The king of shock rock is back with the most interesting concept album since Queensryche's Operation Mindcrime. But what may really shock Alice's fans is the intense spirituality that seeps through every crevice of this album.
The concept is a Tales of the Crypt-style story line about a young man who is invited to a "free" show at the Theater of the Real. The young man sees quite a show -- the full gamut of what the dark side of his life has to offer. He is invited to become a permanent part of the show, but ultimately declines (partly because all the permanent members seem to be permanently dead!).
The music here is Alice's usual -- an accessible, pop rock style, accented with lots of interesting voices and eerie special effects. But, it is the themes that are the most fascinating. "Nothing Free" is an ironic tune about the consequences of sin. "Bad Places Alone" introduces us to people who were so cool it killed them, like the addict Smokey Joe ("I'm as thin as a coroner's needle/ Man, I shake like a cold Chihuahua/ I got a runny nose and a road map on my arm.") And there is the beautiful mercy in "You're My Temptation."
In the song "Lullaby," the young man finally realizes who the Showman is. In a renunciation of the devil worthy of the Exorcist, he tells the Showman off: "I don't want your reptile embrace/ I don't want to follow you down to your place/ You can take your whiskey soaked, foaming at the mouth, toilet talking, pea soup spewing, sweating blood, demon breath out of my face!"
The album ends with "Cleansed by Fire," which asks all the right questions: "What about death? What about sin? What about the web you're trying to spin? What about peace? What about love? What about faith in God above?" Then Alice closes with an affirmation of faith: "You lose/ I win/ You couldn't suck me in/ It's over/ You have no power/ You're lost and I'm found/ and I'm Heaven bound."
If you want to see the concept more clearly, there is also a three-part comic book series written by Alice and Neil Gaimon, author of the Sandman comics. (You'll find a sample of the artwork inside the CD cover) This is what rock evangelism should be: not just Christianese set to a rock beat, but a real rocker explaining life and death and its eternal consequences in terms that real rockers can understand.