Along Came a Spider Alice Cooper Artist

Throughout his long career, {|Alice Cooper|} has taken full advantage of how concept albums allow for more ambitious songwriting and memorable, layered characters who get more than one song to tell their stories. They're always tortured stories with ... Read more

Throughout his long career, {|Alice Cooper|} has taken full advantage of how concept albums allow for more ambitious songwriting and memorable, layered characters who get more than one song to tell their stories. They're always tortured stories with social outcasts rebelling against turbulent childhoods or other traumatic whatnot, but this time the stakes are much higher. {|Along Came a Spider|} tells the story of an eccentric serial killer who suffers from the exact opposite of arachnophobia and lives by the spider's code of You trap, you kill, you eat. How he got there and why he chose spiders is a story better heard from {|Alice|} -- that is, if you're an undying fan of his less accessible concept piece {|From the Inside|} or his phantasmagorical horror show {|Welcome to My Nightmare|}. {|Spider|} has as few hooks as {|Inside|} and more than twice the sinister moments found on {|Nightmare|}, all delivered with a post-{|Rob Zombie|} attitude that allows things to get a little more brutal, more alt-metal. While the casual fan will feel that some of the less gripping songs are just here to move the story along, fanatics will gush as {|Alice|} once again acts as host and narrator and revives the character {|Steven|}, the young boy who broke all his toys on {|Nightmare|}. With a serial killer as lead and titles like {|(In Touch With) Your Feminine Side|} and {|The One That Got Away,|} {|Alice|} fills his lyrics with clever and gruesome wordplay, but the winner here is the only plausible single, {|Wake the Dead,|} which shockingly and shamelessly borrows the bassline from {|the Chemical Brothers|}' {|Let Forever Be.|} Guitarist {|Slash|}, {|Kiss|} drummer {|Eric Singer|}, and background vocalist extraordinaire {|Bernard Fowler|} all make appearances, while Renaissance man {|Danny Saber|} handles the production with co-producer {|Greg Hampton|}, which appropriately sounds soundtrack big. An easy recommendation for fan club members and/or serial killers. Everyone else has two or three better {|Cooper|} concepts to devour first. ~ David Jeffries Less