The king of shock rock Alice Cooper, formerly Vincent Damon Furnier, the son of a minister, is a legend of rock synonymous with music and strong elements of theater.
Killer was the Alice Cooper band’s fourth studio album and their best to date. This recording would usher in a new era for the band and push them into the stratosphere in regards to popularity on a worldwide level. Remember there was no email or the internet back then and the only way to get that kind of attention was to continuously tour and pump out 1 or 2 albums a year.
Killer featured eight rockin’ tracks including “Under My Wheels”, “Be My Lover” and the classic opus “Halo of Flies” clocking in at over eight minutes. “Halo of Flies” was not your standard rock song, it was progressive with long guitar solos and some of the most recognizable drums in on one track, and it remains that way to this day.
Audio Fidelity follows up their School’s Out 24kt Gold release with another Alice Cooper classic from 1971. The sound is clear and crisp as always with their 24kt gold releases. This is as close to vinyl as you can get these days and that is exactly how this music was originally intended. I know because I had the album in vinyl and loved it to death (no pun intended). I especially enjoy the way the label reproduces the original artwork and puts the gold CD in a nice windowed slipcase to make sure you can separate this version from all the others in your collection. If you are a big AC fan like yours truly you have multiple copies of these releases and need some separation.
This music never gets old, only the listeners do but age has no preference for rock and roll, especially classics like Killer. As much as I love Billion Dollar Babies this still ranks as my all time favorite Alice Cooper album and it never sounded so good.
Keith “MuzikMan” Hannaleck
September 14, 2009
