"Evanescence breaking out proved everybody wrong. It gave me hope, it was a huge middle finger.” Halestorm's Lzzy Hale on why Evanescence's Fallen was such an important, empowering album for 21st century rock, and the advice Amy Lee once gave her

Lzzy Hale, the flame-lunged singer and guitarist of US rockers Halestorm, has heaped praise on Evanescence and their landmark debut album Fallen, which turns 20 this year. In an exclusive interview with Metal Hammer in their latest issue, Hale explains why Fallen felt like such an important and vindicating rock record at the time, and how she and Evanescence frontwoman Amy Lee have become firm friends in the years since.

When asked how Evanescence first came onto her radar, Hale notes:  “Probably the same way as just about everybody else: Bring Me To Life exploded into my life. For me personally, it was extremely vindicating. We had already been a band for a while and there were a lot of roadblocks that we were having a hard time getting through – the biggest being that we were a female-fronted rock band. Evanescence breaking out proved everybody wrong. It gave me hope, it was a huge middle finger to something we’d been dealing with firsthand.”

“The entire album is such a beautiful collection and there’s no filler," she adds of Fallen itself. "There are people who relate to that record all over the world; it touched so many different people in so many different languages. They dove headfirst into the shark tank and showed everyone else the way.”

Years later, Halestorm and Evanescence would end up touring together, and Hale has fond memories of the team-up.

“The first day, Amy comes into my dressing room and she’s like, ‘You have this song Break In on your album [2012's The Strange Case Of...] that I absolutely love, but there’s nobody doing the harmonies with you – can I do that?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, you can take the lead if you want’, but she just wanted to do the harmonies! We kind of became instant best friends. I grew vocally leaps and bounds by being able to sing with her every night. Now no matter where we are in the world, we’ll keep in touch. I’ll get a message in the middle of the night like, ‘Hey this stuffed animal looks like you!’

“Regardless of the fact we’re both frontwomen and can sing to thousands of people, if you ask me to get up and speak to someone I still get nervous," she continues. "So we’d have these talks where she’d see me and be like, ‘Are you nervous? Don’t think, just sing!’”

When asked what her all-time favourite Evanescence song is, Hale has a ready-made answer. In fact, she actually has two, and we perhaps shouldn't be too surprised that they're both top tier Fallen cuts.

“Originally I’d have said Going Under, because that hooked me even beyond Bring Me To Life – I love that song so much, and one of these days I’ll sing it in karaoke. But right now, it’s Tourniquet because that song makes me so happy. It means so much more to me now than it did in 2003 as I’ve grown with it.”

You can read more on the story and legacy of Fallen in the current issue of Metal Hammer, out now, and you can still pick up one of our limited edition Evanescence bundles, featuring an exclusive art print and patch, while stocks last. A special reissue of the album, available in 2-LP, 2-CD, and digital formats and featuring a ton of bonus content, is available now.