[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Over the years many artists have been influenced by Alice Cooper, but in my opinion the Brutal Planet album was Alice attempting to remain relevant in a musical climate where hard rock and the general form of heavy metal was dead in the water.

Nu-Metal, stoner rock, Industrial and even grunge were still the genres that topped the rock sales charts and Brutal Planet is directly influenced by all of them. Alice's heaviest album to date, the title track is a real behemoth with it's chugging riff and Alice snapping out the stinging words.

Does the much heavier Alice sound work? I like it. Alice, a canny character, knew what might put him in the magazines and more importantly make people want to go out and see him live. This heavy Alice was definitely what was wanted at the time.

A year later, Alice released Dragontown, a sequel to Brutal Planet. Given it was a whole six years between The Last Temptation and Brutal planet just a single year between albums kept him in the news and the momentum continued.

In fact the years 2000-05 were very productive with Alice releasing four albums including my two favourites of his - The Eyes of, and Dirty Diamonds.

The musical climate was changing again in the early 2000's. Although no new form of heavy metal was breaking through, the music press changed their tune on older acts and simpler forms of hard rock / metal as the newer bands were telling tales of being influenced by the likes of Saxon, Dio, Motley Crue and of course Alice Cooper. The press clearly decided they should show respect and that heralded the return of classic rock which remains in our hearts today and is probably the most popular type of rock in 2016 - witness huge album sales for Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Black Sabbath and the rise to near former glory for acts like Def Leppard, Journey and Whitesnake. Hell even W.A.S.P. gained a UK Top 50 album with last years Golgotha, their first since 1992's The Crimson Idol.