, Evanescence traveled to Europe in November to play a sold-out tour in the UK, Germany and France, with support from The Pretty Reckless and Australian band ME.

"[220] On September 17, 2019, Evanescence and symphonic metal band Within Temptation announced a seven-city joint European tour titled Worlds Collide originally scheduled for April 2020.

[227] On September 5, 2019, Xbox released a launch trailer for the video game Gears 5 that included a version of Lee's cover of Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain".

It features backing vocals from Lzzy Hale, Lindsey Stirling, Taylor Momsen, Deena Jakoub, and Sharon den Adel, and was used in a HeadCount campaign to encourage Americans to vote in the United States presidential election.

[21] Evanescence "has long had dual personalities, mixing alt-metal and symphonic rock on its three studio albums", while their fourth, Synthesis, focuses on "orchestral grandeur" with electronic percussion, The Wall Street Journal stated.

[294] The St. Louis Post-Dispatch said the band "has long been known to mix beauty and bombast", with Synthesis and its live orchestra-backed show turning Lee's "wrenching, introspective songs into neo-operatic anthems".

[309] Her earliest memory of wanting to fuse various and contrasting musical styles, was when she was training in classical piano and realized that a section of a composition from Baroque composer Bach resembled heavy metal.

[23] Contrasting sounds is an element of Evanescence music,[22] with Lee noting that alongside rock and metal, the band has "always had programming and inspirations from Bjork, Depeche Mode and Massive Attack and that kind of thing".

[311] Evanescence cite Soundgarden,[286] Björk,[286] Mozart,[286] Danny Elfman,[286] Korn,[312][118] Tori Amos,[286] Nirvana,[313] Pantera,[24][314] Portishead,[315][316] Nine Inch Nails,[286] Smashing Pumpkins,[286] Garbage,[317] Depeche Mode,[286] and A Perfect Circle[75] as influences.

[325][62] The Daily Telegraph noted that "the people who doubted that pianos or female vocals belonged in rock music were quickly proven wrong" with Evanescence albums' success and Lee's "singular voice in a scene dominated by macho aggression".

named Evanescence "one of heavy music's most important, influential and relevant bands", and remarked that there is "a timelessness about their sound that's barely dated over the last two decades" and their "emotional potency has only been enhanced".