ALICE COOPER's new album, Welcome 2 My Nightmare, the sequel to 1975’s classic Welcome To My Nightmare, will be released in September.

An update from Britain's The Independent states:

A month before Halloween, the rocker Alice Cooper will release his next album, Welcome 2 My Nightmare, and in that moment will offer the music and magazine industries an idea as to how they can awaken from the bad dream that has tormented them for most of the past decade.

This will be an album release like none before. Firstly you'll be able to acquire it in your local supermarket or WH Smith, packaged up in a magazine with high production values and assorted merchandise. Or if you prefer something less physical, then the album will come as an iPad app with exclusive video interviews. The content of both products will be edited by the king of theatrical shock rock himself.

It's a format that is being dubbed The Fan Pack, and it appears to be a viable means of persuading music fans to part with £14.99 for a new release that they might otherwise have sought to download for nothing.

Read more at The Independent.

According to an update from Alice Cooper, "once again produced with Bob Ezrin (PINK FLOYD, KISS), (the new album) will feature in the new shows. The original spawned a worldwide, full theatrical tour so expect Alice's comic book cruelty to be taken up a notch."

Welcome 2 My Nightmare features some other familiar faces from Cooper's past. The original Nightmare tandem of Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner played on the album, while Vince Gill plays on a track called 'Runaway Train'. And surviving Cooper band members Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway and Neal Smith reunited on the track 'When Hell Comes Home'.

Nightmare 2, meanwhile, will have plenty of similarities to its predecessor. "There are certain songs where we let some of the themes from (the original) 'Nightmare' slip in," Cooper tells Billboard.com. "All of a sudden you'll hear the little piano part from 'Steven' or from 'The Awakening.' I wanted (the albums) to be married together. I think we even make reference to a couple of characters from the original (album)."

Ezrin worked with the Alice Cooper Band during their glory years including producing records like the original Welcome To My Nightmare, Billion Dollar Babies (1973), School's Out (1972) and Love It To Death (1971).

Footage of Alice Cooper performing the new song 'I'll Bite Your Face Off' on his current tour has surfaced on YouTube and can be viewed below: