These comics were later reissued in a trade paperback, but all are affordable today, running at about $4 each. Even Alice himself appears as the Showman character, but the protagonist is (of course) Steven. The colour palette evokes autumn (the story is set in October). The covers are hard stock, and the artwork inside by Michael Zulli is detailed and, at times, horrifying. Here you can find images from all three issues. One edition of the CD came with issue #1. In fact there was a even three-part Neil Gaiman comic book available at the time to help flesh out the story. The Last Temptation was Alice’s first “true” concept album since DaDa in 1983. “Bad Place Alone”, for example, has a chorus that sounds influenced by musicals.Īlice is nothing if not ambitious. West Side Story has always been a huge influence on Alice as fans know, and The Last Temptation is another album that shows this Broadway influence. He’s been serious before, on some of his finest moments in fact, but he always makes his messages fun to listen to and sing along with. This album spends a lot of time on the temptation of drugs, and while many rock fans might cringe at the idea of Alice delivering a “message” to us, this really is nothing new for our favourite masked rock star. Grunge forced a lot of hard rockers to drop the glossy production sheen of the 80’s, get serious a little bit on the lyrics, and write harder songs. “Stolen Prayer”, the best song on the album, is Cornell’s, and his pipes have never sounded so good. The most obvious grunge influence is that Chris Cornell of Soundgarden wrote two songs and co-sings one.

It was the kind of thing we’d really missed from Alice, since the 1970’s. While it was not a commercial success, it excited the long time fans. The Last Temptation was the album he needed to release in 1994. Alice had taken a bit of a slip, quality-wise, in the late 80’s and early 90’s.

These are all trends that grunge helped usher in.

The Last Temptation was heavier…more serious…more raw in production. The foremost argument was, “What influence did grunge have on The Last Temptation?” While this is by no means a grunge album, I think there is a subtle grunge influence, and The Last Temptation is all the better for it. When this album first came out, the local music geeks and I spent a lot of time discussing it. ALICE COOPER – The Last Temptation (1994)

The Last Temptation by Neil Gaiman