Amanda Lyberg has always believed music could change lives. Villainous proves she was right.
Some interviews stick with you.
As someone who’s been fortunate enough to sit down with hundreds of musicians over the years, there are moments that inevitably blur together. Tour announcements. Album promotions. Stories you’ve heard before. But every now and then, an artist says something that plants a seed, and years later you find yourself watching it grow.
That’s exactly what happened with Amanda Lyberg.
Long before Eva Under Fire became one of Better Noise Music’s fastest-rising bands, Amanda and I spent the better part of an hour talking about everything except becoming rock stars. We talked about addiction. Mental health. Family. Loss. Purpose. I joked that maybe I’d get a free counseling session out of the interview because, after all, Amanda wasn’t just the powerhouse vocalist of Eva Under Fire—she was also a licensed psychologist.
What struck me wasn’t her résumé. It was her perspective.
She told me she wasn’t sure whether she’d spend her life helping people one-on-one through therapy or hundreds at a time through music. To Amanda, they weren’t competing careers. They were simply two different ways of creating honest human connection.
Listening to Villainous, I couldn’t help but think back to that conversation.
She figured it out.
She’s doing both.
From the opening moments of “Awakening,” Eva Under Fire doesn’t ease listeners into the experience. They kick the door open. The song feels less like an introduction and more like a declaration that this band has arrived with something to say. It’s cinematic, confident, and instantly reminds you why modern hard rock is at its best when melody and muscle work together instead of competing for attention.
That momentum carries straight into “My Own Name,” a track that feels tailor-made for blasting through your speakers with the windows down. The riffs have attitude, the chorus is infectious without feeling manufactured, and Amanda’s vocals continue to prove why I’ve compared her to artists like Lzzy Hale and Amy Lee in the past. The difference today? Those comparisons don’t feel nearly as necessary anymore.
Amanda Lyberg has become Amanda Lyberg.
That’s no small accomplishment.
One thing that immediately stands out throughout the first half of Villainous is how effortlessly Eva Under Fire balances accessibility with authenticity. There’s no shortage of bands chasing the active rock formula these days. Massive choruses. Downtuned guitars. Big production. Eva Under Fire certainly has all of those ingredients, but what separates them is something that can’t be manufactured in a studio.
Believability.
Amanda doesn’t sound like someone writing lyrics because they rhyme.
She sounds like someone who’s lived every single one of them.
Years ago during our interview, Amanda opened up about losing her father to addiction and writing “Heroin” while sitting alone in tears, pouring what she described as pages ripped straight from her diary into a song that would eventually find its way onto the Sno Babies soundtrack. She wasn’t trying to write a hit. She was trying to survive.
That honesty has become the band’s greatest strength.
You hear it again in “Survive My Scars.” The title alone tells you exactly where this song is headed, but what impressed me wasn’t the vulnerability—it was the resilience. Plenty of artists write songs about pain. Far fewer know how to transform that pain into empowerment without sounding cliché. Amanda walks that line beautifully. Rather than inviting listeners to feel sorry for themselves, she reminds them they’ve already survived things they once thought would destroy them.
That’s a message the world could use a little more of.
Then comes the title track.
“Villainous.”
What a statement.
There’s an undeniable swagger running through this song, but it’s never confused with arrogance. It’s the confidence that comes from someone who’s spent years being underestimated and has finally decided to stop apologizing for taking up space. The guitars bite harder, the groove digs deeper, and Amanda delivers one of her strongest vocal performances on the record so far. She never feels like she’s trying to overpower the band. Instead, she commands the room with conviction.
One of my favorite moments on the album, however, comes with “Don’t Say I’m OK.”
If you’ve ever smiled through something you were secretly struggling to survive, this song is going to hit differently.
Back during our interview, Amanda said something I’ve never forgotten.
“Humans are messy. We’re broken. The only difference is awareness.”
That philosophy seems woven into the DNA of Villainous. These songs never pretend life is easy. They acknowledge the darkness without surrendering to it. That’s a remarkably difficult balance to achieve, especially in modern rock where it’s often tempting to lean too far into hopelessness or oversimplified positivity. Eva Under Fire manages to occupy the space in between, where real people actually live.
Musically, the band continues to evolve with confidence. The guitars deliver plenty of punch without burying the melodies, the rhythm section keeps everything driving forward, and the production strikes a satisfying balance between polished and powerful. Everything sounds radio-ready, but nothing feels sterile. There’s still grit beneath the surface, and that’s exactly where this kind of music belongs.
What impressed me most, though, wasn’t any particular riff or chorus.
It was consistency.
Every song feels like another chapter of the same conversation instead of simply another track on a playlist. That’s becoming increasingly rare in an era where singles often matter more than albums. Villainous feels like it wants to be experienced from beginning to end, and I appreciate that.
Looking back at my conversation with Amanda all those years ago, I remember joking that Nikki Sixx ought to take Eva Under Fire out on tour. I remember telling her she belonged on stages alongside Halestorm and Evanescence. At the time, it felt like an optimistic prediction.
Today?
It’s become a reality.
Based on the first half of Villainous, Eva Under Fire isn’t trying to become the next anyone.
They’re becoming the best version of themselves.
And that’s what makes this album so compelling.
Scotty J’s Rating (based on the material reviewed): 9.5/10
Villainous isn’t simply another collection of hard rock songs. It’s a reminder that the strongest artists aren’t the ones pretending they’ve conquered life’s battles—they’re the ones willing to invite us into the fight. Amanda Lyberg once told me she wanted to help people through music. Listening to Villainous, I’d say mission accomplished.
Pre-save/pre-order the upcoming Eva Under Fire album – ‘Villainous’ dropping Jul 10th here: https://evaunderfire.lnk.to/villainousalbum Listen to Eva Under Fire ft Maria Brink of In This Moment – ‘Villainous’ here: https://evaunderfire.lnk.to/villainous Buy tickets to Eva Under Fire’s tour here: https://www.bandsintown.com/a/11764836-eva-under-fire Shop Eva Under Fire merch here: https://evaunderfire.myshopify.com/
How far they’ve come since ‘Heavy On The Heart’. Check out this interview from 6 years ago!
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