Alice Cooper: Brutal Planet (2000) Retro Music Review – By Baron Craze

This album was an instant shock for many as it was much heavy since the last studio release six years ago; and surrounded by conceptual design of a Brutal Planet his 14th-studio album. The songs as well as the lyrics took a multitude of subject material where everything has failed society, from the education system to technology and twisted facts to ruin humanity. The world has fallen into darkness now with an absence of God and lack of righteousness.

The title track ‘Brutal Planet’ is like a metal military rolling a convoy of tanks, transcending the world into cruelty. The song gets your attention quickly with the lyrics design a visual landscape that harkens back to Cooper’s youth of biblical lessons “took advice from that deceiving snake … sent to a burning lake.” A savage world filled with corruption in all forms long since removed from the original garden; cutting through the ugliness is Natalie Delaney’s vocals accompanied by intense guitars and powerful drumming throughout the song.

“Wicked Young Man” is a sick twisted song, that takes the listener into the mind of a shooter, while some critics state is inspired by the school shootings of Columbine perhaps for one line of the lyrics, “blueprint for the school” I feel it is much deeper. The lyrics paint the picture of a ruthless man filled with white pride hatred cues are found in the first, second, and sixth stanzas. Although Alice does note the common excuse offered by many when this happens “It’s not the games that I play, the movies I see, the music I dig” sometimes evil folks just exist. Next up is, “Sanctuary” which is a working man’s man cave, because life is a tiresome, zombie drone world a sarcastic work to death lifestyle. A room for escapism, away from stress, suicidal and murderous thoughts. “Blow Me Away” is an okay track, aiming for a deeper thought about differences and how it drives some to hate.

Then a track about a deadly sin, namely gluttony the obscene act of eating too much and wasting millions while others starve in the song “Eat Some More.” The economic disaster of humanity and abundance of food wasted by governments and the wealthy all adding to a brutal world far from Eden.

When “Pick Up the Bones” was written there were over seventy wars occurring around the globe and numerous acts of genocide. Just read these four opening lines and try to understand the true horrors a hell-landscape where one loses everyone.

“Collecting pieces of my family in an old pillowcase
This one has a skull but it don’t have a face
These look like the arms of father so strong
And the ring on this finger means my Grandma is gone”

It is the most distributing song I think Cooper has ever done, as the character is picking up the remains as he tries to piece his dismembered family together again to restore his sanity.

The seventh song is “Pessi-Mystic” opens with an instrumental start, different from the previous songs, and sadly is another um-okay song, the biggest issue, I must agree, is the repeating chorus of “So shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up.” However, there is something eerily familiar with the style it is done “Step On You” from Raise Fist and Yell (1987) where the lyric repeats “Step.”

“Gimme” is probably the best song on the record. It opens with an electronic beat, then more heavy guitar riffs. Cooper comes in, his portrayal of the devil a perfect blend of sinister and sophisticated as “Gimmie,” is where Alice portrays as a Devil-like creature being that he can grant the desires of the listener, to remove their pain. It makes a reference to ‘apple of ancient times’ while the song creates a great melody and might be the best track on the album.

Likely, the second greatest song on the album is “It’s the Little Things,” as anyone can relate to it, because there is “shit” that sometimes bothers us all, Alice has affirmed that with over 30-years of touring. I mean think about the slow driver in the speedy lane, the extra-long red light, annoyance of cell phones in movies, it all inches us closer to snapping. The hard rocking track even gives references to his classic songs “Welcome To My Nightmare” and “No More Mr. Nice Guy” while the remaining lyrics provide some of his humor that thoroughly entertains.

“Take It Like a Woman” starts in the same subtle sound and will remind a listener of “Only Women Bleed” but the theme herein is all about domestic violence. Although the lyrics are far more graphic, as it mentions such things as Mr. Right is really Mr. Hyde and:

“You been beaten down, kicked around on the ground
But you took it like a woman
Victimized, terrorized, paralyzed”

The song ends with her death and yet notes a restart of the saga as it happens to another soon enough from monstrous bastard living in the Brutal World.

The final track, “Cold Machines” at times sound like Marilyn Mason’s “The Beautiful People,” but with entirely different intentions, that reflects on a continuation of “Sanctuary.” This song delivers the intensity and powerful tone that society is mindless zombies self-absorbed in their own worlds, filled with technology craving our attention, making us shells of humanity.
Alright, it’s clear, I am huge fan of Alice Cooper’s music after all this is a lengthy review, but ‘Brutal Planet’ teaches many lessons some of them biblical through the conceptual that does not preach but provides a lyrical journey. The overall sound is dark, heavy and a different adventure in Alice’s world that invited us all to come along through some grimy subject material, white pride hatred, genocide, domestic violence just to name a few. Will it be an album for the diehard fans yes, though maybe not in their top-five, yet it has the strength to attract new legions of listeners, who enjoy the industrial tone and bleaker lyrics of society.

Track List:
01. Brutal Planet
02. Wicked Young Man
03. Sanctuary
04. Blow Me A Kiss
05. Eat Some More
06. Pick Up The Bones
07. Pessi-Mystic
08. Gimmie
09. It’s The Little Things
10. Take It Like A Woman
11. Cold Machines