Wednesday 13 ~ Necrophaze: Antidote (album review) ... God thanks your mother for her service!

Style: heavy metal, covers, shock rock
Label: Nuclear Blast
Year: 2021
Home: n/a

Members: Joseph Michael Poole "Wednesday 13" ~ vocals/guitar
Band ~ n/a
Guest: Calico Cooper ~ b. vocals

My immediate reaction was the arrangements, right down to the pounding guitar solos, sound like a less bluesy version of Brookyln's metal trio Tired Wings. Stripped down metal with an almost storyteller quality to the vocals, with music going for groove over flashy solos. It's what I consider to be a New York City type of modern hard rock/metal, as in very punchy & raw compared to the production heavy glam of the West Coast. While the singer growls also much like the frontman of Tired Wings, but without the emotional aspect. That's where the comparison ends, as half the songs on this four song EP are Tired Wings esque-originals with the other two being a covers of INXS & Gary Numan. The later includes guest backing vocalist in Alice Cooper's daughter Calico. The originals have profane lyrics I was kinda expecting, given the name of the opener is "Your Mother Still Sucks Cock In Heaven". Not having been to heaven I can't verify if this is true or not, so I'll take Wednesday 13's opinion for it. Of course, 18 year old boys are going to want to hear this, but as a 43 year old man ... well ... I'm kinda embarrassed to say I actually enjoyed these profane originals on repeated listens. I was expecting over the top metal lyrics of just screamed incoherent blasphemies, but the originals are crude in a witty way & with every lyric clear. I got a chuckle over them. Its worth it to just quote some of the lyrics: "I heard a story just the other day/A story that I could not believe/A story about your mother/How she goes down on her knees" ... "She's down in hell giving slurpies at the 7-11" ... "I know her so well/Cause she's in hell doing what she does best" ... "It was a gift from God/that she does real well" ...  "I'm hearing things/Things that I did not know/That your mother could suck a basketball through a garden hose". Hearing these words my thought was: guys are going 'yeah', while the women are like 'oh, my jaw.' Sorry, not to be crude, but that's the way it is. The other original "Screwdriver 2 - The Return" has the same sound & is just as bonkers lyrically, with the lyrics:"Your head is where I ram it/Can't you see I still don't care/Screwdriver is back/Stick it in your ear" ...  "You're pathetic/So pitiful/Take the screwdriver/Ram it in your skull." Not quite as much fun as talking about your mother, but points for creativity. I can't really say I've ever heard a screwdriver in the head song. Not even the band Skrewdriver did that! Bad pun intended. From here we go into a heavy metal version of the INXS hit "Devil Inside". The heavily distorted guitar plays the melody, with the lyrics growled like Rob Zombie. I'm not going to say they improved upon the song, as it feels too stripped down for me. I feel like the song has an inherent quirkiness that is missing in Wednesday 13's interpretation. While Wednesday 13 doesn't replace that with anything. I might expect them to make the song menacing, but I'm not feeling the devil inside. The problem is Wednesday 13 has a pretty limited musical template. So, while I found this interesting to listen to, I came away feeling the idea of a heavy metal INXS is more interesting than the execution. I found myself wondering how this song would work with a band with more guitars, keyboards & other sounds, i.e. a wider template. There is some hints of this in the chorus with the first keyboard sounds introduced on the album, but I would like to hear more layers throughout more of the song.  Ironically, the closing track of Gary Numan's "Films" as dominating synths that answers my curiosity. Its moody & more than just a driving guitar. Can we take this instrumentation & put it to "Devil Inside"? For the record, Calico Cooper just has a less than exciting backing vocal role. For those reading, it should be obvious that I'm not familiar with Wednesday 13 earlier albums. Thus, I confess I might be doing them a disservice. For those that don't know, this group, Joseph Michael Poole aka Wednesday 13 also fronts the Murderdolls, along with an array of other bands including Maniac Spider Trash, Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13, Bourbon Crow & Gunfire 76. The Murderdolls is likely the most recognizable name. I've actually never heard them, either. For those that say I should listen Murderdolls or earlier Wednesday 13 albums before doing this review, I don't think you should have to listen to other bands/album to get a particular album. No more than you need to look at one painting by Van Gogh to be able to understand another painting by him, or you need to see a Van Gogh in order to understand a Warhol. A work of art should stand on its own.

Alice Cooper ~ Zipper Catches Skin (album review) ... The day Alice died & became Mr. Nice Guy!

Style: hard rock, new wave
Label: Warner Brothers
Year: 1982
Home: n/a

Members: Alice Cooper ~ vocals/synthesizer
Dick Wagner, Mike Pinera ~ guitar
Erik Scott ~ bass
Jan Uvena ~ drums

Additional: John Nitzinger, Billy Steele ~ guitars
Duane Hitchings ~ synthesizer
Craig Krampf ~ percussion
Frannie Golde, Joanne Harris, Flo & Eddie, Patty Donahue ~ b. vocals

As the 1980's dawned, the king of shock rock, Alice Cooper, was floundering under the haze of alcoholism & declining commercial success. He was at the lowest point of his life & career. He would soon team-up with Rambo looking guitarist Kane Roberts for two albums of a heavier more abrasive sound, yet with one toe still in the nightmare/horror shock antics & lyrics that fans were accustomed to. That new musical face would not reach the commercial heights A.C. was looking for, but would spin him in the right direction for an international break through with Poison masterminded by songwriter/producer Desmond Child. From then on A.C. would never be out of the spotlight for long. More importantly, his time with Roberts would refashion the Alice character into a hard rockin' leather pants wearin' character that had more in common with a pimp than the drugged out nightmare creature that A.C. had built his reputation on. This new hard rock Alice would become the character he'd wear through the present day. But, before this permanent facelift A.C. went through many faces after the dissolution of the band Alice Cooper. Some of this due to changing music styles & finding himself musically as a solo musician. Some of it due to the influence of his growing substance abuse. By the time of 1982's Zipper Catches Skin Alice had been dumped for a new character in a 1930's detective, been turned into a soldier from the future & now, according to the album photo, was gone completely. No more make-up. No more costumes. Just a tie & normal look. Essentially, no more Alice Cooper the character. One might say he's become Mr. Nice Guy from the photo. The new non-existent Alice was an easy sell over the old Alice that had scared parents. The music also reflected this change by being the most commercially friendly album in a few years, particularly after the cold militaristic meets punk Special Forces. The fact that A.C. would soon be putting on the make-up again & changing styles is a sign that this experiment didn't work any better than the preceding ones when it came down to commercial sales & fan response. Zipper Catches Skin might be more famous for its odd cover than any of its ten songs, which doesn't say much about the music. There are moments here of great playing, like "Make That Money (Scrooge's Song)" has a guitar riff that reaches back to the Alice Cooper band. Yet, other times the album feels lacking, like something is missing, or A.C. just doesn't know what he wants musically. While A.C. also has some stand out vocal moments, like in the above song & "I Am The Future", but too often the results lack something. It is almost as if by abandoning the character he also abandoned the gentle push that turned an Alice Cooper album into more than just some hard rock songs, but an experience that nobody else could do. There's only one Alice Cooper, tons of imitators, but here we end up asking where is Alice? Alice is gone & in his place we have ten songs with ten characters we've never met, don't know who they are, don't have any attachment to, & will never meet them again. A.C. needs kudos for giving each character their own voice, as there's no confusing one song for another, yet by touching on ten characters we never get to sink into their lives like we did when Alice went to hell or how we met Steven, or suffering with Alice when he was calling out in pain from the inside. Which all leads to the problem of the album: to quote Hamlet's Polonius, its in the words, words, words. Even with A.C. exploring his vocal palette & the band creating some interesting musical landscapes, credit to guitarist Dick Wagner & his always great playing, the album is hurt by the lyrics. A.C. churns out a collection of nightmarish songs about some people you might not want to meet, but the lyrics often end up being more corny than interesting or memorable. Many A.C. albums have had elements of slapstick tongue-in-cheek comedy, yet it is often a side effect of the unexpected juxtaposition of different elements. The devil laughs, but underneath it is a vicious plan. Here A.C. seems to rely too much on the comedy, perhaps thinking this would be the selling point of the album. Every time A.C. tries to be funny, from his earliest albums to the present, it often ends up being his weakest work. The devil just laughs, nothing menacing underneath it, & thus the laugh is just a laugh. In "Zorro's Ascent" its hard to take seriously "Cause I am the fox/& I go where I want/If heaven ignores me/The devil adores me." It might be fun wordplay, but so was "Billion Dollar Babies" & "Desperado", which both had one singing not giggling. "I Like Girls" might be fine if sung by Motley Crue, but we expect something better from A.C.. Or, the ultra-silly "Adaptable (Anything For You)" with: "If you were Lucy/I'd be your Ricky/When you were juicy/I'd get real sticky/& when you're magic/It makes me tricky, too/ <sic> /Yeah, I'm a Sony/You're Panasonic/I'm heavy metal/You're philharmonic." It just goes nowhere. This lyrical approach has been done other times by A.C., such as in "Lost In America" that would come in a decade on The Last Temptation, but that opened up a concept album introducing a situation of hope. It had somewhere to take the wordplay. The highlight of the album is "I Am The Future", which sounds a lot like what would be heard in a few years on Poison. Keyboards give way to wild guitars & some laser sound effects, but in a primitive form that relies too much on sound effects where screaming guitars would be better. The lyrics dump the comedy for some great lyrics of a soul calling out for help. Its classic solo A.C. with "Take a look at my face/I am the future/How do you like what you see?/Take a look at my face/I belong to the future/& you belong to me." This song needs a re-visit, but with a different arrangement that is less cosmic & more emotional.

Northern Light Orchestra ~ The Spirit Of Christmas (album review) ... TSO for the Christian crowd!

Style: holiday, heavy metal
Label: VSR Music Group
Year: 2009
Home: n/a

Members: Lanny Cordola ~ rhythm guitars
Chuck Wright ~ bass
Ken Mary ~ drums/b. vocals
Phillip Bardowell ~ vocals

Guests: Dave Ellefson, Krys Van Slyke ~ bass
George Lynch, Bruce Kulick, Doug Aldrich, Chris Sanders, Bill Leverty, Elliot Randall, Steve Conley, Jason Hook, John Davis ~ lead guitar
Shane Gibson, Kendall Bechtel ~ guitars
Dizzy Reed, Brian Stewart ~ keyboards
Kip Winger, Alan Gregson ~ strings
Rose Stone, Jon Gibson, Robin McAuley ~ vocals
Danny Vaughn ~ b. vocals
Debbie Sledge, Eddie James, Bob Carlisle ~ lead vocals

They've named themeselves an orchestra, only tour at Christmas, have a rotating door of guest musicians & a modifed line-up appearing on stage, have an album of Christmas songs which are all rocked up versions of Christian hymns ... no, it's not Trans-Siberian Orchestra, it's the NLO. It's hard not to call NLO an imitation. It's hard not to figure that the creators of the group saw the success of TSO & with their own careers stuttering in obscurity along wanted to do something bigger. Certainly, the array of guest musicians on NLO's one album is a step to get noticed. The big difference between the two bands is that there's no instrumental classical songs getting a rock treatment here, which TSO often likes to do to the point of nauseum. There's also no story, while all but two songs of the seventeen (i.e. "Celebrate Christmas", "I Feel The Warmth") have to do with the baby Jesus. One might say this is a super safe TSO for the Christian crowd, great to play at holiday worship services. TSO has always walked a fine line of discussing Christian morals, angels included, but without directly touching on anything Christian. The other difference is where TSO is operatic, over-the-top, classically influenced & with an array of musical styles, this is primarily a guitar riffing affair. There's not much soul or world beat or jazz, no violin solos or piano only ballads & certainly no childrens' choirs. It's a rock'n'roll Christmas party. No one can deny that TSO has pushed what can be done with rock & Christmas music to new levels, while bands like Glenn Kaiser & Rez Band, Larry Norman, Phil Keaggy, Randy Stonehill & countless others have pushed rock & Christian music in wide & varied directions, thus Christian songs with lots of guitar solos is ultimately less than exciting. Individually there's some fun upbeat songs, but rock musicians release every year countless Christmas albums doing the same thing. However good the individuals, the big picture suffers from a lack of inspiration. Actually, the Kings Of Christmas debut release in 2012, featuring former members of TSO, sounds nothing like TSO & shows just how far one can go away from that dominating influence. I commend NLO for taking a overtly Christian approach, which opens the door to criticism by anti-Christians. Youth oriented worship groups everywhere will greatly enjoy this album. While, it doesn't rock harder than any other Christian group, like Rez Band, so its not lacking in drive. As for the creativity of the project ... personally, I'll go to TSO. Even where they are maudlin they are the litmus test. While I get tired of TSO's classically influenced songs, I also like my Christian music a little less direct than Jesus this & Jesus that ... think Larry Norman. Though, "Child Of Abraham" is a standout with Bruce Kulick of Kiss & & vocalist Phillip Bardowell at his best. A great voice you've probably never heard. What truly makes this project stand out is the names involved in it, most prominently bassist Dave Ellefson of Megadeth, on hiatus from Megadeth at the time, who became a spokesman for the group & performed live with them. Sadly, on the five tracks he's on, of course, the bass is just another instrument in the mix, lost behind the guitars. The core band is actually all of the supergroup Magdallan, with drummer Ken Mary & guitarist Larry Cordola appearing on all the tracks & bassist Chuck Wright & singer Bardowell on most in either lead or backing roles. It should be mentioned that all but Bardowell are also former members of House Of Lords. Bardowell & Cordola are also Beach Boys alum. Bassist Wright is mostly known for his work with Quiet Riot, while drummer Mary has been a part of the Alice Cooper band & Impellitteri. As for the rest of the album, the big selling point no doubt, the guests include: guitarists Chris Sanders of Knight Fury & Lizzy Borden, Jason Hook of Alice Cooper & Five Finger Death Punch, Bill Leverty of Firehouse, Doug Aldrich of Whitesnake, Steve Conley of F5 with Dave Ellefson, Kendall Bechtel of Fifth Angel, Shane Gibson of Korn, John Davis of Superdrag, session man Elliot Randall of Asia & Steely Dan, George Lynch of Lynch Mob & Dokken, Kip Winger of Winger; keyboardists Dizzy Reed of Guns N Roses, Brian Stewart of Backstreet Boys & Evermore; vocalists Danny Vaughn of Tyketto, Rose Stone of Sly & the Family Stone, Debbie Sledge of Sister Sledge, Eddie James of London/D'Priest, Robin McAuley of Survivor & McAuley Schenker Group; Christian singers Bob Carlisle & Jon Gibson; producer Alan Gregson.

Alice Cooper ~ Trash (album review) ... Trashing the world in superstar style!

Style: shock rock, hard rock
Label: Epic
Year: 1989
Home: Arizona

Members: Alice Cooper ~ vocals
Mark Frazier, Jack Johnson, John McCurry, Guy Mann-Dude ~ guitar
Paul Chiten, Steve Deutsch, Gregg Mangiafico ~ keyboards
Allan St. John ~ keyboards/b. vocals
Hugh McDonald ~ bass/b. vocals
Bobby Chouinard ~ drums
Diana Grasselli, Jango, Louis Merlino, Jamie Sever, Myriam Naomi Valle, Bernie Shanahan, Tom Teeley, Joe Turano ~ b. vocals

Additional: Kane Roberts ~ guitar/b. vocals
Desmond Child, Maria Vidal ~ b. vocals
Guests: Steve Lukather, Joe Perry, Richie Sambora ~ guitar Tom Hamilton ~ bass
Joey Kramer ~ drums
Steven Tyler, Kip Winger, Michael Anthony, Stiv Bators, Jon Bon Jovi ~ b. vocals

This is not AC, let's take care of that fact first. Yes, his name is on it, it's his release, it's his recognizable voice & it's his back-up band, including early 80's songwriting partner/guitarist Kane Roberts on a track, but there's another ingredient in the pot that tips the scale. The ingredient goes by the name of Desmond Child. To explain, Trash came after a decade with no charting songs & a career stepping around but not finding success. Trash was AC's attempt, starting a few albums earlier with Kane Roberts, to recreate both himself & his career following a commitment to sobriety & Christianity. It was a deliberate attempt at a comeback & thus the magical writing talents of Desmond Child were called in who was riding high engineering the comeback of Aerosmith with their Pump album. The result is that this is really a Desmond Child album with the AC band & a few guests, including Aerosmith, performing his songs. With a career that includes Cher, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith & many more, the shock rock of AC seems an odd person for Child to pen songs for. The problem is not Child's talent but that his stamp dominates the outcome. This is an album of 10 love songs with some light tongue-in-cheek shock rock humor thrown ... & could easily have been an album by Bon Jovi or Aerosmith. It's far from bad with nearly every song a hit ... but an album of only sappy love songs isn't exactly fitting the Alice Cooper mold ... but re-inventing the mold to suit the songs. If anything that's the one true success of Trash. It reinvented the mold by fully turning AC into a anthem spouting leather clad hard rocker totally in sync with the hair metal of the era. It also spawned a place on the coveted MTV with four videos, chart topping hits & an around the world tour, recorded on the Classicks album five years later & the Trashes The World home video. Finding the success he sought AC abandoned Childs for the follow-up Hey Stoopid & brought the shock/monster imagery back to the rock. But, Trash would firmly set the path/mold for a long time with the current tours of 2011 even being the modern version of Trash in many ways. Trash gave AC something that he could twist turn over the years to make personal with a musical & visual platform. The psychedelic AC of the 70's was gone forever across the board leaving many fans divided between the 70's & the later AC, though some see the later leather AC as the authoritative character as the earlier AC was a member of a band followed by a solo outing that went through numerous images including balladeer. "Poison", "House Of Fire", "Spark In The Dark", "Why Trust You", "Only My Heart Talkin'", "Bed Of Nails", "This Maniac's In Love With You", "Trash", "I'm Your Gun", "Hell Is Living Without You" ... if any of these songs make you rock out than you'll enjoy Trash & what would follow. But, the reverse is also true so if you don't like Trash you may want to stick with the 70's AC. Later albums, particularly The Last Temptation, Brutal Planet & Along Came A Spider, might be more interesting & varied musically but Trash largely sets the pace. It's big hair anthemic 80's rock with bursts of energy balanced by bursts of acoustic ballady moments. There's a reason Trash became as big as it did & it's not just because of Desmond Child. It's basically a good album chock full of memorable hits that any musician should be pleased to make. Ironically, AC had earlier done an album with Elton John lyricist Bernie Taupin & it floundered ... for those who say that AC could have chosen any great writer & had a hit album as the outcome.

Alice Cooper ~ Hey Stoopid (album review) ... Feed this Frankenstein of superstars!

Style: hard rock, heavy metal, shock rock
Label: Sony
Year: 1991
Home: Arizona

Members: Alice Cooper ~ vocals/harmonica
Stef Burns ~ guitar
Hugh McDonald ~ bass
Mickey Curry ~ drums
John Webster ~ keyboards

Additional: Steve Croes ~ synclavier
Robert Bailey ~ keyboards

Guests: Slash, Steve Vai, Mick Mars, Vinnie Moore ~ guitar
Joe Satriani ~ guitar/b. vocals
Nikki Sixx ~ bass
Jai Winding ~ keyboards
Ozzy Osbourne, Kelly Keeling, Lance Bulen, Stan Bush, Mike Finnigan, Zachary Nevel, Mick Wilson, Corky McClennan, Shaun Murphy, Tony Palmucci, Jack Ponti, Vic Pepe, Scott Bender, Terry Wood, Sherwood Ball, Cali, Nick Coller, Ian Richardson, Gary Falcone ~ b. vocals

Cooper has confessed in his autobiography to having spent the early 80's drunk & moving through musical styles that didn't work for fans or him. In the late 80's, after a series of hard rock albums that slightly brought him back on course albeit with no chart hits, he deliberately teamed up with hit maker/songwriter Desmond Child to get back on the charts after a decade & become again the respected musical force he once was. Trash was a return to glory via heavily commercialized hard rock, a fresh image & a successful world tour featuring an array of future icons in his backing back (Al Pitrelli, Derek Sherinian, Jonathan Mover, Eric Singer). Albeit, Child is known for penning love ballads for Cher, Aeromith & Bon Jovi & didn't much change his style to suit Cooper's style. But, the album achieved its goal while establishing Cooper as a leather wearing hard rocker balladeer still surrounded by his famous props. But, it's the follow-up Hey Stoopid, sans Child & an over-reliance on love songs but keeping everything else, that finally brought Cooper completely home. It didn't have the plethora hits that Trash spawned but that's more a reflection of changing MTV audiences than the number of future classics on the album. Back in full force is the tongue-in-cheek horror themes that had worked so well for Cooper but abandoned(i.e. "Might As Well Be On Mars" one of two remaining tracks with Child, "Feed My Frankenstein", "Snakebite" co-written with Kelly Keeling of Dokken & the Michael Shenker Group, "Burning Our Bed" co-written with Al Pitrelli, "Hurricane Years", "Hurricane Years", "Dirty Dreams", "Die For You" co-written with Motley Crue's Nikki Sixx & Mick Mars), while underneath humor was an array of emotive love ballads & cutting social commentary, the former taking a more prominent role in later albums particularly the Brutal Planet trilogy. The corny sounding title track was actually a cry against those wanting to commit suicide with "Hey, hey, hey stoopid, they win, you lose" ... though many may not realize that Cooper is more than shock rock but has opinions & a positive social message. Remaining on Hey Stoopid is also the commercial sheen that had glossed up Trash & really works for Cooper however much raw music is cherished over commercialization. Cooper doesn't cuss, have nudity or do anything horrid on stage like many of his imitators & anything but a non-commercial sound would fail. Though, gone forever is the experimental flavor of the 1970's Alice Cooper band, here confirmed with an array of guest hard rock guitarists to prove this is a new Cooper. Hey Stoopid would be the mold for everything that has come since. All the pieces are here that would get developed further, from the leather to the humor to the guest musicians, to memorable chorus lines. This is also one of the stronger releases with some of his most memorable songs, though this is firmly rooted in 80's hard rock while Cooper would later experiment with industrial (i.e. Brutal Planet) & power metal (i.e. The Last Temptation). The post-Trash Alice Cooper is a heavy metal vicious beast. The songs are fairly generic 80's metal but what sets them apart is Cooper's recognizable vocal style, catchy lyrics that are more mini-narratives & unpredictable musical arrangements. Cooper wants you to go to on an emotional ride with him & he does it very well with this release, oft forgotten but deserving a new listen.

Alice Cooper ~ Classicks (live, hits comp) (album review) ... Star studded & not quite classics as you know them!

Style: shock rock, heavy metal, hard rock, greatest hits, live
Label: Epic
Year: 1995
Home: Arizona

Members: Al Pitrelli, Stef Burns ~ guitar/b. vocals
John McCurry, Pete Freezin' ~ guitar
Hugh McDonald, T-Bone Caradonna ~ bass
Derek Sherinian ~ keyboards/b. vocals
Greg Smith ~ bass/b. vocals
Jonathan Mover, Bobby Chouinard, Mickey Currey, David Uosikkinen ~ drums
Robert Bailey, Alan St. John, John Webster, Steve Croes ~ keyboards

Additional: Dan Wexler ~ guitar
Zachary Nevel, Vic Pepe, Tony Palmucci, Scott Bender, Corkey McClennan, Lance Bulen, Terry Wood, Shaun Murphy, Sherwood Ball, Cali, Gary Falcone, Ian Richardson, Nick Coler, Mick Wilson, Mike Finnigan, Stan Bush ~ b. vocals

Guests: Slash, Steve Vai, Joe Perry ~ guitar
Ozzy Osbourne, Chris Cornell, Kelly Keeling, Jack Ponti ~ b. vocals
Joe Satriani ~ guitar/b. vocals
Nikki Sixx ~ bass

Before reviewing this compilation/live album let me note that this was released by the label after Alice had left & thus his involvement was minimal, so the outcome may not be exactly what he'd release if given full creative control. Like the Megadeth greatest hits albums released by Capitol Records after the band moved to Sanctuary Records in 2000 ... it's all about a label continuing to make money on an artist now making money for someone else. That being said ... how do you get fans to buy a greatest hits package that has tracks probably everyone already has in their collection? Well, you can focus the greatest hits collection on a particular theme, here being the leather era look of a now sober Alice. Next, you record a new track or two that you set beside both classic tracks & some lesser known more recent tracks. But, what do you do when your musician has left your label & thus there's no new tracks forthcoming? Of the 15 songs on Classicks, a name suggested by Alice himself, one track is a new song, albeit it's actually an underheard B-side, eight tracks are recent while six are classic tracks from the 70's but performed live by the 1989/1990 touring band. The idea is that all the tracks have the same 80's hard rock sound & not reflect the eclectic musical changes that have highlighted Alice's career. This album was looking for new generation of fans who liked one style of music & it was loud, bombastic & full of guitar. When it comes to greatest hits compilations this is one of the more unique approaches I've seen. It's right up there with Asia re-recording all their old songs for Anthology, albeit this is far more successful & enjoyable as the touring band isn't trying to duplicate which was Asia's goal. Classicks is supposed to be a greatest hits collection but the recent tracks are culled only from the then most recent Trash from 1989, Hey Stoopid & The Last Temptation, while the classic tracks are all from the Alice Cooper Band & 1975's Welcome To My Nightmare. Thus, besides lacking quite a few classic hits, there's a near fifteen year gap of recordings missing from this album making its status as a true greatest hits albums weak. Albeit, no hits really came from the ten albums released in that time, but there's a few gems such as "You & Me" that keep them from being completely forgettable though they largely are according to both fans & Alice himself in his autobiography. But, the MTV era hits are here that culled a new generation of fans, though only Trash really scored any real hits. But, though Trash spun off four videos & the most commercial success its strangely represented by the single track "Poison" while the other two albums, that might have spurred less hits but have stronger songs, are given more than their fare share of attention considering their minor commercial impact. It's almost as if Trash had gotten enough success & now the label wanted some attention on the other lesser selling albums. Alice of the late 80's/90's was a heavy metal guy, far different than his 70's/early 80's persona, brought home by the live versions on Classicks of classic Alice Cooper Band hits that are far different & more wild than their 15-20 year old studio counterparts. Taken directly from the Trashes The World video they are raw two guitar onslaughts with a high energy band including future Savatage/Megadeth/Asia/Trans-Siberian guitarist Al Pitrelli, future Dream Theater keyboardist Derek Sherinian, under-rated drummer Jonathan Mover of GTR with Steve Howe, guitarist Pete Freezin' & bassist T-Bone Caradonna. It's the band that would set the sound & look for Alice through the present day with current shows being a development of the Trash look. Eric Singer, famous for his future tenure with Kiss, would replaced Mover soon after filming the video but no official recordings of his time with the tour exist. This tour line-up, supporting the release of Trash, on this compilation only feature the band playing the classic songs. At first the live tracks sound messy & cluttered with guitars roaring in a way not heard before, though they are a perfect reflection of how Alice updated his sound for the 80's, putting aside the more prog elements of the songs for a more headbanging sound. The songs might be re-arranged but remain untouchable classics. Anyone who doesn't know the contemporary music by Alice is missing an important chunk of his career. This is a good starting point for someone unsure of if they might like his current sound, plus as a bonus it features numerous guest musicians. Personally, I'd buy The Last Temptation first, then consider this compilation or the other two studio releases if I liked what I heard. The Last Temptation has some of the most heart-breaking songs Alice ever recorded, telling the story of a boy lost in the world & eventually discovering God as this album marked Alice's Christian conversion. In many ways this is a lopsided compilation as it's featuring a studio band then a completely different live band & thus sounds like two albums. But, to hear 80's Alice one could do a lot worse. The albums on the new record label that would follow this compilation would see Alice going even heavier & into industrial & bringing the character to its scariest thus Classicks ends up the end of an era & a photograph of past glories.