Low bass growling into a plodding flumpy beat with whammy bar guitar flips, and a spoken intro of “Black Mamba” open The Revenge Of Alice Cooper, an Alice Cooper album that sees the reunion of the original band — Alice Cooper, Dennis Dunaway, Neal Smith, and Michael Bruce. Lead guitarists Gyasi Heus and Rick Tedesco help to keep things at a steady wailing form, with pretty much the sixth member of the band, Bob Ezrin, producing and co-writing a bunch of songs also.
Lest we forget, (and how could we really?), the original Alice Cooper fivesome: singer Alice Cooper, guitarists Michael Bruce and Glen Buxton, bassist Dennis Dunaway, and octopus-armed Neal Smith, defining rock theatricality with their sloppy yet unprecedented live performances, classic albums, and iconic singles. In 2021, the surviving members of the original band reunited to play a bit on Alice Cooper’s Detroit Stories album, sparking Ezrin and Cooper to consider this auspicious return.
There are plenty of delicious Alice Cooper tropes here, mixed in with an updated sound. We get Alice managing his talk-vocal thing plenty, most notably on “Kill The Flies,” an obvious companion to 1971’s “Ballad Of Dwight Fry.” He sings a “Billion Dollar Babies” reprise on the fade out of “Money Screams.” And the band’s always self-aware tongue-in-cheekiness is evident on the finger-snap strut nod to Cab Calloway’s “Minnie The Moocher,” a tune called “What a Syd,” (complete with its own ‘hi-dee-hi, ho-dee-hey’).
“Blood On The Sun,” is the album’s gem. The longest song among the rest, it features a slew of dramatic mood changes with probably the best lead playing on the whole album. The late Glen Buxton makes a posthumous guitar appearance on the tight rocker “What Happened To You.” It’s nice to hear some piano on this one as well. “See You on the Other Side,” the album’s only real ballad is surely set from an aged rocker’s perspective. It’s a touching way to close out the proceedings. Once again, Ezrin layers the backing vocals wonderfully, as he does throughout this album, and the poignancy hits home for a perfect ender.
The Revenge of Alice Cooper is a breath of fresh solid rock air, coming from a mature bunch of rockers who don’t sound tired, but rather like they’re having a grand old time being in each other’s company after so many years. Now, they’re getting their second wind.
~ Ralph Greco, Jr.
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