New album with old band: Alice Coopers 70s trip: Nobody can separate good friends

Alice Cooper caused a sensation with a crashing hard rock, theatrical appearance and stage shows that combine music with elements from horror, cabaret to circus. It was originally a band name, but finally Frontmann Vincent Furnier became Alice Cooper. Before he started his solo career in 1975, the band took up seven studio albums. 50 years later, the elderly musicians teamed up for an eighth.

“The Revenge of Alice Cooper” is the name of the new longplayer, which Alice Cooper – the name has been in his passport since then – has recorded again with Michael Bruce (guitar), Dunaway (bass) and Neal Smith (drums). “These are my oldest friends from school,” says the singer in a good mood in the interview of the German Press Agency in London.

Reunion of old friends: “There was no evil blood”

“When the band dissolved at the time, it was not a divorce, we just went separate paths,” says Cooper (77). “There was no evil blood. Nobody sued anyone. We stayed in touch all the time.” On his last (solo) albums, Bruce (77, guitar), Dunaway (78, bass) and Smith (77, drums) already had guest appearances.

And so it only seemed a matter of time before more became. “I finally said: Why don’t we put a complete album together?” No sooner said than done. Cooper’s long -time fellow campaigner, successful producer Bob Ezrin, was also on board immediately.

“He was the captain with all our great hitalben,” says Cooper about Ezrin, who was responsible for successful albums such as “Love It To Death” (1971), “School’s Out” (1972) or “Billion Dollar Babies” (1973) and later produced various solo habits. “What George Martin was for the Beatles was Bob Ezrin for us,” says the singer. Ezrin is largely responsible for his successful career.

Musical journey through time: “accidentally made a 1975 album”

Songs such as “Black Mamba” (with Doors guitarist Robbie Krieger as a guest), “Wild Ones” or “Kill the Flies” are reminiscent of the early works of the band Alice Cooper, although according to the front man it was not explicitly planned. Because every musician brought his own song ideas. “We accidentally did a 1975 album,” says Cooper and laughs. “I guess it’s just because we as a band play together.”

One was missing in the studio: Lead guitarist Glenn Buxton died in 1997, but can still be heard in the song “What happened to you” – thanks to an old demo recording from Dunaway’s archive and modern technology. “We extracted a guitar reef from Glenn Buxteon by an old band and wrote a song around it,” explains Cooper, “so that Glenn could also be on the album.”

Serial killer and a lyrics from film titles

As usual at Alice Cooper, the texts are ambiguous, funny and often macabre. Almost every song tells a story. “One Night Stand” revolves around a serial killer who meets a woman in a bar and goes home with her. There he realizes that she too is a serial killer.

A small stroke of genius is “Blood on the Sun”, whose text consists exclusively of old film titles – especially of war films and spy thrillers. “It sounds very poetic and very mysterious,” says Cooper and laughs. “If you put the film titles together, it sounds like saying something very important.”

Surprisingly, the singing of front man Alice also sounds different from the albums of the past few years or decades – a little nasty, a little darker, this cannot be described exactly. But Cooper notices it himself. “It’s so strange,” he says. “When I work with the original band, I automatically switch to another voice. I don’t know why. It just happens. It’s unconscious, but I noticed it myself.”

It is no coincidence that the drawn album cover is reminiscent of scary films from the 1970s. In addition, the self-ironic slogan: “The comeback album that the world was afraid of.” But fans have nothing to fear. Quite the opposite.

The new LP ties in musically, sound and spirit to the early classics of the band Alice Cooper. Production is more modern and fresher. Apart from that, “The Revenge of Alice Cooper” is actually like a 70s Hardrock album-in the best sense.