The enchanter of terror Alice Cooper is back with the concept album “Along Came A Spider”, the 25^th of his, if I haven’t lost count of the enormous discography by this living rock music legend. We are talking about an artist that managed to combine rock music with stage show and terror like no one else and leave his mark on countless heavy music bands, creating the so called shock rock. 

“Along Came A Spider” and the rock horror show, ladies and gentlemen, in your stereo. This is the musical presentation of a horror story with a serial killer named Spider as the protagonist, who traps his female victims by silk made web and removes one of their legs. The goal of the schizoid killer is the collection of eight legs, so as to create his own spider. But the love he feels for his eight victim complicates things in his already disturbed mind… 

Musically, the album is moving towards both Alice’s older and current period slightly leaning towards to the classic Alice Cooper sound. From hard rock, garage sounds to industrial guitar forms with the glam feel overtoned. In the 11 songs of the record, Alice Cooper steps heavily on his past without denying elements from his contemporary sound. With co-producers and composers Danny Saber (Black Grape, Rolling Stones, Ozzy Osbourne, David Bowie) and Greg Hampton (Bootsy Collins, Buckethead) Alice Cooper creates a modern sound that elevates the compositions and is familiar to younger rock music listeners. 

The first song of the cd “I know where you live” has a very 70’s glam feel while the next tracks “Vengeance is mine”, “Wake the dead” and “Catch me if you can” are harder and darker. In “Vengeance is mine” Slash offers his participation, while in “Wake the dead” Ozzy except his participation in the composition also plays the harmonica. Tracks worth to be mentioned, without considering any of the rest lacking in quality, are the “Wrapped in Silk”, an up-tempo hard/boogie song, the ballad “Killed by Love”, an awesome return to the 70’s as well as the other calm moment of the record “Salvation” with the piano in focus as the lead instrument. 

“Along Came A Spider” is not a super hit album and requires time from the listener. Anyway, this is the magic of concept albums. They are revealed step by step. Nevertheless, it contains all the classic Alice Cooper elements adjusted harmonically to the modern musical reality. Alice’s friends hungry for inspired shock rock will satisfy their appetite while the rest unsuspicious listeners when listening to “Along Came A Spider” will be caught in its web and discover its attractive and peculiar world.