Evanescence took center stage last night at the 2025 Game Awards in Los Angeles. Performing live from the Peacock Theatre on Thursday, December 11, the band delivered a powerful rendition of their single “Afterlife,” serving as a musical highlight for the annual ceremony celebrating the video game industry.
“Afterlife,” originally released in March 2025, has become a fixture in gaming culture this year as a featured track in Netflix’s animated series “Devil May Cry.” The show, produced by Studio Mir and created by Adi Shankar, is an adaptation of the iconic Capcom video game franchise.
Coinciding with the performance, Evanescence has unveiled a reimagined version of the song for the “Spotify Singles” series. This new iteration features British synthwave band Gunship, adding a darker, electronic texture to the track.
“We’ve been looking for an excuse to work with Gunship for too long, and I couldn’t be more excited about this dark new version of ‘Afterlife‘,” vocalist Amy Lee said in a statement. “Being a part of the ‘Devil May Cry‘ series has been an honor and too much fun.”
In a recent interview with Audacy Music, Lee revealed the origins of the song, explaining that it began as a remote collaboration with Mako, the composer for the “Devil May Cry” series.
“Netflix, via Mako… had this song started and reached out to me,” Lee explained. “We’d worked together once before on a Lindsey Stirling track during the pandemic. So, I made vocals to it, and we were kind of just communicating via e-mail. But he was, like, ‘Hey, check it out. Would this be cool? Would you sing on this?'”
Lee noted that what started as a guest spot quickly evolved into a full-blown band effort.
“That just snowballed into finishing the song together and then getting it, like, ‘This is an Evanescence song. Let’s get the band in here. And let’s just take this all the way,'” she said. “And us getting to go into the studio with [producer] Nick Raskulinecz, who we did our last two albums with… It kind of just happened, kind of fast.”
The Game Awards, established in 2014, honors the year’s best titles with awards such as “Game Of The Year” and the fan-voted “Players’ Voice.” Professional footage of Evanescence‘s performance from the broadcast is now available online.
