Wind-up’s Evanescence, otherwise known as Amy Lee and the guys, find The Open Door to #1 this week, with an impressive 408k debut, which was enough to set back Island’s The Killers, as the Vegas boys’ Sam’s Town chalks up one of the largest #2 debuts of the year with 318k.

Evanescence is also the fourth best selling debut this year

#1 is Rascal Flatts with 700+K
#2 is Justin with 600+K
#3 is Beyonce with 500+K
#4 is Evanescence with 400+K
#5 is Christina with 300+K

Evanescence is poised to debut at Number One on the Billboard Top 200 with its new album, The Open Door, according to Hits Daily Double. Early sales tracking predicts that the CD will sell between 350,000 and 400,000 copies in the U.S. in its first week of release. The Open Door came out this past Tuesday (October 3rd) and follows up the band’s six-million-selling 2003 major label debut, Fallen.

Singer Amy Lee told us she’s not worried about equaling the previous album’s sales: “I just haven’t ever looked at it that way. Fallen is a great record, but I don’t think you can try to match the success of another body of work. I think that’s only gonna frustrate you. And if, honestly if what you really care about is record sales and money, there’s no way you’re gonna make a great piece of art, because then you’re just gonna get all confused and make something ingenuine.”

The sophomore album from the Killers, Sam’s Town, is expected to land right behind Evanescence at Number Two, with sales north of 300,000.

The band began a 17-date North American tour last night (Thursday, October 5th) in Toronto, Canada.

Evanescence recorded The Open Door while dealing with its guitarist having a stroke, a legal battle with its former manager, and Lee’s public break-up with Seether’s Shaun Morgan.

The group recently recruited Revolution Smile bassist Tim McCord to replace departed bassist Will Boyd.

Amy Lee’s rock band Evanescence sold almost 14 million CDs worldwide, and this was her reward: Her songwriting partner, Ben Moody, abruptly quit the band; Terry Balsamo, who replaced him, had a stroke; and she broke up with her boyfriend, Shaun Morgan of Seether. Then she had to make a new record.

“There’s a lot of sensationalism right now about my whole story, that everything’s been really tough and dramatic and hard. And yes, there have been challenges, but this has been one of the best experiences in my entire life,” says Lee, 24, whose band performs Monday at the Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan, a week after Evanescence’s third album, “The Open Door” (Wind-Up), arrived in stores.

“I definitely feel like the challenges we’ve been through as a band have made us stronger,” Lee says. “It’s weird - bands break up all the time over things, and instead of letting the things that happen to us hurt us and let us get separated, we became a lot closer.”

In an hour-long conference call with several music writers, Lee firmly and charmingly deflects the most personal questions. Asked whether her new song “Call Me When You’re Sober” was related to Morgan’s checking himself into rehab last year, she says: “I don’t know…. I really hope that he’s doing great.”

Upbeat and occasionally bubbly, Lee’s phone personality contradicts her deadly serious vocal style - she has an almost operatic pitch, and it meshes nicely with the layered, piano-based metal of her quintet. Evanescence formed in the late ’90s, in Little Rock, Ark., when guitarist Moody coaxed pianist Lee into performing with him, and Moody pushed the band in a Christian direction. Since Moody left, Lee has distanced herself from that identity - “The Open Door” is more intensely personal than broadly spiritual.

Evanescence’s 2003 album, “Fallen,” jumped into Creed’s niche and became one of the decade’s biggest rock hits. To make the follow-up, Lee had to write songs with a new partner, Balsamo, who played guitar in the band South, then adjust emotionally after Balsamo suffered a stroke a year ago. (He’s recovering and back in Evanescence.) “‘Fallen’ did really, really well - better than we expected - and a lot has changed for our band in the lineup and everything else. More than anything, it [’Fallen’] gave us a lot of freedom this time around,” she says. “We could do whatever we wanted this time around and actually expand the box.”

On “The Open Door,” the band augments its dramatic gloom and doom with a choir and orchestra on several tracks, particularly the closing “Good Enough,” which is almost jarringly happy. “‘Good Enough’ is the best representation of the new me, and it was the last song written for the album,” Lee says. “‘Good Enough’ actually came out of feeling good, which is a big first for me because I’ve always felt like I have to be going through something, struggling with something, to write. Passionate, tragic things inspire my music, but I’ve realized that I don’t have to be sad to write a good song…. It makes me happy to hear it.”

Theresa Tayler of Dose.ca recently conducted an interview Evanescence frontwoman Amy Lee. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

On parting ways with songwriter/guitarist Ben Moody in 2003 while on tour in Europe:

“Ben was becoming very unhappy and going through personal things that I don’t think had anything to do with the band. He was making everything miserable for everyone, for a while there I thought, ‘Oh God, this band is just going to dissipate, Ben is going to bring us all down.’ ”

“When he left I felt like I could become a new person. We’re not friends, we do not talk. Sometimes it’s much, much healthier to just walk away. I know as much about what he does as everyone else does from the news. I think he’s writing music for people, mostly pop-stars, which is cool, I guess. I think it shows the artistic clash between us where he wanted to pull the music into something commercial and I wanted to be more innovative and try something more artistic.”

“When Ben left I felt like the guys really came through for me, for the first time I really needed to lean on them and they were there. They worked their butts off, John (LeCompt) reworked and learned all of his guitar parts for both guitars and he learned all the leads, we finished the European tour as a four-piece with out missing a single show. That was a big thing for me, for all of us. It made us feel really worthy, we knew we were good at what we do.”

On guitarist Terry Balsamo’s serious stroke in November 2005:

“I think we’ve all been inspired by how hard he’s worked, from the day after the stoke he wanted to be perfect at the guitar again, but it’s not easy. We love Terry so much there was no way we wouldn’t wait for him, he’s part of this band he’s part of creating this new album.”

On the new album, “The Open Door”:

“This new album is far better than the first. The first did really well and that’s wonderful but this is about a piece of work hands down and I really feel confident in it and I don’t care what people think.”

“I was only sharing part of myself on ‘Fallen’, the gloom and doom and the torment and pain things I needed to say back then. I’m in a different place now, my writing has become more broad. This album is stronger and more empowering, I’ve grown up and I know it’s not the end of the world anymore.”

Known for her introspective lyrics, Evanescence (tickets | music) frontwoman Amy Lee says it never crosses her mind during the writing process that millions of listeners may hear her innermost thoughts.

“I feel like I have so many things that are making me feel trapped or angry, and I have to get them out of my system,” Lee said during a recent press teleconference to promote “The Open Door,” her group’s recently issued studio set. “So I write them, and I have written even more personal lyrics this time around. I wasn’t thinking about it at all when I was writing. But then, now, I guess I’m starting to feel, not the consequences, but the byproducts of those things.

“It’s hard because I just have to keep reminding myself that it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks about me because they don’t know me. … I think there are probably tons of people out there that think I’m a total bitch. I’m just getting to the place now where I’m aware of that and starting to be OK with that, because I’m the kind of person who just wants everyone to love me.”

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