After Alice Cooper the man left Alice Cooper the group there came an album called Welcome To My Nightmare, which introduced fans to Steven. Steven was a strange little boy that had strange occurrences happen within his life ranging from the death/murder of his mother to the Devil himself trying to take his soul.
With last year’s Along Came A Spider, Alice Cooper brought to a close the story of Steven. While the album is about a serial killer named Spider (no relation) it is found out that Spider is nothing other then either an alternative identity for Steven, or Steven is an alternative identity for Spider. Either way, the host body has been killing for 28 years and it can be assumed that the host body killed the mother along with many others.
Alice Cooper - Along Came A Spider
The whole album is amazing in not only sound and storytelling, but for the fact that the 60+ year old Cooper still has a voice that sounds as strong and real as it did on the Love It To Death album.
A taste of what the album has in store can be seen in the “Along Came A Spider” mini-movie, with more fan service then I have seen in a video ever:
The story itself, as this is a concept album, brings full circle the life of Steven in a twisted tale of murder and hate. The protagonist ends up falling in love with one of his victims, which in turn derails the plans to complete his “Spider”, built from the limbs and body parts of his victims.
There isn’t a bad track on the album when listened to either all the way through or by themselves, but for those who are not Cooper fans like myself the standout tracks would be:
Vengeance Is Mine -- This is perhaps the hardest song on the album, and was the first single put out. Slash puts his guitars into this song in his usual fantastic style. This is also the “they fucked with me, I am going to get revenge” song for all those who feel like the world is against them.
Wrapped In Silk -- Starts out with a hard, brief riff that ends up being one of the creepiest stalker songs ever written. By the time you get to the chorus you realize that the character of Spider is quite insane and has a skewed sense of what love is.
I’m Hungry - The villain’s explanation of what he is up to, and why he does it. In just about every medium (mainly comic books) this is the expected way of finding out the plans of the villain, usually leading to the defeat of said villain. Not this time.
The One That Got Away - “You look like you’d fit in the trunk of my car.” With an opening lyric like that, how can you not like the song?
I Am The Spider/Epilogue -- The reveal, after a bit of psychological warfare from the villain. This is the song that tells all about Spider’s self-love and arrogance. Unless, of course, you decide that Stephen is the actual villain and this is his confession as the last spoken bit implies.
Normally this is where the album ends but iTunes has an extended version of the album up with two extra tracks for the album. These aren’t your usual extra tracks with live favorites but two tracks that actually fit the concept of the album.
Shadow of Yourself -- The Evil wanting to come back and “help” the host body get back to the glory they once shared.
I’ll Still Be There -- A great rocker of a song that deals with the Evil saying that it will always be there, no matter what. It can’t be gotten rid of no matter how anyone tries.
These last two songs add so much to the album that I wish they were included on the mass released version of the album so that fans and newcomers alike could get the full feel of the story. Definitely a must add even if you are not a long fan of Alice Cooper; this album is one of the greater concept albums released in a long time.
While you are free to buy from your e-tailer of choice I would strongly suggest hitting the iTunes link to get the Bonus Track version.
