We love a theme album, especially one that comes from a verifiable master of macabre. Alice Cooper has been praised by Bob Dylan, Groucho Marx and The Flaming Lips for his style, and even if you don’t get down with thrashing rock jams, you’re bound to find his first record in three years novel. Alice strays from the Vaudeville stage show feel of his classic work and ventures into a modern horror flick. Along Came A Spider follows a charismatic serial killer named Spider, who wraps his predetermined eight victims in silk cocoons right after (this is where it gets freaky) removing one of their legs. What do you do with eight extra legs? Well, you turn yourself into a human spider, of course. However his plans are jeopardized by the emergence of an emotion to end all murder sprees: Love. Packaged with Cooper’s classic ’shock rock’ sound, Along Came A Spider is all Alice and no filler.

Preview tracks on his MySpace page before the album is released on July 29th.