Alice Cooper
Brutal Planet

BRUTAL PLANET (2000, EAGLE) Six years after "The Last Temptation," his last studio album, Alice Cooper returns to the scene with a deeply dark record, built on heavy and aggressive riffs: the simple melodies are gone, now the illusionist from Detroit focuses on politically engaged lyrics combined with a granite sound and a massive but judicious use of cutting-edge technologies. The producer is Bob Ezrin, who mentored Cooper in the glorious seventies (and was instrumental in the success of many other famous bands, like Kiss and Pink Floyd), supported in this task by Bob Marlette, a well-known multi-instrumentalist who also handles rhythm guitar, bass, and keyboards. Behind the drums, the evergreen Eric Singer, former Kiss drummer, stands out, while a great sonic embroidery work is carried out by the trio of axe-men consisting of China, Phil X, and Ryan Roxie.

The task of opening the album's dance is entrusted to the devastating "Brutal Planet," where amidst sharp guitars and decadent atmospheres, Natalie Delaney's sweet voice peeks through. Following is "Wicked Young Man" which brings to mind the mad massacre of Columbine High School; after passing the excellent "Sanctuary," almost a hyper-technological punk song (with all the paradoxes of the case: some would call it "cyberpunk"...), we arrive at "Blow me a Kiss," a piece Cooper dedicates to all the outcasts, denouncing any form of racism as a breeding ground for stupidity and ignorance. "Eat Some More" is the ideal introduction to the masterpiece of the album, the macabre ballad "Pick Up The Bones," a now legendary track in which Alice focuses on the ethnic conflict situation in Kosovo, giving us the most beautiful anti-militarist anthem since the Guns N' Roses' "Civil War." We thus arrive at "Gimme," an interesting song and the first single from the album, accompanied by a video in which the Detroit rocker ironically (self)portrays himself as the Evil One. "It's the Little Things" represents the anthem of the triumphant comeback branded Vincent Fournier: "welcome to my nightmare – no more mr. nice guy" is the chorus that violently resounds in the air and brands this composition. "Take it Like a Woman," a very sweet ballad, preludes "Cold Machines," a bitter and poetic industrial-styled track through which, if there was ever any need, Alice demonstrates to the world his ability to surpass all his '90s emulators (notably the equally valid White Zombie and Marilyn Manson) by confronting them on their own playing field.

The sharp songwriting that inflamed the audiences in the '70s is fully renewed in "Brutal Planet," a record in which Alice Cooper returns forcefully to roar, intelligently painting the terrible fresco of a world torn apart by hatred.