1346 - Alice Cooper Halo of Flies 1971

"Killer" was famously recorded and released in the same year as its predecessor, but it was far from a cheap cash-in on the breakthrough success the band found on Love It To Death. In fact, it seemed that the band still had plenty more ideas in their twisted minds, enough to write and record another classic record in such a short period of time. In short, Alice Cooper's fourth studio album takes everything that made its predecessor so good and takes it one step further. Vincent Damon Furnier was accompanied by Glen Buxton- lead guitar, Michael Bruce- rhythm guitar and keyboards, Dennis Dunaway- bass guitar, and Neal Smith- drums. The epic "Halo of Flies" is perhaps here more than in any other track to date that the band is able to blend so many ideas and influences into one track and still make it flow very well. The instrumental passages really shine here. The listener is treated to tasty blues licks, grand orchestral segments courtesy of Ezrin's production skills and even some early heavy metal with palm-muted chugging. This track proved that the band was capable of creating grand progressive suites in the vein of Yes and King Crimson, and this experiment would yield to further tracks along these lines in the future.