Evanescence are one of the most unfairly maligned bands in our current era. In high school, as a young aspiring emo teen, I was quickly drawn to the dramatic pop wailing of Evanescence. Why? Well for one thing, they were goth but they still read as fairly “safe” to my overly protective parents because they were “Christian.” For another, the lead singer of this band was a woman, and she was mad as hell. This was all appealing.
Of course, most people clown Evanescence now, even though they sold 17 million copies of their debut album Fallen in 2003 and won two Grammys. Regardless, the song that is still most associated with their band is the orchestral wailer “Bring Me To Life.” Should this song actually be called “Wake Me Up Inside”? Yes. Yes it should.
The track has been memed and covered and parodied to death, sure, but there is one thing no one thought to do before it occurred to Jon Sudano: Sing Smash Mouth lyrics over the top of it. This, my friends, is even better than the Seinfeld x Smash Mouth “Smashfeld” mashup that I revered before it.
For reasons that remain unclear, Sudano’s video of himself smashing (haha) the two songs together has been making the rounds on the internet — to the point that one of my favorite Noisey writers Emma Garland found it — and has become one of those silly-to-the-point-absurd videos that we all love to consume in the Year Of Our Lord 2016.
I’m not sure whether it’s his deadpan or the sudden shift to Evanescence lyrics at the very end of the video that I like more. Why don’t you watch for yourself and let me know which you prefer? Long live Amy Lee of Evanescence for teaching me that women could be publicly angry — and get paid for it. Long live Smash Mouth. Long live mashups. Thank you, Jon Sudano for this brief respite from the unrelenting year stream of bad news that has characterized this year. You could almost argue this cover… will wake us up inside? Sorry — had to. Watch it above.
