Lindsey Stirling's third album, Brave Enough, is where her crossover sound falls nicely into place. Her first two efforts – thrilling collisions of violin acrobatics and electronic embellishment – were novel, but there was something missing to that new age dubstep. On Brave Enough, Stirling taps into a deep well of pain – inspired by her own emotional maturity and the death of her best friend and keyboardist, Jason Gaviati, in November 2015 – and the result is an organic interplay between her instrument and digital beats that focuses more on pleasant rhythms than dubstep muscle.
Wielding her violin like a huntress' bow, Lindsey Stirling focuses her classical crossover vision with a deeply imaginative concept for her fifth album, Artemis. Named after the Greek goddess of the hunt and the moon, the effort finds Stirling hitting her artistic stride with a grand soundtrack to a movie that doesn't yet exist, like a neon cyberpunk take on Howard Shore's Lord of the Rings score. Making her early work feel small-scale by comparison – early-2010s tracks like "Song of the Caged Bird," "Beyond the Veil," and "Heist" come closest to what she's offering here – Artemis also benefits from fewer special guests, which was a distraction on her previous full-length, Brave Enough.
The eponymous debut album from YouTube sensation and America's Got Talent quarterfinalist Lindsey Stirling – the colorful and uncommonly spirited classical, hip-hop, rock, country, modern dance, and Legend of Zelda/Elder Scrolls-loving violinist – features ten original tracks that dutifully reflect all of those aforementioned styles and influences with moxie to spare. Propelled by the engaging electronic and dubstep-infused single "Crystallize," which yielded 11 million views in less than two months when it was released in its video form in early 2012, Stirling's debut carves out a unique new niche in the classical crossover genre.
Filmed at London's Forum Theater in 2014, Live from London is electronic violinist, dancer, and YouTube sensation Lindsey Stirling's first concert DVD/CD. Filmed and recorded during her 2014 tour in support of her second studio album Shatter Me, which reached number two on the Billboard Top 200 album chart, the 16-track collection features dynamic performances of some of Stirling's most resonant classical-pop confections, including "All of Me," "Crystallize," "Beyond the Veil," and "Stars Align."
Ten years after their last album of original material, alternative metal outfit Evanescence continued their late-era comeback with their fifth full-length, The Bitter Truth. In the decade following their enjoyable (but by-the-numbers) self-titled third set, Amy Lee and company – guitarist Troy McLawhorn, bassist Tim McCord, drummer Will Hunt, and guitarist Jen Majura – kept the brand alive with tours and album reissues, but the project wasn't fully reignited until the grand orchestral reimaginings of Synthesis arrived in 2017. Riding that creative wave, they got to work on what would become The Bitter Truth, barreling through the COVID-19 lockdown and completing the album with producer Nick Raskulinecz (Korn, Halestorm).