Evanescence’s video for “Call Me When You’re Sober”, the first single from the band’s upcoming “The Open Door” CD, will debut August 7 on MTV. According to MTV.com, the clip features singer Amy Lee wearing a red satin cape and sitting at an antiquated vanity. A young man — with crystal blue eyes and scruffy, overgrown facial hair and sideburns — approaches her from behind, caressing her shoulders and softly kissing her neck as she tries to rebuff his advances.

“The song is so literal, the lyrics and everything — I mean, obviously, just by the title — that we felt like the video would have the freedom to go in a less literal direction,” she explained. “So it’s [a modern re-imagining of] Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf and sort of a more cool, superhero, rock and roll Little Red Riding Hood.”

The debut of the “Call Me When You’re Sober” clip will precede the October 3 release of “The Open Door”, the follow-up to EVANESCENCE’s 2003 breakthrough, “Fallen”. The video is not expected to feature bassist William Boyd, who recently jumped the EVANESCENCE ship.

The song’s subject matter, Lee said, involves “something that everyone’s been through” — the frustration of “dealing with someone with an addiction, which is really hard, especially when you love someone.” Lee’s not so used to writing songs with literal meanings, though.

“It’s very new for us, and it’s fun, actually,” she said. “This album, I sort of pushed all my limits and did all the things maybe I wasn’t brave enough to do the last time or just that I’m older now and more mature and — I don’t know — a better writer. I worked a lot harder and I think that the songs are better and I’m excited. I wish the album was coming out next week.

“I feel like I have the ability to do a lot of things I couldn’t do before, for a number of reasons,” she continued. “As a musician, I feel like I can just do whatever. This album is completely the way I wanted it to be on every level, and it’s more of me and it’s more of my writing. A lot of doors have kind of been opened in my life — not just since everything has happened for us. But lately, I have kind of just learned to go, ‘OK, that’s it,’ and cut a few ties and move away — learn how to say ‘No’ and look for happiness.”