Band : Alice Cooper
Album title : Along Came A Spider
Label : Steamhammer
Distributor : SPV - CNR
Release date : 29/07/2008
Release : CD

You know, each new Alice Cooper is always somewhat of a party to me, and with this 25th studio album things sure ain't different. Before going into the music, let me first tell you that Along Came A Spider is again a concept album with a typical Alice Cooper horror story about this immaginary serial killer called Spider, who cuts off a leg of each of his 8 victims before rapping 'em in a silk spiderweb...and you get the story told through the voice of the arachnaphobic psychopath (after a short "sound sample" from a female FBI agent).

Musically, things are (courageously) taken back to the sounds of early '70s Bluesey Garage Rock, and things actually sound like as if they're played with vintage instruments...but recorded with the modern modalities of technology. With Alice co-producing with Danny Saber and Greg Hampton (who also add some musical contributions), the album was recorded with Cooper's live band including guitarists Kerry Kelly and Jason Hook, bassist Chuck Garrick, and drummer Eric Singer (of Kiss fame). Guests on the album are backing singer Bernard Fowler, Slash (plays the guitar solo on "Vengeance Is Mine"), and non other than Ozzy Osbourne (not in the capacity of singer, but playing the mouth harmonica on the song "Wake The Dead"...incredible, uh?).

You can listen to the whole (complete) album at myspace.com/officialalicecooper (where you can also find a number of videos which I had no time to check out, as I had to hurry getting info for a number of albums prior to having a short vacation...yeah, because even when I'm on a vacation I àm still occupied with the "job" of music reviewer! About the MySpace page, check out the blogs carefully, because there's freebees to be won), and witness the great music on the new album without even having to leave your seat...ain't that wonderful? Alice Cooper went out on a world tour in July, and to check out the dates, surf to www.alicecooper.com!

I read somewhere that this album has been a year in the making...but the end product certainly was worth the wait! To me, Along Came A Spider is a worthy entry in my "Best Albums Of 2008"-list, and I hope you'll be treating it the same way. And, by the way, the album will also be available in a special but limited first edition (I've no intel on possible bonuses on it), and vinyl adicts can see their wet dreams come true with the LP version!

98/100

Tony.