There’ve been teasers, live showcases across Alice’s 2017 UK tour, a brace of tracks on 2021’s Detroit Stories, but the four surviving original Alice Cooper group alumni haven’t recorded a full studio album together since 1974’s Muscle Of Love. Until now.
Bassist Dennis Dunaway, drummer Neal Smith and rhythm guitarist Michael Bruce have long indicated their willingness to embark upon such a project, but Alice took his time fully warming to the notion. Obviously, he’d the most to lose, but a feeling that things could never be the same without lead guitarist Glen Buxton – who died in ’97 – proved hard to shake. Ultimately, though, following numerous warm-ups and dry runs, the time seemed right. After all, with 80 on the near horizon for everyone involved, if not now, when?
Bob Ezrin’s a shoo-in producer, as much an architect of the AC sound as anyone. Having him man the board for this long-anticipated return is a no-brainer, and he recreates their signature sonic landscape with chutzpah to spare. But lead guitarist? Glen Buxtons don’t exactly grow on trees.
Enter dirty-blond glam-slag Gyasi Heus, perhaps not as fag-dangling, square-jawed and pugilistic as Buxton, but thankfully more product of garage than of the Vai Academy.
The Revenge… clocks in at 16 tracks (in the 70s four would have been bound for B-sides and the album would’ve been better for it, but here we are). Discount the fillers, which are still of high, if throwaway, quality and you’ve a strong 12-banger cracker of a record.
Lead single Black Mamba recalls The Black Widow, all menacing vocal melodrama and understated Robby Krieger cameo, current pull-out Wild Ones (the first Dunaway co-written AC single since Under My Wheels) ups the tempo and finds Gyasi proving his worth in style, while priapic rocker Up All Night finds Alice insisting, over a serpentine Mike Bruce riff, that he can ‘keep it up all night’ – bold talk for a 77-year-old.
Kill The Flies places AC in straitjacketed, institutionalised Dwight Fry comfort zone, Blood On The Sun is prog-leaning Killer Coop in excelsis - the ensemble work during its central guitar solo is simply majesterial. Return Of The Spiders 2025 takes School’s Out down a loose-ass Slick Black Limousine back alley before Pretties For You escapee Titanic Overunderture neatly closes the AC career circle. There’s so much more here, but I’ve said enough already.
Get your wallet out, man, you’re a long time dead.
