For the Alice Cooper fans who feel his output was spotty before and after the 1989 classic Trash on Epic, Brutal Planet is a cause to rejoice. It is a solid hard rock offering. Cooper is in great voice, and he sounds mean and spirited…

Two types of records usually have the highest potential for embarrassment: "comedy" records and "scary" records. Unlike an awful pub rock mistake or a tuneless ambient workout, there seems to be nothing more obnoxious than listening to a record that tries – and fails – to be either funny or frightening. Coil's Musick to Play in the Dark 2 takes the latter stab into forbidding, blood-velvet territory and consistently bungles it up…

A torn banner flutters in a cold wind atop a stack of crumbling ruins. You cast your gaze down a long winding path to ascertain your destination. In this dilapidated world, you are alone and frightened yet you steel yourself for the task ahead. Although many horrors line your path, you must succeed, you must prevail. And if you do not you will try again and again until you drain the last of humanity from your body…