Alice Cooper
Raise Your Fist And Yell

THE REVIEW

ALICE COOPER - RAISE YOUR FIST AND YELL (1987, MCA)

TRACK LIST:

01) FREEDOM
02) LOCK ME UP
03) GIVE THE RADIO BACK
04) STEP ON YOU
05) NOT THAT KIND OF LOVE
06) PRINCE OF DARKNESS
07) TIME TO KILL
08) CHOP CHOP CHOP
09) GAIL
10) ROSES ON WHITE LACE

The collaboration between Alice Cooper and the burly guitarist Kane Roberts reaches its second chapter with this good piece of guitar-driven rock n'roll in pure '80s style.

“Raise Your Fist and Yell” is a heavier album compared to its direct predecessor “Constrictor” (1986), though it maintains a strong taste for melody, always a distinctive feature of the Detroit rockstar. The opener “Freedom”, for instance, settles on levels of sheer high power, characterized by a truly impelling performance from the competent rhythm section but also stands out thanks to a well-crafted and deliciously “catchy” chorus. The album proceeds showcasing Cooper's great talent only intermittently: alongside notable tracks like the dynamic “Prince of Darkness” (featured in the soundtrack of John Carpenter's great film “Prince of Darkness” in which Alice Cooper also appears as an actor, playing a cursed homeless man), the furious “Time to Kill”, and the indispensable “Roses on White Lace”, there are less successful tracks like the anonymous “Step on You” and “Lock me up”, full of good intentions but totally lacking bite. The presence of a piece like “Gail”, which atmospherically recalls the chorus and keyboards of the famous “Steven” (contained in the masterpiece album “Welcome to my Nightmare” from 1975), might indicate a certain lack of ideas from Alice Cooper but remains, with the preceding song “Chop Chop Chop”, a good example of what will be defined as horror-rock concept in the years to come.

The overall structure of the platter proves solid but some shortages in songwriting and an inconsistent overall level tend to partially disperse the album's potential energy. Produced by the always competent Beau Hill (Ratt, Europe, and Warrant), “Raise Your Fist and Yell” certainly doesn't represent the peak of Alice Cooper's discography but emerges as a pleasantly gritty album, which at times manages to find that charge that will emerge forcefully and with more order in the subsequent studio work.

(Enrico Rosticci)