Let me start off by saying that overall, this is an excellent album. It falls down in a couple of places, but I'll get to that in a minute. Cooper has enlisted the help of Bob Ezrin, a producer that he has worked extensively with in the past, and also members of the original line-up of the broken ALICE COOPER band. This has produced a sound that while similar to some of his earlier work, also brings in some more modern sounds, and it works well.

My personal favorite is "The Congregation", a song which details the singer's tour through Hell. Rob Zombie guests on this track as 'The Guide', and it culminates in a very fun song, which sums up the entire album, really. You can tell Alice had a lot of fun when he was recording this CD, and that's a very positive thing for the listener to be able to hear.

In terms of downsides though, there's only a couple. "Caffeine" is a very odd song, and it slightly threw me out of the album, being a very obviously comical song. "Ghouls Gone Wild" was also a bit of a downer for me. It could be described as BEACH BOYS inspired, but I just don't think it's executed all that well.

Overall though, I thoroughly approve of this album, and it just goes to prove that even after a career that spans more than four decades, ALICE COOPER is still at the top of his game.

Vasilis Odontidis (7/10)
 

In "Welcome 2 My Nightmare" there is no standard line up but instead a lot of people that collaborated with Cooper and Ezrin and played or sung in various songs. Amongst those, it is worth to mention Dennis Dunaway, Neal Smith and Michael Bruce members of the original ALICE COOPER band, Mark Volman, living legend, and one of the two singers of The Turtles and Jimmy de Grasso (ex-drummer of MEGADETH). There is also a duet with Ke$ha, a rap-singer which seemed quite strange as an idea and quite experimental but the result was pretty nice. There are approximately thirty people, in total, that are involved in this record.

The songs in this record have a wide range, from Rock N' Roll to Disco, and from ballads to surf. The modern technology is present here and there with electronic drums, vocoders etc. Alice Cooper's voice is in a great shape and made a really good impression on me. The songwriting is generally good; the riffs are interesting and the song range quite diverse, therefore helping the flow of the record. Here and there riffs are reused from the first album, like the piano line in the first song, "I Am Made Of You", which is borrowed from "Steven". The cover is similar to the one of the first record but has a much darker feeling.

This album cannot in no way be considered a breakthrough for Alice Cooper and I dare say can't be compared to the impact the original album had. Considering also the legacy of the people that collaborated to create this record generates even higher expectations from the fans. Eventually, it is a nice record and it will be appreciated from the faithful followers of Alice Cooper but the glorious past of the original record is haunting "Welcome 2 My Nightmare" in each step.

Well, the honor this time goes to ALICE COOPER, one of the biggest references in the Metal World today:  Pioneer, frequently regarded as being the artist who introduced the horror imagery to Rock N' Roll, the guy who changed the genre forever, and gave the first guidelines of what Metal was going to be. Of course I need not to say that Vincent Furnieris one of my favorite artist of all times, his voice has always showed me that the passion is bigger and stronger than the talent you may have, exactly the same reason I still dream of singing at any time.

As Rock and Metal music is becoming only a matter of business, ALICE COOPER strikes back with "Welcome 2 My Nightmare", his 26^th album in more than 40 years of a successful career, and the sequel of the "same name" 1975 institutional disc, showing that there's no end for inspiration. Along the decades Mr. Cooper has delighted us with good pieces of work, passing through the fields of kicking and smashing, to the cries and tearful memories. With this new album Alice manage to surprise the listener with slow passages, heavy touches, blues riffs, bloody disco rhythms, orchestral times and of course light and classic Rock.

This record is clearly the effort of a man who has accomplished everything in life, who has nothing to prove in music industry, but still has the interest to keep alive the love not only for the music, but for the art itself, indirectlymaking a statement about what is the music today, showing that the devil knows more things for the ages, not for being an evil presence.

This album has everything, even some "not so good" moments, but that's for the taste of the fan; personally the disco times are not my favorites, but what the hell, I still enjoy this man like the first time I listened "Poison". All in all, for people like ALICE COOPER is that I still keep alive the love for Rock and Metal music, and I'll know there's always a reason to still keep on rocking. "The Devil is notas Black as he is painted"