With baited breath I raced to pick up the latest release by Evanescence. After ripping the disc out of its shrink wrap and dropping it into my CD player, I was greeted with the wonderful feeling their music often evokes, melancholy. It turns out it’s a live album.

The band unleashes their first album, “Fallen,” in a live concert recorded in Paris. Some tracks sound better live than they did on the album, others are mediocre at best. The two highlights of the CD were the cover of Korn’s “Thoughtless” and the new track, “Whisper.” “Thoughtless” showcases how the band can take and create a cover that is a masterpiece of sonic layers. “Whisper” hints at what I was truly hoping for, a sophomore album that would be as creative and innovative as their first.

The bonus DVD features the entire Paris concert, with a beautiful Dolby Digital mix that brings you into the front row of the concert at home. The added tour footage was just an excuse to watch the band be drunk, play pranks on each other, and moon the audience. There are a few laughable moments within this bonus footage, but on the whole it was nothing but vanity. Finally, the band includes their music videos for the songs from “Fallen” on DVD.

The packaging and DVD menu design are quite cool, but this album is quite lackluster as to what I was hoping for from the band. I feel like I got a good product, but it didn’t live up to what I had hoped it would have been. Just because it’s a “new album” doesn’t mean they shouldn’t qualify it with “live.”