Revolver magazine is reporting that EVANESCENCE have set “The Open Door” as the title of the follow-up to their multi-platinum major label debut, “Fallen”, tentatively due in August via Wind-Up Records. The upcoming CD will be the group’s first since the departure of guitarist/chief songwriter Ben Moody, who quit in 2003.

In November, Moody’s replacement, Terry Balsamo (ex-COLD), was rushed to the hospital after suffering a stroke caused by a torn neck artery. And December brought a flurry of lawsuits between singer Amy Lee and her former manager, whom she accused of professional negligence and sexual assault.

“Yeah there’s been some drama,” Lee told Revolver. “When we started recording, I was in a pretty dark place — there were nights where I’d stand in the backyard, turn up PINK FLOYD really loud and jump in the pool with my clothes on. It was a tearful, rough time.”

Eventually, though, Lee turned a corner and decided to “clip out all the black spots” in her life; that’s when her role as the group’s new main songwriter began to bloom. “With Ben it was always, ‘No, no, that’s not commercial enough,’” she told Revolver, “It’s so liberating not to have someone standing over me constantly shooting my ideas down.

“I don’t want to insult my first record, because I love it,” she continued. “But I love this 10 times more — it’s sexier. On the first one I was young and small and afraid to express myself. Now I’m talking from my true heart — which isn’t always miserable.”