Alice Cooper
, the band, burned furiously through the late `60s and early `70s, ostensibly inventing shock rock and releasing seven records of gloriously bizarre rock & roll before
, the individual, went solo.
Cooper
, always the face and voice of the group, took the
name down various paths from 1975 onward, dabbling in new wave, hair metal, and other outlandish sounds while always keeping the theatrical intensity of the band's early days at the forefront of his music. On 2021's
Detroit Stories
,
reunited with the surviving members of the original
group -- guitarist
Michael Bruce
, bassist
Dennis Dunaway
, and drummer
Neal Smith
-- for just two songs.
The Revenge of Alice Cooper
finds this original lineup back intact for a brand-new set of songs, teaming once more with their original producer
Bob Ezrin
and working at an old-school recording studio for their first full album together since mid-'70s, one that seeks to recapture the energy, the sleaze, the fun, and the glorious weirdness of the band's earliest days. They tap back into this style almost effortlessly.
mutters and grumbles lyrics about life in a mental institution on the glammy ¿Kill the Files¿ and assumes the persona of a venomous snake on ¿Black Mamba,¿ a creepy, over-the-top rocker comprised of greasy riffs and even a special guest appearance by
Doors
guitarist
Robby Krieger
. The acoustic, psychedelic science fiction pop of ¿Blood on the Sun¿ hits the same marks as the less audacious, toned-down tracks on 1971's
Love It to Death
, and the gonzo blues of ¿I Ain't Done Wrong¿ has the same wah-wah slathered guitar tones of
Billion Dollar Babies
. The stomping rave-up ¿What Happened to You¿ even includes guitar parts recorded by original
band guitarist
Glen Buxton
before his death in 1997. It's the same kind of high-octane, ham-fisted rock & roll that this crew was making when they were young men, with tales of timeless debauchery playing out in biker bars, cheap hotels, and B-movie backdrops. Still, they don't completely set the time machine to the early `70s. The snotty, three-chord attitude of ¿Crap That Gets in the Way of Your Dreams¿ is punky and self-aware in a way that just didn't exist before 1977, and traces of the hair metal era linger in the funky riffs and bedroom brags of ¿Up All Night¿ and the midtempo blasting of ¿Famous Face.¿
successfully evokes the raw, irreverent magnificence of the band's salad days and presents enough new ideas to keep the album from being a total nostalgia trip. The band tries on glam rock throwbacks, monster movie creepfests, down and dirty rockers, and deep space soundtracks and sound like they're having the time of their lives regardless of which style they're approaching. 50 years later, these demented rock & roll outsiders pick right back up as if no time had passed at all, and they have a blast doing it. ~ Fred Thomas