Amy Lee has long sung about "Going Under." Six months after her fans began singing along with her when Evanescence's second single hit the radio, she's about to reach her destination.

Evanescence are heading Down Under to New Zealand for the first date of a brief three-continent tour that will culminate in the band's return to North America. The goth-metal group's fourth tour of the States since the album Fallen was released in March kicks off February 11 in Los Angeles, according to Wind-Up Records spokesperson.

Nine stops on the trek have been confirmed thus far -- through February 24 -- and a few additional dates are expected.

Just prior to the start of the Stateside outing, Evanescence will swing by the Staples Center in Los Angeles for the 46th annual Grammy Awards, where they're nominated for five awards, including Album of the Year (see [article id="1480933"]"Jay-Z, Beyonce, Outkast, Pharrell Nab Most Grammy Nominations"[/article]).

The entire tour begins January 8 in Auckland, New Zealand, and six shows in Australia round out Evanescence's Down Under duty. From there, they embark on 10-date traipse through Japan that ends with the Sonicmania festival on January 31 in Osaka and February 1 in Tokyo, where they'll share stages with Korn, Finch and Slipknot.

Lee won't have to travel very far for the tour's kickoff. She spent the last few weeks

in South Africa with her boyfriend, Shaun Morgan of the band Seether. Although she wasn't on the bill, Lee made a few cameo appearances at the South African band's shows, according to her spokesperson.

Evanescence's shows in San Jose, California; Champaign, Illinois; Saint Cloud, Minnesota; Madison, Wisconsin; and Fort Wayne, Indiana, are makeup dates for a handful of shows that were canceled in November, in the wake of founding guitarist Ben Moody's abrupt departure in the middle of a European tour (see [article id="1480560"]"Evanescence Postpone A Dozen Dates of North American Tour"[/article]). At the time, no explanation for the postponement was given, but Lee later said the atmosphere around the band just wasn't right to carry on without Moody.

"It just wasn't coming together," Lee said last month in Los Angeles. "It was one of those things where we were so busy in Europe, running around. So we were playing shows in Europe, and everything was happening at once, with Ben and everything. It was kind of like, 'All right, let's take two weeks to chill.' "

Cold's Terry Balsamo will take Moody's spot on the forthcoming outing, as he did for Evanescence's last trek in November (see [article id="1483876"]"Evanescence Soldier On Without Ben Moody, Look Forward To Recording"[/article]). That tour found Finger Eleven, Godhead and Seether as openers. Finger Eleven have been pegged to open the upcoming Australian leg, though warm-up acts have yet to be announced for the North American tour.

Upon the trek's close in March, Lee plans to begin writing Evanescence's follow-up to Fallen, which sold more than 3.3 million copies in 2003, according to SoundScan, to become last year's best-selling debut album by a group and third-best-selling album of 2003 overall. And just as her collaboration with 12 Stones' Paul McCoy helped make "Bring Me to Life" the album's first hit, Lee is hoping for similar teamwork on her band's next album.

"I've talked to people I want to write with," she said. "I love working with other people; it's just a cool thing. I'm really looking forward to the writing process. It's my favorite part."

Evanescence tour dates, according to Wind-Up Records: