Alice Cooper

The Coop is one savvy entertainer, yet he's either incapable or unwilling to refashion himself for the stoner rock scene, which would worship him even more if he simply released some old-school hard rock. Instead he dabbles in pop metal and industrial rock. Along Came a Spider, a concept album about a serial killer, continues this trend. And although it's one of Alice's more interesting and ambitious records since the late '70s, it would be great to hear him go retro and tour with the Sword.

At 60, Alice Cooper is still as brutal as ever: Along Came a Spider, his new concept album,
finds him singing from the perspective of a serial killer named Spider, who wraps his eight
victims in silk webs after cutting one leg off each person, creating one giant arachnid
monstrosity. While the lyrics are packed with Cooper's ghoulish punchlines — Spider sizes
up victims with come-ons like "You look like you'd fit in the trunk of my car" and... More >