Alice Cooper - Along Came A Spider (2008)

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"Along Came a Spider" is the 25th full length release by Alice Cooper.

For those of you only born in the last couple of decades, and have no clue who Alice Cooper is, let me enlighten you.

He is the Marilyn Manson of the 1970’s, shock rock’s father and the undisputed poster boy of adolescent angst for your parents. If you can’t find an album in your parents CD or, more likely, record collection - head out to your local music retailer and grab a copy of the 1975 
"Welcome To My Nightmare" from the nearest bargain bin

Listen to the whole thing - from start to finish - and only then continue reading!

With that out of the way, Alice Cooper obviously hasn't fried every brain cell (which is hard considering the number of years he's been rocking), has written for us a concept album.

The album follows a story of serial killer by the name of Spider, who kills eight girls, removing a leg from each to create a human spider of his own - as explained in the epilogue.

Cooper himself referred to the killer as "an arachnophobic psychopath", which is a pretty damn impressive number of syllables for a man who has toured for at least thirty years.

Musically, this is a rock album from the 1980s for the new generation with guest appearances by Ozzy Osbourne and Slash.

Granted Ozzy plays harmonica on the track Wake The Dead (which pretty much cancelled out any vocal or writing roles), but he was still there!

Slash on the other hand contributes guitar to the first single Vengeance Is Mine which I must say is one hell of a rocking track. Guitar solo after guitar solo, if the music industry wasn’t dominated by RnB and Hip Hop, this would be in the Top 40.

Alas, it will probably never be played to the masses, and your parents have probably have long forgotten about poor ol' Alice.

After the first few songs you find yourself listening to the tracks (In Touch With) Your Feminine Side and Wrapped In Silk which both contain elements that could easily be found on an AC/DC album. As much as 'Acca Dacca' pains me, these songs really did fit the flow of the album and I hesitate at the thought of calling them filler tracks.

Other standout songs include the rock ballad Salvation and the slow but heavy I Am The Spider.

"Along Came A Spider" is definitely worth a listen. Anyone else who can sing the words to Cold Ethyl off-by-heart should definitely pick this up to see how the man has progressed over the years.

Other than that, everyone else who likes 80’s style hard rock (or any song that has ever appeared on a version of guitar hero) will love this album.

Welcome Back, Mr Cooper!

RATING: 3 out of 5

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