Reports that Alice Cooper had embraced Christianity were solidified by his 1996 album The Last Temptation. After that album, fans old and new alike eagerly awaited Alice's newest offering. Finally, here it is.
Fans of the overt Christianity of Last Temptation tracks such as "Cleansed by Fire" may be somewhat disappointed with Brutal Planet. The album opens strong, with this impassioned cry from the title track:
Why won't You come down to
It's such a brutal planet
It's such a living hell
It was a holy garden
That's right where Adam fell...
Fantastic, as far as it goes. But the whole album continues in that same hopeless, melancholy vein. Nowhere is there any indication that God did indeed come down to this brutal planet, to provide a future and a hope.
There are some gems here such as Cooper's rant against the rampant wastefulness of America in particular and the prosperous world-at-large in general in "Eat Some More." But the gems seem to be buried in a hopeless mire.
Musically, the album is hard and driving, as one would expect from Alice and his band. Lyrically however, this album largely only serves to lead me back to The Last Temptation, which hasn't left my player for a week.
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