Album Review: Alice Cooper - Goes To Hell

Alice Cooper - Goes To Hell

Warner Bros Records - 1976

6.5/10

The first of two sequels to the phenomenal Welcome To My Nightmare comes another set of nightmares known as Alice Cooper Goes To Hell, or simply Goes To Hell. If the last album was a look into the mind of someone going through nightmares, this one is like going through the mind of someone’s drunken or tripped-out sleep cycle. Oddly, there’s very little to this that invokes fear the way the former did. There’s also, sadly, a substantial drop in song quality.

This isn’t to say that Goes To Hell is void of anything good, of course. To get the strongest points out of the way, “Didn’t We Meet” is built on a softer crawl that breaks into a heavy chorus, and galloping guitar/drum patterns that I can’t get enough of. We’ve also got one of my favorite ballads from the solo era, “I Never Cry.” This is an emotional take on suppressing feelings and general depression. If the whole disc could stay even and work around these types of structures, it could have been fantastic. 

Unfortunately, everything else that I enjoy from here comes not from a place of good songwriting, but odd tactics that just happen to be fun or catchy. “Give The Kid A Break” is bordering classic territory, and I love every second of it. But objectively, it’s not a good song. Same can be said about a lot of the tacky ones. “Just Dance” is plenty cool, but there’s a clear sense of uncertainty, especially considering how different the surrounding tracks are. Opener “Go To Hell” has lyrics and goofy delivery making it memorable, but that’s it; not something I’d call good. The only exception might be “Guilty,” a bit of a classic throwback to the earlier metal-adjacent types.

Not too many things stick out as being overly bad, and I do enjoy much of this record. But the last few tracks certainly feel like a descent into madness, and not in a good way. The filler songs couldn’t be more obvious, and the likes of “I’m The Coolest” are nothing short of flat-out-boring; things are anything but even. It’s worth a listen just because of how interesting a lot of it is, but going in expecting the same quality as Nightmare will leave a lot to be desired.