Alice Cooper - Welcome 2 My Nightmare

Published September 26 2011

*=Staff's pick	I Am Made Of You Caffeine* The Nightmare Returns A Runaway Train Last Man On Earth The Congregation* I'll Bite Your Face Off Disco Bloodbath Boogie Fever* Ghouls Gone Wild Something To Remember Me By When Hell Comes Home What Baby Wants I Gotta Get Outta Here* The Underture

Genre	Hard Rock	Alice Cooper	Vocals
Tracks	14	Michael Bruce	Guitar
Running time	53 Min.	Steve Hunter	Guitar
Label	Bigger Picture	Dennis Dunaway	Bass
Release	13 September 2011	Neal Smith	Drums
Country	USA	Michael Bruce	Keyboard
Producer	Bob Ezrin
Similar artists	---

I think everyone reacted with a large dose of scepticism upon first hearing that Alice Cooper was doing a sequel to the legendary Welcome To My Nightmare, 36 years later. Just naming the album Welcome 2 My Nightmare raises the bar immensely as everyone will judge the album not only based upon the quality of the songs themselves, but also in comparison to the "first nightmare".

My scepticism grew even further when the album opened up with Alice singing using auto tuner, although rather to set a mood than improve his vocal performance. After this build-up track (That actually turned out pretty good) the album takes a faster turn with Caffeine which is a great, energetic about how Alice is doing everything in his power to stay awake, as his nightmares are returning.

Musically, the album contains a very wide range of Alice Cooper - there are the bluesy rock 'n' roll songs, the '70s-style songs, the more modern songs, the ballads and - not to forget - the disco song which you probably will either love or hate. I love it. The songs all are very different but they fit very well together conceptually and the whole album feels stronger than the individual parts, which is a great accomplishment.

Occasionally there are some musical flashbacks to the original nightmare which some listeners might regard almost like cheating but I think these melodies are used in very thoughtful ways - when you hear the piano from Steven you know that some shit is going down!

It's obvious that Alice has had a lot of fun doing this record and the production work of Bob Ezrin is just amazing - every song seems arranged to perfection with a lot of different things happening without overwhelming the listener. The original nightmare will never be outdone but for a sequel 36 years later, this album is pretty damn good.

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
7,5	8	10	7,5	7,5

Summary
8 chalices of 10 - Bjorn