Customer Reviews

Constrictor

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

"Constrictor" was the very first CD I ever bought and this was my first Alice Cooper CD. I had heard "School's Out" of course, but had never really paid attention to who performed it. I went to see "Friday the 13, Part 6" and was immediately taken by "He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask)" during the end credits. So decided to pick up Alice's disk to see how the rest of the album was. Thanks to Jason and another batch of hapless counselors at Camp Crystal Lake, I found Alice Cooper. "Constrictor" features what is best about Alice's music. Great songwriting, laden with wit and catchy hooks and chorus'. The songs on "Constrictor" are some of Alice's best. "Teenage Frankenstein" is a song only Alice Cooper could pull off. The guitar driven ode to teenage angst is fun and catchy, and Kane Roberts guitar work is just made for cranking up the car stereo. "Life and Death of the Party" is a personal favorite with fantasic guitar work, and a song that is hurt in no way by the electro-drumming. "He's Back" should become part of your Halloween mix CD! I think one of the best songs on the disk is "Simple Disobedience". The chorus is catchy and again the electro-drumming really keeps the song moving. "The World Needs Guts" is a great, in your face metal track, with some of the coolest lyrics Alice ever penned.
I see several reveiwers slammed Alice for the electric drums, and synth use on this disk, but that was just a product of the times. What is great about Alice Cooper is that he wasn't using the latest technology as a crutch, but rather he used it to enhance his songs. It's great that Alice Cooper is willing to take risks and try out various musical styles. As a fan, I may not always care for the end product, but I can appreciate how Alice is always giving something new to his fans. Look beyond the techno stuff and you will see that "Constrictor" still features simply great songwriting.

This album is an Alice Cooper masterpiece, heck an 80's hardrock masterpiece, its got some of the best music that Alice Cooper ever realeased, and it was my first Cooper album.

A little background on this album, it was 1986, Alice Cooper had finally finished his rehab, and had to plunge back into the Rock and Roll universe with a Return album, and what better way to do it then make a corporate hair metal cd (some say) however the way it really should be is what better way... then to make a Rock and Roll Masterpiece. This album got Alice back in toon with himself in a way, and the Tour that supported this album - The Nightmare Returns was good if not great. Now lets look at the cd itself. As a great carreer move Alice hired Guitarist Kane Roberts which was a great great choice due to him co writing the lyrics on the songs, and coming up with some of the best riffs to ever hit Rock and Roll. Kip Winger from the band (Winger) this was Kips first mainstream musical job. and alot of other musicians that helped to make this album great.

The cd is released in a Jewel cd case for the ultimate protection, and the disc has been remastered to perfection. 5/5

The inserts of the cd are good, with an adress to write to Alice Cooper (now out of date) and Lyrics and a Great album Cover. Then the back inserts have the songs and times listed, and a picture of Alice and a snake. 5/5

Songs.
Teenage Frankenstein - A great opener for this Album some of the best Cooper lyrics and music to back it up, its a great great song. 5/5

Give it Up - One of Coopers old school style party hard songs that he managed to pump up into this song, great guitar solo here. 5/5

Thrill My Gorilla - This song is ok however I feel its the weakest song on the album, don't get me wrong its good and worth listening to, but it dosent match up to the other songs on this disc. 3/5

Life and Death of the Party - This song is quite possibly the best song on the cd, its got the best guitar work on the cd, and some of the greatest lyrics, it sounds so crisp and clean, and its another one of Coopers pumped up party hard songs that survived through the decade. Now when I say pumped up it dosen't mean he remasterred an old song, it means it sounds like his old stuff, that has the 80's style in it. 5/5

Simple Disobedience - A good 80's hard rock songs, nothing memorable but its still alot of fun to listen to. 4.5/5

The World Needs Guts - This song has the 2nd best guitar work on it, and some of the best metal lyrics iv'e ever heard, definently a 5/5 song.

Trick Bag - Another good version of old school Cooper with an 80's boost. Some good musician work, and Lyrics. It was the original version of he's back but it was turned into Trick Bag and people say thats filler, but it isn't its just a creative re- creation of a song. 5/5

Crawlin - Another good song but not memorable. its alot of fun to listen to though. 4/5

The Great American Success Story - This song was supposed to be in some movie, but it never saw the light of day, and this Album saved it from being completly forgotton, and thats a good thing because this song is a great song. 5/5

He's Back (The Man Behind The Mask) - This song was originally on the Jason Lives part 6 movie, its got good synth work, and just a great song with some spoooky spook lyrics. 5/5

and last but not least - Price, 7 bucks, thats a good price for a cd like this its rare, and rather cheap for an album full of fun filled hard rocking hits. 5/5

So all in all this is an 80's album that is amazing, its hair metal, glam rock, 80's Shock Rock, call it whatever you will, its Alice Cooper and its great 80's rock. This is the album that got Cooper out of the Dark Times. It's so great, and it deserves more then the 3 and 2 and especially 1 star ratings its getting, it deserves atleast a 4 and deffinently a 5.

Alice takes 3 years off to sober up and get his life back together. With the release of "Constrictor" Alice teams up with guitarist Kane Roberts and bassist Kip Winger to re-invent himself as a hair metal rocker. "Constrictor" would be the first in a series of 4 albums with Roberts and Winger that would eventually get Cooper back to the top of the rock n roll heap. With the release of "Constrictor" Cooper made a very successful comeback mounting "The Nightmare Returns" tour which was also made into a very successful live video concert recording. The album gets mixed reviews from Cooper fans. Many new fans discovered Cooper during the late 80's period and love this stuff, but most older fans find it somewhat lacking. I have to give Cooper credit for totally updating his sound at the time and doing something completely different from what had made him famous. Most of this album is pretty average hair metal, but there are a few exceptions. The opening track "Teenage Frankenstein" is a good one mining similar territory to the Cooper classic "18" about teenage angst and coming of age. "Life And The Death Of The Party:" has a killer hook and seems like it could have been a hit. The final track "He's Back" was the theme from the motion picture "Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives". It actually got Cooper back on the radio and the video got some airplay on MTV. It was not a big hit, but enough to remind people that Cooper was still around and by far his most successful single since "Clones". The song is actually completely different than the rest of the album with keyboard synths being the main instrument instead of Robert's metal guitar. Overall I find this to be an average Cooper release, but it does have it's moments.

I always listenied to Alice Cooper - from his late 60's material to as far as The Last Tempation (which, oddly enough, led me to listen to more inspirational rock and rap, due to Alice's spiritual/Christian leaning from a lyrical perspective). Constrictor was Alice's monster-comeback after a brief hiatus, and he roared back with a vengence. Most of the tracks on this album, when I first listened to them, blew me away! My favorites were "Life and Death of the Party", "Simple Disobedience" and "The World Needs Guts", but 'right up there'. The techno-drums never bothered me, in fact, I found that they accentuated the spectacular 'axework'/'artwork'. A very cleverly-written and well-crafted hard rock collection.

This is 80's at its best, I love Alice Cooper's lyrics and fun antics on his albums. This album has guitarist Kane Roberts, who was a bodybuilder and wieghed in at 230lbs. Check out his website www.kaneroberts.com for his pictures and information, he is a great guitarist and really shines on this album along with the followup album to this called "Raise Your Fist and Yell" which is an 80's metal masterpiece, plenty of hair raising solo's, Hammer on's and Pull off's, squeals, vibrato and scale runs. This is the best era of rock as we know it, pick it up and taste what rock used to be like and how great it sounded in the 80's, also check out Kane Roberts Saints and Sinners solo album and his newer Phoenix Down CD, which he formed his own band and it is wonderful.

I Have to say that this is one of Alice's most underrated albums. Forget that whole glam hair metalere look and listen to the damn music. Alice has produced some great tunes on this album. and the only one that ever seems to get a mention is "He's Back (the man behind the mask)" which was written for the movie "Friday the 13th part 6; Jason Lives"! Somtimes Teenage Frankinstein gets a mention, but the other tracks on this album are great if you would just give them a go!
Life and Death of the party should be up there with one of alices greatest hits, tho it probably is on one of his 100's of GH albums!

I recomend you buy this album with Raise Your Fist and you have 2 very great, and underated hard rocking albums that get over looked unfairly!

This was the first Alice Cooper album I bought. I first heard some of the songs from the horror move Friday The 13th Part 6 and decided to give the album a listen. I really wanted to hear the song "Hard Rock Summer" but it wasn't until a decade later that it was released on the box set "The Life And crimes Of Alice Cooper" as it was not on this album. The song "He's Back(The Man Behind The Mask)" was another I wanted to have on cd but the version on here is not the same as the movie mix which I think is a far better version(and can be found on the box set). "Teenage Frankenstein" is on this album as well and one that will get you hooked after a few listens. The rest of the album features some good 80's rock/metal. You have "Trick Bag" and "Give It Up" with a catchy chorus. There are hard rock songs like "The World Needs Guts" as well as a nice rock ballad with "Life And Death Of The Party."

This album is supposed to be the comeback for Alice Cooper. That makes sense as the popularity of Horror/Slasher films as well as hard rock was at an all time high when this came out. I think his true comeback was with the album 'Trash' but this one got me into Alice Cooper to begin with. It led me to buying a VHS copy of "The Nightmare Returns" that featured some classic Cooper songs and that led me to buying the original "Greatest Hit's" album. Then "Welcome To My Nightmare" and then.....you get the picture. But for me it all started here. This album is one I listen to near Halloween as well as his next release and his heaviest with "Raise Your Fist And Yell."

Stand Out songs "Life And Death Of The Party" "Crawlin'" "The Great American Success Story" and "Give It Up"

This album is one that captures his 1980's heavy metal power! This is my second favorite album he put out in the 80's. "Teenage Frankenstein", "Thrill My Gorilla", "Trick Bag", "Simple Disobedience" all rock! Not to mention the last track that was on the movie Friday the 13th. Awesome!

Yeah, yeah, so it's not the best album Alice has come out with. In fact, it's straight up hair metal-The first in a series of four that Alice would do. I don't totally dump on him for doing it, in fact, if it weren't for this hair metal comeback, we might not have ever been treated to albums like Last Temptation or Brutal Planet. Alice(like David Bowie) has a knack for surviving by sneaking themselves into modern music trends. This has kept him alive(and just barely above water in the early 80s) and active within the music scene so he was able to tour and release more albums. Constrictor helped him alot after Dada(which was a much more superior album ironically) to get himself known again. I'll bet alot of people thought he had retired. Although this is my least favorite era of Alice, I'm glad he did it. If staying alive in the music industry meant that Alice had to be a hair rocker for awhile, so be it. It hasn't tarnished his reputation any. This album is probably one of the best of that era; It's actually pretty solid throughout. If you ask me, it's a helluva lot better than Trash because it's still the makeup-wearing, horror movie image as opposed to the Bon Jovi one. So, ultimately this one's recommended to die hards and hair metal fans. Not a good one to start off with if you're a newcomer.

This album is definitely one of Alice's best yet. My absolute favorites on this album R Teenage Frankenstein and He's Back (The Man Behind The Mask). One of the reasons that make these 2 songs my favorites is the fact that they R both featured in the 1986 horror flick Friday The 13th Part 6. Alice Cooper is the most awesome heavy-metal artist 2 date and it is shown right here on this album.