Alice Cooper: Alice Cooper (vocals); Michael Bruce (guitar, keyboards); Glen Buxton (guitar); Dennis Dunaway (bass); Neil Smith (drums). Recorded at RCA Studios, Chicago, Illinois. Alice Cooper's second release of 1971, KILLER, helped solidify the band's position as rock's most notorious, shocking, violent, sleazy and theatrical band of the day, serving as an obvious influence on such future rockers as Kiss, White Zombie, and Marilyn Manson. Cut from the same musical cloth as its predecessor LOVE IT TO DEATH, KILLER replaces the space-rock of their earlier releases with blaring hard rock. Also, the band successfully broadened its sound on KILLER by adding orchestrated sounds and synthesizers to the mix. Several tracks would become Alice Cooper staples, such as the vicious Desperado (which uses acoustic guitar and a string section to great effect), and the anthemic leadoff track Under My Wheels, which Alice would later re-record with Guns N' Roses. Criticized and misconstrued at the time of the album's release, the eerie Dead Babies deals with child abuse--still disturbing stuff all these years later. One of Cooper's more progressive tunes, Halo of Flies is an eight-minute-plus highlight, consisting of several different sections, ditto the nearly-as-long closing title track. KILLER is classic Alice Cooper.