There's probably never been a band name with italics in it. But when three former members of Evanescence got together with singer Carly Smithson (of American Idol fame) to form a new band called We Are the Fallen, plenty of fans took the name to mean that the emphasis should fall on the "we." It's an overt reference to the title of Fallen, Evanescence's seven-time-platinum breakthrough album of 2003. We Are the Fallen members Ben Moody, John LeCompt, and Rocky Gray are surely be making a statement from the get-go: We're the ones carrying on the legacy, not whatsername and her revolving cast of backup musicians.

Amy Lee, the only remaining longtime member of Evanescence, took this as a challenge and issued a statement. In a posting titled "Will the real Slim Shady please stand up?," she wrote, "There's some pretty weird stuff flying around right now and I'd like to clear up some confusion in the press. As our fans already know, Ben Moody left Evanescence in 2003. Evanescence came out with a follow-up to Fallen in 2006. It was called The Open Door and it debuted at #1 on the Billboard charts and reached platinum status in just over a month. The Open Door has sold more than 5 million copies worldwide... " The rest of her statement set the stats aside to point out that she is still working on a long-awaited followup and the evolution will be worth the wait. But the title of her press release made its main point clear enough: There are imposters afoot!

I had a chance to catch up with the five members of We Are the Fallen in Hollywood recently, and I asked them if they also worried that we press people were confused, and whether they thought a certain someone might feel threatened.

Ben Moody (who was theco-architect of Evanescence with Lee from 1995 till he abruptly quit in late 2003) briefly pleaded ignorance. "Someone felt threatened?" he asked. After I started reading back part of Lee's statement, he jumped in. "One thing that was cleared up for me personally by that was just how long it's going to be before Evanescence fans get some new music. So we thought, maybe in the meantime, if it was cool with everybody, we would just put some out, too." He chuckled. "Just to tide ‘em over."

Guitarist John LeCompt (who was fired by Lee from Evanescence in 2007, at about the same time Rocky Gray quit) chimed in, a bit sarcastically. "Yeah, we could have not done anything just because we don't like making people angry. But..."

Carly Smithson: "You also can't deny people making music, that that's what is in their blood."

LeCompt (more sarcastic now): "Oh my God, we're making music. Crap!"

Moody: "I can't really respond to someone else feeling threatened. We just do what we do. The rest of the world keeps spinning."

They are the fallen... and they can get up!

We Are the Fallen performed two songs at a Hollywood press conference recently, one being the brand new "Bury Me Alive" (which was briefly available as a free download at their website before being switched to stream-only status). The other was the Evanescence oldie "Going Under." This was clear notice that We Are the Fallen do intend to play material from their past on tour. I noticed Moody exchanging a big grin with LeCompt while they played the old tune's monstrous riff. Was that smile a giveaway that this felt like a coming-out moment for Moody, after he'd worked behind the scenes for the last six years (cowriting songs for everyone from Avril Lavigne to Daughtry)? Or was it just a particularly happy riff?

"It's not a happy riff!" Moody protested. "Honestly, what made me happy was, it was an interesting moment to look over and see this particular lineup, for a multitude of reasons. The old and the new. And it had to do with playing that song. We had a moment, John and I. It was very nice.... For me, personally, I was very much a part of something for a lot of years of my life—for a huge chunk of my life. And it was my life. And then when that changed, there was a big hole, and nothing I could do could fill it. I've had a lot of different successes and different things, and had a lot of adventure, and done a lot of crazy (stuff)..."

At this point, Smithson started cracking up at some private joke another band member had whispered, and she refused to share it with the class. Moody looked confused at the interruption. "I have no idea what is happening right now," he protested. "What, is my fly open?... Oh, did I say something sexual? Here's the thing: You can't say anything without somebody in the room having said that same thing about something sexual. Anyway, yes, I filled my hole...with these dudes. It was great. I feel like I'm home again... Moment lost! What is wrong with you guys?"

Smithson: "I think this will be the most awkward interview we will ever do."

LeCompt: "I don't think so. They're just gonna get worse."

Smithson (rolling her eyes): "Oh, great."

It'll be interesting to see what kind of chemistry develops in We Are the Fallen, particularly between Moody and Smithson, who just seemed to be realizing here what she was getting into. Moody is probably one of the funniest guys in rock, although you wouldn't necessarily guess his levity from the consistently angst-ridden material he's written over the years. And maybe that humor is not for everyone, or every frontwoman. I flew out to Little Rock, Arkansas in 2003 to hang with Moody and Amy Lee when Fallen was just starting to take off, and it was fascinating to witness their tag-team interplay. They were both obviously very strong personalities, with Lee also exhibiting far more of a sense of humor than I expected from the heavy lyrics and goth imagery—though I could see her getting genuinely perturbed when Moody started verbally riffing on the wholehad-they-ever-been-lovers-or-hadn't-they question, joking in a very meta fashion that there might be multiple layers of truth and fiction to that rumor. I wasn't completely shocked when their partnership blew up shortly afterward, just a few months into their mutual stardom. I suspect that Smithson may have more of a go-with-the-flow attitude, but we'll see.

Something fairly immediate came out of that story I did for Entertainment Weekly in early 2003, which is that Evanescence either got kicked out of or made a deliberate leap out of Christian music. At that nascent moment in their stardom, they were being promoted in Christian stores and had their first single topping the Christian rock chart, but it was clear from both Lee's and Moody's attitudes that this was not where they were meant to be. I quoted Lee as saying, ""I guarantee that if the Christian bookstore owners listened to some of those songs, they wouldn't sell the CD," and Moody as saying, ""We're actually high on the Christian charts, and I'm like, What the f--k are we even doing there?" Reaction was swift, with their label president asking religious retail to pull the album before the stores even had a chance to do it themselves. That week, a rep for the label told me that my EW article had just cost them millions of dollars in potential sales... little realizing how much huger Evanescence was about to come without any supplementary support from that market.

When I reminded Moody about all this, he suddenly became my best friend, coming over for a hug. "That was you!" he said, embracing me. "Actually, technically, you didn't cost anyone millions of dollars, because our sales went up 20% that week. No, more than 20%L They went from 80,000 to 110,000 the following week. Thank you. That's hilarious, man." He looked over to Smithson, who seemed mystified by this ancient history. "I said all that stuff that got me kicked out of all kinds of stores. It's funny, because I thought it was America."

Moody didn't worry about ditching a few potential sales then, and he's being equally maverick now. The group's plan is to release a couple of new songs digitally every few months, then possibly put out a physical CD when an album's worth of those tracks is already out there and waiting to be compiled.

It'll also be interesting to watch how the fans react when both We All the Fallen and Amy Lee's newfangled version of Evanescence hit the road, playing some of the same songs live. There are some loose precedents for this in popular music: For a long time, two different versions of the Beach Boys were on the road, even as Brian Wilson was doing some of the same stuff as a solo act; various lawsuits ensued. Roger Waters and David Gilmour were both out on the road a few years ago, flogging the same Pink Floyd material.

And Velvet Revolver and Audioslave are examples of bands which essentially carried on with new frontmen and new names. But with those groups, there was a definite stylistic change, on top of a switch of singers. But from what little we've heard of We Are the Fallen, it seems altogether possible that they'll sound more like circa-2003 Evanescence than Amy Lee has any desire to anymore. And that could raise some real loyalty issues for the faithful.

So should we consider We Are the Fallen a brand new band, or a continuation of 2003 Evanescence after a six-year layoff and slight lineup change, or both?

"It is both," answered Moody. "It is not a continuation of the band so much as a continuation of our journey together. And for the five of us, this is our first time together, so it is something completely new. And, I believe, autonomous from our past."

That may well be. But some of us still can't help hankering for a good, old-fashioned, "This town ain't big enough for the both of us" rock & roll feud.