Review | Alice Cooper – The Revenge Of Alice Cooper

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When the press release landed, I was immediately corked with excitement. The original Alice Cooper band reunited after more than fifty years, with long serving knob turner Bob Ezrin at the helm. Unleashing ‘The Revenge of Alice Cooper’ upon a world that thought it had seen every trick in the shock-rock book. ,,This is not a comeback”, Alice declared, ,,this is unfinished business.”

The anticipation was electric, and as the first single ,,Black Mamba” slithered onto playlists, complete with a cameo by The Doors’ Robby Krieger, the message was clear: the master of macabre had returned, not to relive the past, but to reclaim it and twist it into something new. This album was worth the weight. This album cuts volumes!

The album opens with Alice’s talking and whispering, sending shivers down your spine.  ,,Black Mamba” is the exact venomous slice of vintage horror rock that evokes the spirit of timeless classics like ,,Killer” and ,,Billion Dollar Babies”. Especially the vintage vibe that echoes is impressive. Dunaway’s bass snarls, Smith’s drums boom with clarity, and Alice’s voice is all menace and misdemeanour. Creeping through the verses before the band explodes into a yielding riff-heavy chorus. Cooper’s “ya ya ya ya ya ya ya ya…” circles around the chorus with the guitar wailing and weeping. It all links to his past album ‘Road’, hinting back at his illustrious past, the reunion ahead.

70S MOMENTUM

,,Wild Ones” follows, a rebellious charge that’s already ignited fan forums and YouTube with its punky raw energy, echoing the band’s golden era while sounding utterly vital for 2025. Bruce’s guitars and the drums are perfectly captured by Ezrin, who injects the classic contemporary parading energy. The slow droning ,,Up All Night” has Alice growling and snarling with heavy phrased vocal lines, with the song gradually building into the 70s momentum and little glitches of glam and disco resonating.

,,Kill The Flies” opens with a haunting music-box reminiscent tune. Guitars weep, keys drizzle into the mix, the drums at parading stance. The hypnotic verse and chorus are resonating with 60s psychedelic accolades. Alice growls and sings, touching all registers, evoking a spooky tenure that appeals. Keys keep the adrenaline high, the former a nocturnal anthem and the latter a darkly playful stomp, each track dripping with the kind of theatricality only Alice can conjure.

SPAGHETTI WESTERN

But it’s not just nostalgia at play. ,,One Night Stand” sees the band exploring new territory, with an Americana gritty subnote, of clean guitars reverberating around the droning low bass puling it forward. It is spaghetti western tinged sinister extravaganza, the synergy of Alice Cooper and Ennio Morricone. Amazing!

,,Blood On the Sun” shows a band unafraid to stretch, blending classic shock-rock with a modern fresh punch. The production crisp yet gloriously unpolished, as if recorded in Manson’s haunted garage in 1969.

,,Crap That Gets in the Way of Your Dreams” is pure Cooper wit. It’s tongue-in-cheek, self-awareness, and laced with the sardonic humour that has always set him apart, all unify in this biographical contemporary strutting track. The guitarsolo bites and ‘grins’ with classic 70s reverb and pitch, with Bruce trading guitar duties with Gyasi Heus and Rick Tedesco, filling in for the late Glen Buxton (R.I.P. 1997).

PSYCHEDELIC ROOTS

,,Famous Face” and ,,Money Screams” dig into the dark side of fame and fortune, their hooks as sharp as the classic Cooper-guillotine, while ,,Inter Galactic Vagabond Blues” and ,,What a Syd” tip the hat to the psychedelic roots that first made Alice a household name. The latter has piano-bar grin to it, with great bass lines deployed into the sizzling guitar strut. Alice at his best, evoking a sniff and a tear amid his sinister narrative vocal presence.

The album’s emotional peak comes with ,,What Happened to You”, a stomping roadhouse piano track with bluesy grin. The track features a posthumous guitar performance from the late Glen Buxton, bringing the band full circle. The track is a ghostly reunion of the band’s musical prowess, a bridge between past and present, and a reminder of the band’s unbreakable bond, being reunited after 5 decades. It is brooding with class.

,,I Ain’t Done Wrong” with its guitar hook and clean drums hitting, while Alice evokes a ,,Hoochie Coochie Man” vibe, unites contemporary rock and blues with scorching glamrock and spooky drama. The album closer ,,See You on The Other Side” brings the curtain down with a mix of swagger and sentiment. It’s a summarization of the hindsight of life, the ride and times flying by. It’s the story of reflection and retrospect, with Alice looking back on his trip leading to this reunion. Much like his previous album reflected on his personal career and personal highs and lows, the song reflects on the turbulent times with the band Alice Cooper. A soft, haunting farewell that lingers long after the final note. Gripping, to say the least. A nod to pledge farewell.

BONUS TRACKS

There’s 2 bonus tracks available on the extended version. ,,Return of the Spiders” is a studio recording, a demo version with harmonica and strumming bass and drum. Raw and energetic, with Alice revealing his full vocal potential. Evil and sinister, ,,Titanic Overunderture” is a short track easily to be featured on the album, though entirely different. It resonates the freeze and despair of the ship’s final minutes, perfectly captured by Alice’s narrative vocals and the droning organs that accompanies the vocals. It’s a short interlude that could hint at a new concept album but falls out of place when you hold  the final bow of ,,See You on the other Side” to the light.

RECAPTURING THE MAGIC OF THE 70S

The recording band is a dream for diehard rockers and fans alike: Alice Cooper on vocals, Michael Bruce on guitar, Dennis Dunaway on bass, and Neal Smith on drums. The lineup that defined the genre of shock rock. The addition of guitarists Gyasi Heus and Rick Tedesco fills out the sound, but it’s the chemistry of the original quartet that gives the album its pulse and spirit. The writing and recording sessions in an old-school Connecticut studio, were about recapturing the magic of the 70s. They succeeded! The energy, the mischief, the sense of brotherhood, it’s all here, undimmed by time. A time capsule for the masses, without sounding dated.

At the centre of it all is Bob Ezrin, the architect of Alice Cooper’s most iconic albums. His fingerprints are everywhere: the cinematic arrangements, the balance of chaos and clarity, the ability to coax both menace and melody from the band. Ezrin’s legacy with Alice is legendary. ‘Love It to Death’, ‘Killer’, ‘School’s Out’, ‘Billion Dollar Babies’, and 11 more solo albums by Alice including 1975’s epic release ‘Welcome to My Nightmare’. His return signals not just a reunion, but a restoration of the sound and spirit that made Alice Cooper a household name. Ezrin’s work with Pink Floyd, Kiss, and Lou Reed is well documented, but it’s his partnership with Alice that remains his most enduring creation. A collaboration built on shared vision, and a mutual understanding forging the character Alice Cooper became and (of course) truly is.

ALICE COOPER – THE CONCLUSION

The band is still so musically viable, and the album’s atmosphere, tone, and Alice’s ever-theatrical vocal delivery are poignant as ever. ‘The Revenge of Alice Cooper’ is a high-voltage journey into vintage horror and classic ‘70s shock rock the band and Alice himself crafted. with tracks like ,,Wild Ones” and ,,Black Mamba” already earning heavy rotation on playlists and radio. The sense of legacy is palpable, but so is the sense of fun. This band is unburdened by nostalgia, playing as if they have nothing left to prove and everything left to say.

‘The Revenge of Alice Cooper’ is more than a reunion, it’s a resurrection and return to form, emphasizing the enduring power of friendship. For old fans, it’s a return to the haunted playground of their youth. For new listeners, it’s a masterclass in how to make rock and roll both dangerous and irresistible.

The nightmare never ends!

Release date: 25 July 2025