ALICE COOPER: Killer (HARD ROCK): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

After a more than promising "Love It To Death", Alice Cooper comes back to us the same year with "Killer", his fourth record. The latter presents a band that has finally found his way and that proposes a style now well mastered. The producer Bob Ezrin is still part of it , but this time, he broadens his field of action and participates in the writing of two tracks. As in the past, the rythmic guitarist, Michael Bruce, is in charge of the majority of the compositions, the singer Alice Cooper participating in only five tracks.

The psychedelic/experimental past of the band hardly appears anymore except on "Halo Of Flies" (and to a lesser extent "Killer"), a track with a more worked orchestration and with rather strange sounds which marks the will of the band to propose an assimilable track. This title was composed from the draft of three different songs that were assembled, which explains the variations of atmosphere. We are surfing here, between Progressive Rock and Hard Rock, embarked in the tortuous and tortured meanderings of Alice Cooper's mind. For the rest, Alice Cooper works from now on in a Hard Rock very centered on the voice of his singer more and more present. The title "Desperado" is in this respect quite symptomatic. With the exception of some passages of violins, the song revolves around vocals that are alternately aggressive and then peaceful. Sometimes presented by Vincent Furnier as a tribute to his friend Jim Morrison who died the same year, this track would in fact be inspired by the character of Lee, played by the actor Vincent Vaughn in the movie The 7 Mercenaries.

The album starts with the hit "Under My Wheel", undoubtedly the strongest track. The voice is unhealthy, the guitars are fat, and the drums offer us a really dynamic intro. This heavy and fast Rock is quite efficient. If the rest of the album sounds a bit lower than the songs like "You Drive Me Crazy", "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah" and "Dead Babies" are however in the same vein and highly worthwhile. This last track, with its throbbing tempo, deals with the subject of child abuse, and will give rise to a provocative live performance during which Alice Cooper dismembers dolls. It should be said that the shows of the group become at this period more and more pompous and theatrical. As for "Be My Lover", it rather leans towards the groove of the Rolling Stones. Finally, the record ends up on a theatrical "Killer" which evokes the unavoidable destiny of a killer and which leads to a sound effect supposed to replicate the noise of an electric chair in action.

The rock spirit is well present, and despite the fact that this album sounds terribly outdated, it still has a specific charm and a very pleasant 70s side. The band seems to take a great pleasure to mix different genres and moods, and to adopt a slightly goofy and offbeat style that suits them perfectly. The listener is often taken against the grain, but the magic works. For the record, the title of the album was written with the left hand by the right-handed Dennis Dunnaway (bass), a sign that the band was already reveling in the wacky and absurd situations. - Official website

ALICE COOPER

KILLER

WARNER

HARD ROCK