It’s not often that Alice Cooper gets the credit he deserves for how varied his discography is. From the typical Detroit rock ‘n’ roll of the original Alice Cooper band to the more theatrical rock he made with producer Bob Ezrin later in the seventies and the surprisingly entertaining glam metal of the late eighties and early nineties, it all sounds convincing and it all makes sense within its discography. ‘Brutal Planet’ is easily the best album of his metal phase. While it doesn’t come close to surpassing the early albums, ‘Brutal Planet’ is the best post-seventies set of Alice Cooper songs.

Stylistically, ‘Brutal Planet’ is very much a project of its time – it was released in 2000 – without sounding like a desperate attempt to be contemporary. The album is full of heavy, downtuned guitars and has a gritty, almost industrial vibe. Kind of like Ministry without the samples and the programmed rhythms. The songs Cooper and producer Bob Marlette have written for the album are fairly direct and the lyrics reflect that. There is very little supernatural horror this time around; the horrors the lyrics reflect are those present in society. And they admirably do so without coming off as pretentious or ham-fisted.

Cooper himself sounds as convincing as always. He never had the largest range in the world, but he can deliver his gruesome stories with the same conviction even today at age 72 as he did in his early career. With that being a solid constant on his albums, an album like this depends on the memorability of its music. This is where Marlette was a great choice as a producer, as he is surprisingly capable of blending crushing heaviness with hooks that refuse to leave your head. A few elements – the nu metal-ish guitar leads on tracks like ‘Eat Some More’ most prominently – have not aged too well, but most songs on the album are as convincing today as they were upon release.

Opening track ‘Brutal Planet’ introduces an interesting contrast between the heavy guitar riffs and the almost ethereal feel of the chorus. The militaristic rhythms of ‘Wicked Young Man’ perfectly enhance the mental instability of the titular character, while there is an air of cheeky decadence to the music of ‘Gimme’ that reflects the almost mephistophelean nature of the protagonist. ‘Pick Up The Bones’ is a nice dark war ballad with a cool guitar solo, but my personal favorite of the album is closing track ‘Cold Machines’. The riff is simple, but the cold, mechanic feel of it really fit the lyrics of the song, while the chorus contains one of the best vocal melodies Cooper ever recorded.

‘Brutal Planet’ is by no means a perfect record. There are only so many variations you can make with a rhythm guitar in drop C#, which means some songs blend together a little. And while the domestic violence theme of ‘Take It Like A Woman’ (great title!) is admirable, it deserved accompaniment that wasn’t quite as dull. However, the relative succes of ‘Brutal Planet’ is more than deserved and the fact that a handful of songs still appear on Cooper’s setlist to this day confirms the legacy of the record. The formula was repeated less successfully on the decent ‘Dragontown’, but ‘Brutal Planet’ remains my favorite Alice Cooper record that doesn’t feature the original band.

Recommended tracks: ‘Cold Machines’, ‘Brutal Planet’, ‘Gimme’