The Open Door

The Open Door, released on 25 September 2006, is the second album, built around Amy Lee's powerful, delicate voice with piano, strings and heavy guitar. The gothic air remains, but the structures are more complex song by song, and the contrast between quiet passages and exploding choruses is wide. Choirs and home-made sounds enter as new material, and the lyrics move into more personal, candid territory. It is also the first record Lee drew entirely by her own hand after Ben Moody's departure. The opening “Sweet Sacrifice” was Grammy-nominated and became a single alongside “Call Me When You're Sober,” “Lithium” and “Good Enough.” Track seven, “Lacrymosa,” is built on Mozart's Requiem. From the unease of “Snow White Queen” to the breadth of “Your Star,” the swing across thirteen songs and 54 minutes is broad. Lee's directness and the finely worked arrangements lift each other. No. 1 in the US with 447,000 in week one, RIAA double platinum, six million worldwide. A record that refused to lean on the debut and pushed into deeper shading.