In the last 40 years (wow, how it sounds!) Alice Cooper led us through his nightmares, met us with killers, sent the school to hell and went to hell by his own. And in 2008 he sends us the Spider. Spider is the nick-name of a psyched killer who wastes nice chicks as he slaughters them and cuts them one leg. He needs eight legs in order to put together an extravagant grotesque spider with the sexy legs of eight girls. A classic horror plot, fitting great with the classic hard rock of Alice Cooper. Yes, “Along Came a Spider” is a real hard-rock album of the shock rock icon, concentrated so solid the spirit of the records that made him a star, that it drowns you in the atmosphere of the seventies. And at the same time it is adequate for the end of the first decade of 21st century. Do you remember how from years the make-up singer before starting a tour threatens that he will personally deal with everyone who misses the show, because “I know where you live”. Well, finally the threat has real clothes under the opening track of the new album of Uncle Vince. Album that is one of the strongest records not only in his career but also in the hard rock in the last few years. We were missing such releases lately. Nice and thick melodies, solos, good choruses and so much spirits. “Vengeance Is Mine”, “Wrapped in Silk” and the cannibal “I’m Hungry” have the hit potential of the eternal classics “I’m Eighteen”, “Hey Stupid” or “No More Mr. Nice Guy” while “Killed by Love” and “Salvation” are two wonderful ballads. Because there are such in every classic rock and roll album. And because Alice Cooper makes them well. “Along Came a Spider” is a big return. Not of Alice as an artist because he has never been gone but of the pounding immortal rock. Enough scary-vaudeville like his records from the 70s. And in the same time musically serious like his albums from the early 90s. Shock? Rock.