Customer Reviews

Raise Your Fist & Yell

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Alice hones the sound of Constrictor on Raise Your Fist and Yell, and blends it with typical Alice Cooper lyrics. The result is one of Cooper's best solo albums ever. Lock Me Up is a great metal song, and should remain in Cooper's live set list. The drumming is insane on Lock Me Up, a real headbanger. Not That Kind of Love is funny, and another straight ahead metal tune. Give the Radio Back and Raise Your Fist and Yell is Cooper's response to the 80's, Tipper Gore led PMRC attack on heavy metal. Kane Roberts gets to flex his metal muscle with Prince of Darkness, and unlike Constrictor, Kip Winger's bass work is in the forefront of most songs. The reason to buy Raise Your Fist though is for the trilogy of songs: Chop-Chop-Chop, Gail and Roses on White Lace. These three songs tell the story of a murderer and his crimes against a would-be bride. The story is fascinating and Cooper once again creates an audial horror movie. Gail may be Cooper's creepiest song next to Former Lee Warmer. This is one Alice Cooper CD you won't be able to put away for long, perfect for the Halloween season.

This must be one of Alices most underrated albums to date, forget the pretenders, Marylin Manson is a true lightweight when you REALY listen to Alice. Gail must be one the cleverest songs Alice has written, a sing song confession, a nursery ryme with broken glass edges leading into the full blown braggards tale, roses on white lace, truely chilling .The rest of the album is a churning fist thumping affaire, Prince of darkness delivers just that little bit more than the other tracks, but it is the last three Chop,Chop,Chop, Gail and Roses on white lace that realy stir the juices. Not since Welcome to my nightmare has an Alice Cooper album oozed an atmosphere of compleat horror, a feeling of dread and menace and excitement. Kiss are four guys in Alice make-up, Marylin Manson is trying too hard,Gothics are little Alices living the Alice dream while denying his influence. Alice is a true innovator, never to be copyed, matched or bettered ,only David Bowie has influenced as many music trends as Alice. Put the album on, kick back, close your eyes and be entertained

Excellent over the top late '80's release from the Coop.This is what I would consider his best work since the 'From The Inside' album.Heard in a interview he did once this lp was to be more of a metal lp,that 'Constrictor' was supposed to be a hard rock lp and 'Trash' was to be more of a classic rock effort.Interesting to know that.'Raise Your Fist...' has everything a good old fashioned Alice Cooper release has...blood,gore and clever story lines behind many of the tunes here.Recently saw the video for the CD's opener "Freedom" is what inspired me to check out this disc again.Other killer tracks include "Step On You",the evil "Prince Of Darkness" and what appears to be in sequence sort of like a horror movie "Time To Kill","Chop,Chop,Chop","Gail" and "Roses On White Lace".Whew!Be sure to look at the lyric sheet for this disc.Awesome material here,I tell you.Line-up:Alice-vocals,Kane Roberts(remember? that Rambo-like dude?)-guitar,Kip Winger-bass,Ken Mary-drums and Paul Horowitz-keyboard.Highly recommended.

Alice Cooper's "Raise Your Fist and Yell" is a very well-conceived and tightly played album. I bought this when it came out in 1987. I felt it was a HUGE improvement over "Constrictor" in songwriting and musicianship.

The tracks, especially the last four tracks, are classic aggresive Alice. Kane Roberts playing on "Roses on White Lace" is amazing! I never could convince any of the "Metal Heads" at my high school of the greatness of this album. I recently listened to this album about five times one week because it still rocks!! In fact, I would say this album has gained with time.

If you want to listen to some Heavy Metal style Alice, then give this a spin. Please overlook "Constrictor", "Trash", and "Hey Stoopid". There are good tracks on those records, but none of them has the sheer brutality and power of "Raise your Fist and Yell".

This album is perfect for any Headbanger who misses the late 1980's, a decade when heavy metal ruled MTV and horror splatter movies were popular both in the theatre AND on video. 1987's "Raise Yer Fist" marks Alice's peak in the decade's metal scene, and in my opinion, it doesn't sound cheesy or out-dated (unlike Constrictor and Trash). I can listen to this record over and over again, as well as 1991's "Hey Stoopid." "Raise Yer Fist" celebrates Freddy Kreugar, Jason Voorhees, and all of the gory, bloody, campy slasher flicks that fanatic young adults can't get enough of; such a genre fits perfectly with Cooper's pioneering showmanship. Where else can you hear a trilogy about a beautiful bride named Gail being stabbed in the chest with a butcher knife, then buried in the ground and having insects crawl throughout her bones? No matter how hard other bands have tried, no artist can creatively write grisly lyrics like Cooper can. And of course, the title track of the album is a middle finger to none other than Tipper Gore and the PMRC, whose failed attempt at putting a warning system on blatantly offensive music forced rock & roll to go to court and fight censorship. "Lock Me Up" and "Give the Radio Back" are underrated metal anthems; they to me are equilvalent in punctuality as Twisted Sister's "You Can't Stop Rock & Roll" and "We're Not Gonna Take It!" And today, with so much pop garbage being shoved down our throats by MTV (which plays the same boring videos to death) such rock anthems are outcrys made against society's horridly shallow commercialism. Sure, "Raise Yer Fist And Yell" isn't exactly "Welcome to My Nightmare," but so what?!! Both Alice AND horror movie fans need to possess this nostalgic time capsule. Also, I recommend Wendy O. Williams' "Maggots LP," which was released the exact same year.

Buy this CD for the three following reasons:

1. "Chop! Chop! Chop!'
2. "Gail"
3. "Roses On White Lace"

This trilogy is absolutely some of the best material Alice ever delivered. They tell the murderous tale of a psychotic monster on the prowl that "keeps the city so clean." Absolutely haunting and a incredible audio ride that stirs up some very disturbing Saturday night horror flick imagery. EXCELLENT STUFF!

The rest of the album is more basic late 80's hard rock - NOT to be confused with "hair metal" in any way, shape or form! This is Alice Cooper, not Poison! Yes, THAT was a name of one of his "hits" wasn't it? Well, I have to say that this CD came out a couple years before MTV discovered Alice and turned him into a video star.

"Raise Your Fist And Yell" is his best offering of the decade. Not too far in front of "Constrictor" - but ahead just the same.

This is one of Alice Coopers most highly underated albums, and thats a shame really because it has amazing hits all through the cd. It has the opening song Freedom which is amazing, Lock me Up which is another good song equal to freedom, Give the Radio back, an interesting track, Step on you a track about just being mad, Not that kind of Love, a rather humorous with Alice's bad boy touch added to it, the Religious song Prince of Darkness with an amazing guitar solo, Time to Kill, and a 3 story song about Alice being Jack the Ripper.

The inside of the album has good album art, and lyrics. This album has amazing guitar solos all the way through it.... But don't buy this one on your own buy Constrictor with it, it has the same style songs, and costs just as much, and all together it's not even 20 bucks, so you get 2 rare cd's with amazing songs, for a price equal to 1 regular cd.

"If you don't like it you can lock me up!"

Well, if you're a fan of straightforward Heavy Metal (not Thrash Metal, or Power Metal, or Death Metal - or any other Metal subgenre - just good, traditional Heavy Metal) then chances are you'll like Raise Your Fist and Yell.

Alice's previous album, Constrictor, hinted at moving in this direction. It was a combination of Alice's 70's music combined with mid 80's Pop Metal. It was a good album, but at times seemed a bit watered down and half hearted. All that changed with Raise Your Fist and Yell.

Alice and co-conspirators Kane Roberts (guitar), Kip Winger (bass, backing vocals), and Ken Mary (drums) took the power up a notch and created the perfect blending of Alice's unique vocal style (not to mention his unique lyric writing style) with 80's Heavy Metal. What they ended up with was a classic album.

Opening up with the anthemic, "Freedom," Alice shows right of the bat that he means business this time. No more half measures - no more playing it safe to attempt to placate his old fans (whom I'm sure there was some concern in the Cooper camp that a full on Metal album would alienate), this was going to be an in-your-face Alice Cooper on musical steroids album. Beyond the attitude and the aggressiveness of the song, "Freedom," has some great vocal melodies, great riffs, and one hell of a chorus hook.

The album's aural assault doesn't let up until track 9.

Following, "Freedom," is "Lock Me Up," a track that is opened with a great Ken Mary drum intro that leads into a full blown twisted Metal anthem with some amazing vocal hooks and some really fun lyrics from Alice. The anthems don't stop there. "Give the Radio Back," continues the anthemic theme with a slight leaning towards 70's Hard Rock while still firmly rooted in the Metal framework. "Radio," again has strong riffs and memorable vocal melodies.

From there Alice starts moving into more familiar Cooper terriroty with, "Step On You," a song about having a nasty attitute. Think of this one as a Heavy Metal version of, "No More Mr. Nice Guy," only with marching, stomping beat. Again, strong riffs, strong vocal melodies, and a great chorus hook make for another album highlight (on an album filled with highlights).

Alice's twisted love song here is, "Not That Kind of Love," which closes out what was side one of the LP. An Alice Cooper song with a funky riff & beat for a chorus? You bet. But this isn't a Funk song, this is just a great Heavy Metal song with a great sense of groove (not that far removed from the heavier stuff that Whitesnake did in the mid 80's).

Side 2 opened up with, "Prince of Darkness," from the movie of the same name. While this song would have been a highlight on Constrictor here it is merely a strong album cut. It is followed up by another solid album cut, "Time To Kill." Again, on Constrictor this would have been a highlight. Not here.

Then we get to the Trilogy. "Chop, Chop, Chop," "Gail," and "Roses on White Lace." The Jack the Ripper story (or a story about some such character). It's disturbing, unsettling, and yet still compelling. Many fans consider this trilogy the highlight of the album, and there is no question that these three songs finish out the album in a very strong fashion. "Chop," and "Roses," are both very strong Metal songs, while, "Gail," is the one respite from the aggression of the album with some very strong, if dark and twisted Halloweenish melodies.

In the end, Raise Your Fist and Yell was Alice Cooper's strongest album of the 80's, and while that wasn't a huge feat don't let that fool you. This is one of the very best straightforward, traditional Heavy Metal albums of the 80's, period. The production is crisp and powerful, and the performances are all fantastic. Alice proved that he could keep up with the bands that he obviously helped to influence.

Now if you aren't a fan of 80's Heavy Metal (like Judas Priest, Dio, Armored Saint, etc) then this album isn't for you. This is very similar to KISS' 80's material that leaned in the Metal direction (Creatures of the Night, Lick it Up, Animalize), only stronger and more consistent than any of them (from a Metal standpoint).

However, if you do like the bands noted above and the rest of this review makes the album sound intriguing to you then by all means - order this thing today! Raise Your Fist and Yell is a great Heavy Metal album.

I can't stop listening to this amazing album. Total horror, total splatter-fest, total energy, total guitars, total driving rhythms, total fun, totally hilarious, totally timeless, totally one of the best and completely overlooked hard rock/metal classics of all time. Alice goes nuts with the lyrics on this one and every tune is a total hit. Check it out especially if you like slasher films and head pounding metal with great guitar work.

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 previous album to this called "Constrictor" 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.