special introductory paragraph! Kiss
Hotter Than Hell
Dressed To Kill
Alive
Destroyer
Rock And Roll Over
Love Gun
Alive II
Double Platinum
Gene Simmons
Ace Frehley
Peter Criss
Paul Stanley
Dynasty
Unmasked
Music From The Elder
Creatures Of The Night
Lick It Up
Animalize
Asylum
Crazy Nights
Hot In The Shade
Revenge
Alive III
Carnival Of Souls-The Final Sessions
MTV Unplugged
Psycho-Circus
Symphony Alive IV
In the 70s, Kiss painted their faces, spit blood, breathed fire and recorded
simplistic hard rock that drove the kids wild (and I do mean "kids" -- I
clearly remember my 10-year-old brother and his friends being CRAZY about
the band. Heck, I was too, and I didn't even know any of their songs! I
remember collecting Kiss trading cards and excitedly staying up to watch
"Kiss Vs. The Phantom Of The Park" on TV. It was a wonderful time, youth.
Playing with that little Evil Knievel toy where you'd rev the thing up and
the motorcycle would do a wheelie and go flying down the driveway, and also
that thing my brother had that was a little football player and you'd push
his head down really hard to make him kick the ball across the room, and
that thing where it looked like planes were flying across the wall and you'd
shoot them and of course Adventure People, Army Men, Hot Wheels and Matchbox
cars, baseball cards, Lite Brite, games like Payday, Big Deal and Monopoly,
Pong, oops I'm stuck in this nostalgic parenthese). Two of them were huge
druggies; the other two (Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons) just had sex with
every woman in America, including your mother - I'm serious, ask her. I
fucked her too, the whore. Actually, between Kiss and Ernest Borgnine, it's
amazing that there were ANY virgins left by the end of the decade. But the
end of the decade DID come, and with it the Kiss hit factory dried up, so
they removed their makeup, replaced their lead guitarist about fifty-two
times and have continued to push on in spite of limited public interest,
with the occasional make-up wearin' original line-up "reunion" grabbin' 'em
some undeserved attention. And yes, they STILL play simplistic hard rock.
Midtempo power chords and stupid sexist lyrics all the way. But they know
it - they're not trying to be serious musical artists; they're just trying
to kick ass, have fun, and penetrate every female alive, including fat
people and women in comas.
Contains "Strutter," which I'm sure you know by Unrest, "Love Theme From
Kiss," which I'm sure you know by the Melvins, "Black Diamond," which I'm
sure you know by the Replacements, and "Firehouse," which I'm sure you know
as the most talented band to come out of the 1980s. Also has "Deuce" and
"Cold Gin." Tons of classics on this debut, in other words! All the
non-classic tunes are really pretty awful though. Just astonishingly
predictable, worthless, throwaway midtempo hard rock tunes. To be honest, even the
classics aren't really that great. One thing about Kiss (at least this
first album anyway) -- no goddamned way did their music live up to the menace of
their image. The music is absolutely TAME - limp wristed drumming,
amateurish power chord whackin'... but cool vocals! Low, gruff and ugly!
As a final summation of my Kiss review, I conclude that they definitely had
some great riffs here and there, but they were no AC/DC, Led Zeppelin or
Black Ladysmith Mambazo. I hope you enjoyed my Kiss reviews! Good night!
WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN, THEY HAVE 24 MORE ALBUMS?????? DO I LOOK LIKE A
GODDAMNED STEREOLOGUE?????
Thank goodness for the makeup, because they wouldn't have made it without it. 4.
I'll be back!
Uh, do you guys realize that that's how the Rolling Stones' songs have always been?
Same with the Stooges... did you think Iggy Pop was an intellectual or a musicologist?
Ramones, Sex Pistols, etc. All these bands. Kiss is not more simplistic than them, nor less tuneful.
I would argue that simplicity, if anything, is an indication of talent. Sheeit, you have a thousand chords and instruments, you BETTER fucking come up with something amazing.
But to make good music with two chords... THAT requires imagination!
In fact, aside from progressive rock or orchestral rock, that is what the rock 'n' roll genre is!
Good golly, Miss Molly! Ready, set, go man go! Tutti frutti, oh rooty!
Musically, KISS was heavy punk rock with lead guitars. This is especially evident on their live albums of the '70s. In a sense, they also embodied the original punk rock credo of "Be whatever you want to be." Punk rock was NOT originally about conformist fashions of spikey hair and safety pins and shirts torn just so. (Which is why, for example, the Ramones had long hair.)
Rock and roll over, Beethoven!
Now for the ultimate in
music-you're-you're-supposed-to-enjoy-only-in-a-wink-wink-nudge-nudge-manner
(tug on goatee). Hey hey! Kiss isn't a bad album! But if the band
never really progressed from here, than the band truly does suck. I
mean, it's about the dumbest rock you can reach--even dumber than Fun
House. At least there, the Stooges were under the influence of severe
drugs. These guys didn't even drink or smoke at the time (at least
not the principal songwriters), so they have no excuse.
It's good music, though. The first side in particular has not a
single bad song. If the second side has a fault, it's because it
sounds exactly the same, making no attempt at drama, diversity, or
climaxesesses. Sssesessssesss, ssssss.
Best song? "Let Me Know"--love the vocal melody and the fast
breakdown at the end. Worst song? "Love Theme From Kiss."
Seriously, what IS that shit.
Well, it's rock and roll, it's raw and fun and full of testosterone
and greaser and bodacious and tubular, man and all that, and the
singing's even pretty good. It just skimps on the songwriting a
little in the second half and has a little too little ambition. Sure,
All Music Guide considers it a hard rock "landmark," but I can assure
you the guys that MADE it don't. They just wanna make a lot of money,
pork a lot of apple pie, and maybe make some catchy tunes in the
process. See, sometimes you NEED a little ambition in life. For that
reason, I give it an 8 and sell it back to the used record store for
$2.00.
Pssht. The original Superman? Pul-lease. Now I know that hits you
where it hurts, Mark, but I wasn't even a SPERM at the time. . .
I give the first album a serious 8 out 10, and rate the songs as follows; best song is cold gin it foreshadows Ace’s future accomplishment as a credible axe man and songwriter. Strutter, there is a reason why so many bands have covered this little gem, because it’s catchy and chicks love it. Black diamond is a dramatic moody little piece that if (like cold gin) it belonged to another band would have been labeled a classic.
Firehouse is a bluesy standard that would have been a mainstay with a band like AC/DC.
If I I’m kiss I stick my middle finger at the save face establishment that adds credibility to singers like Britney Spears etc. Oh and by the way there is a reason why The New York Dolls never took off and enjoyed global success, because there music was average and lacked originality. I love it when the morons stand up and praise the dolls and pioneers, give me a break they were an androgynous bar band and just didn’t have the right stuff.
The only thing that keeps the debut KISS record from being a solid effort is the fact that the heaviness wasn't captured well in the studio. That said, I like Cold Gin, obscurities like Let Me Know and Nothin' To Lose. The pure magic cuts are Firehouse, Deuce and especially the appropriate closer Black Diamond. Kissin' Time isn't that bad, and since it was done in between the debut and Hotter Than Hell, it has a taster of the heaviness that would rear its head on the sophomore album.
Contains "Goin' Blind," which I'm sure you know by The Melvins. Much better
riffs this time around! Less generic r'n'r pishposh, more actual grit,
meanness and catchiness. Most of the drumbeats are still excruciatingly
slow (I don't think I could play a rock song as slow as "Got To Choose" if I
were asleep, dead AND on heroin), but both the guitar and vocal melodies seem
a bit more written on here, especially on that excellent tune I mentioned
earlier that the Melvins ended up covering. Really cool vocal melody on
that one! Emotionally sung, even though the lyrics are bizarre bordering on
hilarious. If you're big on thud-stupid distorted heavy guitar chords and
don't mind if they're played at a quarter-speed that a REAL rock band would
play them, don't hesitate to Say, at the HMV yesterday I heard one of the
worst songs I will ever hear in my life. The lyrics were something like "We
won't give a fuck until you give a fuck about me... AND MY GENERATION!"
Have you heard it? Who is that? Somebody kick that guy in the balls.
Or "Oops... I Did It Again!"??
Or "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"??
Think about it!
The sound is a bit muffled still, but the amps are turned to 11. There's great hooks and melody and this is a KISS record that is crankable start to finish. Got To Choose is a nice opener, and then followed up with the urgency of the chords to Parasite, very worthy of a Beavis and Butthead interpretation. Goin' Blind is by far high up on the list of my all time favorite KISS tunes. Though offset by devious lecherous lyrics (which is what makes KISS fun regardless) it's very hauntingly melodic and features Ace Frehley's finest guitar solos. The downside is when the song fades out. The title cut has great riffs and should be taken out of storage for future KISS tours...no excuse it shouldn't be played. Let Me Go Rock N' Roll has...since when I first heard it, always sounded like a bastardized rockabilly-esque song, it's a take it or leave it affair but good. All The Way is a nice ass kicker with fine vocals by Gene Simmons. Watchin' You is cool too. Mainline is a sweet rocker with Peter Criss belting out the words, and I think Peter was at his best singing to rockers more than ballads, and sadly, save for Hooligan, Peter would never ever sing on a non-ballad KISS song that was worth a damn ever again. Comin' Home is sweet and it would've been a great closer if not for the final and most menacing beast that is Strange Ways, sung by Peter again. This song is dark slow and aggressive. No fucking around.
Contains "Rock And Roll All Nite," which I'm sure you know by Poison or
whoever that shit band was that did a cover of it in the late '80s. This
album sounds a lot like the last one, but with a few riffs that REALLY don't
make the grade, along with some unbelievably stupid groupie lyrics ("Room
Service," "Ladies In Waiting"), but hey man it's KISS!!!! Just shake your
head around really hard and let your brain slosh around until most of the
intelligence and taste have fallen out your ears, and the shim sounds good!
GOOD!!!! I'M A BIG DUMB JERK AND I LIKE KISS, EVEN THOUGH THEY
SUCK! Wait, what am I talking about? This is the album with the lyric,
"She's a dancer, a romancer/She's a Capricorn and I'm a Cancer"! What was
that? Did somebody just recite a poetic verse of Mr. Lord Alfred
Tennyson? Let me point out that at this exact moment, my fiancee is on the
couch with my puppy reciting this mantra: "Who's the boss? Who's the boss?
Tony Danza's the boss! Tony Danza's the boss!" Now she's talking in a high
voice as if she were the dog, telling me how much he has to go out and pee.
Sometimes I wonder why I was ever born.
In fact, what annoys me so much is the very idea that "HEADBANGING" is
incompatible with "INTELLIGENCE". Does that mean that a clever,
well-written, well-lyricized song actually reduces the pure bodily
enjoyment factor just because brains are involved? Whoever proved
that? Yes, I myself have lots of moments when I just feel like letting
out steam - I reach out for some hard-rockin', ass-kickin' record and
headbang to it. But it's NEVER a Kiss album - all my organism simply
protests against it. It can be AC/DC, but it can NEVER be Kiss,
because not only my brains, my BODY doesn't let me reach out and throw
on a Kiss record. Instead, I put on, say, 'Live At Leeds', and feel
much better. Hell, I'll go on and put on something like 'Gimme Three
Steps' by Lynyrd Skynyrd, which Mark probably detests, but for
Chrissake, it's at least funny and well-played, which is more than I
can say about any given Kiss song. Gimme a break.
Put it like that: why do you need to paint your house in nice colours
and put on some nice wallpaper and put up some pretty furniture and
everything, when you could just be living in a gray box as long as it
has four walls and a roof? You NEED all that extra crap to make you
feel human. Listening to a Kiss album just degrades me to an animal,
pure and simple. Why the hell do I need to do that when I can let off
my energy equally well and NOT feel dumbified in the process? Eh?
Oh, and Dressed To Kill? The two "best" things about this record are
a) Mr Frehley's 'beautiful' and specially self-credited intro to 'Rock
Bottom', which consists of an endless cycle of three notes in total;
and b) said Mr Frehley's lifting off AN ENTIRE GUITAR SOLO off the
Doors' 'Five To One' for 'She'. Each of these things alone should bring the
record's rating down two or three points at worst.
Regarding Ace's solos: there are lots of rock guitarists that love
Ace Frehley, and you can even hear some of Ace's licks in stuff by Pearl Jam and
Stone Temple Pilots. Personally, I think Ace was the only true
rocker Kiss ever had. His solos were unmistakably his, and they were always
funky and interesting, if not technically showy. He never claimed
to be a whiz, or above nicking stuff. I think I read somewhere that he answered
Kiss' audition by "playing all my best Jeff Beck licks". What a maroon!
As for this album, the production is vastly improved, the tempos are much
more upbeat, and the party atmosphere contained in most of these anthems is
undeniably infectuous! "Room Service" is hilarious, but Mark, am I crazy, or
does the music remind you a bit of "Under My Wheels" by Alice Cooper too??
There's even a bit more diversity here, with Ace's nice acoustic intro to
"Rock Bottom", which is simple, but a nicely soothing melody. These are
almost all fun party songs, and the sleaze is in full force, making it even
funner than the last one! The exception would be "She" which has a slower
plodding heavy riff that sounds like a leftover from the last album. And
doesn't the music in "Love Her All I Can" remind you of "Lowrider"?? "Rock
And Roll All Nite" closes the album in high style, and is their most famous
song.
I can't understand why some people dislike Kiss, Kiss are very good and
professional musicians, the band also has got a special individual zest, their songs
are catchy. And, besides, Paul Stanley has got a gorgeous vocal (and other
guys also have got a good vocals)! Kiss are great! They're among my favourites.
Funny to see these Kiss fans wet themselves when someone bursts their bubble
and reveals the secret to the band's success: little kids with no musical
taste listening to a comic book condensed into a shitty album, never pushing
sales past three million per each for well over 20 years despite several
high chart positions.
It's Poison, but pretending to be scary and not playing their own
instruments. Hey, at least those hair metal jokes could strum. There's no
excuse for this crap. Journey is better than this. At least their ballads
had soul and weren't as gay (THATS PRETTY FUCKING GAY SHITTY BAD!).
Tired dull stupid lame songs, and a live show that gets blown away by their
opening act, while their fans claim every album is the best ever no matter
how obviously weak or coerced or phoney it is, and then comparing it to acts
like Slayer, or that one other metal band that sounds like Slayer. And
these Kiss fags clearly have more evidence than I ever will of the charade
that is four money hungry Jews playing along to an overdubbed track of
faceless studio musicians, parading in and out of the Kiss empire by the
hundreds.
Playing watered down corporate rock (is there any other kind) written by a
man in a business suit snorting enough cocaine to kill all the sewer rats in
Chicago about such incredible topics as "Detroit shlock city" and "this one
time I balled a chick named Beth, dude."
But wow, it rocks. You can't hear stuff like this from any low caliber bar
band on an off night, no way.
That is the magic of a Kiss fan.
Granted, Neil Bogart has no production skills whatsoever, but thankfully he didn't fuck up Dressed To Kill. I refer to this as my "sing along" album, because there is much to sing to track by track. It has enough cowbell to put a grin on Christopher Walken's face. Favorite cuts include shit I'll never hear live again like Two Timer, Ladies In Waiting, Getaway , Anything For My Baby and Love Her All I Can. Rock Bottom is a surprise with the acoustic duet between Paul and Ace, definitely not something asshole critics ever expected to see a band like KISS doing. She is another exercise in heaviness, more sleaze and attitude. Oh and there's some little cut tacked on at the end called...what's that name again? I don't know, I guess it was important or something...
Contains the classic pre-"Cold Gin" stage patter, which I'm sure you know by
Alice Donut. Have I mentioned what Kiss sound like yet? Mostly just
straight midtempo thickly distorted chord sequences, sometimes poppy and
sometimes mean, seldom incredibly innovative but often catchy as all hell.
Like a more interesting Slade or less respectable New York Dolls. Now
about this album - for some reason, this has gone down in history books as
one of the best concert albums of all time, which is really weird. It
doesn't bring wild rock life to tepidly recorded studio tracks a la Cheap
Trick At Budokan, nor does it slow down and drug up classic rockers a la
Rolling Stones Get Your YoYos Out, nor does it tear like a guitar
lovin' muthafucka a la Who Live On Ludes, nor does it please the
sensitive ears of rickety old Christians a la Neil Diamond Hot
August Cunt, nor does it showcase all new tracks a la Ted Nugent
Intensities In Ten Shitties, nor does it rock and roll like a steam
engine guntrain a la Ramones It's Alive, nor does it go on for
fifteen years a la Metallica Binge & Sue, nor does it (insert
description here) a la (put band and hilarious parody of album title in bold
here), nor does keep America in stitches like funnyman Jay Leno. Really,
these songs are no better or worse on here than they were on the studio
albums. So what the hell's the point? You gonna buy it just for a few
minutes of stage patter? Or better yet, a TWELVE-MINUTE wankoff version of
"100,000 Years," complete with drum solo???? (it certainly SEEMS like it
drags on for 100,000 years, if I may be clever and witty for
a moment). No, the reason you buy it is because it's a fantastic sampler
of the first three albums, deleting most of the chaff (ooh! fancy word!) to make way for
the classics. Just hot riff after hot riff after hot riff. Two full albums
of fun, stupid '70s hard rock! Doesn't it make you want to rock and roll
all night -- and fart on every gay? Look, I know it's a homophobic lyric -
that's something you'll have to discuss with Messrs. Simmons and
Stanley. Prindle fans might note that I sampled the end-of-album audience
cheers as background for my classic "Hot Rockin' 2Nite (Live)" anthem!
They always delivered. I saw them a few times, and I left each
show shaking my head with a smile on my face, and my ears ringing.
They were entertainment, pure and simple, and they excelled at delivering it. Gets an 8 from me.
"It lookths lahk wh gohna half ourthelws a rock n roll pahty to-nite!"
Hey Asse, take the cock out of your mouth before you spout that tired
banter.
Concerning Josh and John Cable: They're fucking
retards. They wouldn't know good music if it shoved a
red-hot poker up their asses.
Fuck these shitheads.
its kinda lika a love/hate relation......isnt it?
The summer before I had seen them on "Midnight Special" and have since found videos of that performance on Kazaa. They did "Deuce" and "She". The mix was just a twat hair rougher than on the LP, but essentially sounds close to the live vinyl.
Oh yeah. I have read that the two-LP "Steppenwolf: Live" was also a studio live album. There's also a CW singer Bobby Bare that did a studio album, but did it live with friends and hangers-on hootin' and a-hollerin whilst the tape rolled. But, back Mssrs Stan & Simm. I've always thought the crowd noise on "Alive" sounded a bit too generic and too much of a wash in the background. I'm sure that was augmented as much as the musical performances. Criss has gone on the record saying a lot of that album was sexed up in the studio, especially the drums.
But at the time, it was rough, it was raw and it made my heart hurry. Or maybe that was Miss March stashed under my bed. That all happened at around the same time, so it's not easy to remember.
One last note on the aforementioned videos. At the time of the "Midnight Special" broadcast, all that these guys had was the makeup and some ignited LP gas. Not even a drum riser. Yet they totally smoked! They were still young n' hungry so they rocked good n' plenty. Fast-forward to the most recent "Bandstand" anniversary show. All the boom and bombast of a disaster at a fireworks factory. Yet it was sad, man, very sad. They lip-synched really bad and some dweeb with a wig was supposed to be Ace. My 13-year-old was watching this and said "JEEZ, Dad you really LIKED these guys?" I tried to tell him that, this wasn't the same buncha guys. This was, by Simmons' own admission, a quick buck. But he's 13, let him find out on his own when Linkin Park does a guest shot on "Scooby-Doo" or something.
Earlier in this page there's a remark that goes thus: "They wouldn't know good music if it shoved a red-hot poker up their asses." Well, truth be told neither would I. In fact, should a red-hot poker ever be shoved into my back door, not only would I not know good music, but quality in literature, television, journalism, and meteorology would be well beyond my grasp. I would, however, attain a vocal range heretofore unknown.
Contains "Do You Love Me," which I'm sure you know by Nirvana. Okay, who
the hell invited over sissyass Bob Ezrin? And why is he always allowed to
inject his love for overblown show tunes into our favorite bands? Pink
Floyd, Alice Cooper - now this! And what he's done with Kiss is turn them
into a streamlined pop metal band. Aside from the kickass classics "Detroit
Rock City" and "God Of Thunder," this might as well be a mid-period Motley
Crue album. Shiny, dynamic, bouncy, happy, singalongable - but not LOUD,
HEAVY or GRITTY enough!!! Not that they were ever GG Allin or anything, but
certainly they at least had filthy grungey guitar tunes; Ezrin has kinda
taken that away from a lot of this record, in exchange for Broadway musical
type pop tunes like "Great Expectations" and "Flaming Youth" (which is WAAAY
too reminiscent of Ezrin's Alice Cooper tune "Department Of Youth" for my
tastes - especially since that's not a very good Alice Cooper song).
"Beth" is fucking gorgeous though. I had a big crush on her in the seventh
grade. And that was PRE-boobs! You know my motto - "Old enough to go to
class, old enough to fuck up the ass!" Huh? Oh yes, the song is good too.
If that's how you get your jollies.
I had Destroyer, Hotter than Hell, and Alive II on
vinyl as a kid. Destroyer was always my favorite, and
still is. Too many cool songs, and in my opinion the
best production Kiss ever had.
Boy they sucked in the 80's though, and never
recovered. Unless you like playing embarressing music
for the sake of irony. I die laughing every time I
hear "God Gave Rock N Roll to You II"...almost as much
as Joey Lawrence's debut album!
"Lick it Up" is perhaps the LAMEST song ever
written and recorded. Right ahead of "Let's Put the X
Back in Sex".
1.DETROIT ROCK CITY: the story begins with ashton kutcher. the retard from just married! booooooo! then after the radio blares he goes to the car to the kiss concert in kansas then the band plays then BOOOM! BLASTING THE SOUNDS WITH FIRE AND THUNDER KISS! WITH A NEW TRICK UP THIER SLEEVE KICKS IT UP WITH THE MIDDLE SECTION THE DUELING SOUNDS LIKE A MEXICAN BULLFIGHT! THEN JUST WHEN YOU THINK IT 'S OVER A CAR CRASH KILLS ASHTON IN BLAZE OF FIRE! DEAD ASHTON!
2.KING OF THE NIGHTTIME WORLD: after the crash came a BANG! KISS STRIKES AGAIN AND I PICTURE THE GIRL ROCK BAND THE DONNAS PLAYING THIS SONG IN THIER UNDERWEAR! YEAH!
3.GOD OF THUNDER!: OKAY! YA'LL CAN START SINGING. BOOM ! GENE SIMMONS THE FIRE SPITTING BLOOD DRIPPING DEMON FROM HELL! THE DRUMS POUND YOU! THE GUITAR SCREAMS INTO A HIGH PITCH! I PICTURE THIS BECAUSE I WANTED A STRANGE DREAM ABOUT THE GOD OF THUNDER AND THE JOURNEY TO BATTLE SATAN! I PICTURE SOME RAPE SCENES SOME GORE AND DEATH PISSING OFF THE GOOD NATURED ASSHOLES AND SOME TASTY SEX SCENE WITH CAMERON DIAZ BY MY SIDE. AFTER THIS IS OVER YOU WON THE BATTLE !
4.GREAT EXPECTATIONS: now for some lighter moments a ballad that sounds like queen!
i picture mena suvari from american beauty being this sweet girl looked like little red riding hood with a red skirt and her waistband panties and her fellow man travel in a fantasy world and ends up in a baseball park with disco dancers, a ringmaster, a full chorus and an orchestra, the new york mets and charlotte church! man i know i'm kinda stoned.
5.FLAMING YOUTH: THE TEEN ANTHEM! I SEE TEENS SHOOT THE COPS AND LOVEMAKERS FUCKING IN THE BUSHES AND LAKES THEN FIRES AND RIOTS AND STUPID JOHN MAYER LOVING ASSWIPES GETTING SHOT! THERE IS SOME CIRCUS MUSIC
6.SWEET PAIN!: AN ODE TO S&M. THE SONG ROCKED WITH THE TASTY GUITAR SOLO BY ACE AND IF IHAD A DREAM ABOUT JENNIFER LOVE HEWITT BY SHOWING HER THE ROLLING STONE COVER I TAKE HER BY THE ASS LICK HER WAISTBAND PANTIES AND FUCK HER TILL SHE CARESS MY CHEST AND BE LOVERS! HA! TAKE THAT 50 CENT! YOU FUCKTARD!
7.SHOUT IT OUT LOUD: YOU KNOW THIS SONG ALREADY
8.BETH: the ballad of peter criss
9.DO YOU LOVE ME: THE KIDS ALL LINE UP AND PARTY WHILE I CHILL WITH DREW BARRYMORE DO YOU LOVE ,DREW? SHE SAID YES! PAUL SAVES THE DAYS BY ROCKING THE HOUSE! BELLS, DRUMS, GUITARS, BASS,DREW'S PANTIES!, METEORS, DEAD COPS AND FIREWORKS!
10.UNTITILED: WIERD ENDING.
I LOVE THIS ALBUM SINCE 1978 I SMOKED WEED AND MAKE OUT WITH MY HOT CHICK! ANYHOW IT'S GETTING SEE YA
I'm having a blast reading the KISS section. I
dunno why I took so long to get around to this.
Unless I DID get around to this, and I was just drunk.
That could be.
But the best parts are the readers' comments. Man,
oh man. Kiss sucks; Kiss rules. If you hate KISS,
then yer a retard. If you like KISS, then yer a
retard.
MAN.
How anyone can get SO WORKED UP over a band like
Kiss - for or against - is beyond me. It's like
arguing the merits of The Pokey Little Puppy, or
Private Hoff Fired It Off. Or Where the Wild Things
Are.
Am I showing my age?
KISS was the single awesomest band in the
universe...when I was 12, when this record came out,
and when my retarded, Marine Corps step-dad picked it
up at the Camp Pendelton PX.
Is it still cool? Well, it hasn't CHANGED or
anything, has it? It's still as cool as it was in
1976, when I was 12. I dug it then and it (and their
entire catalogue up to Love Gun [when I got bored and
discovered more artistic musical forms, such as Led
Zepplin, The Who and Pink Floyd]) was the soundtrack
of my adolesnece.
But that's just it. You outgrow stuff. If it was
the total rockin'est thing when I was 12, then I am
100% sure to have moved on later. KISS didn't move on
- they continued to do the same sort of stuff,
forever. Which is fine, though I thought it was
pretty lame when they took off their make-up. Who the
hell wants to watch Bruce Wayne beat up whoever the
Joker was under HIS make-up? No one. That's not
Batman. That's flippin' The Rockford Files.
But it's NOT the Rockford Files, because the
Rockford Files was made for adults in the FIRST place.
KISS taking off their make-up was the same as Batman
taking off his mask, but continuing to do the same
thing as before. That's just DUMB. Who wants a
costumed superhero who doesn't have a costume?
I still like to read Batman and Spiderman comics,
and I still like to listen to the music of my youth,
as well. It's just nostalgia, though.
A couple of notes about KISS, none the less:
1) Redd Kross (a band you haven't reviewed, by the
way) does really cool KISS covers.
2) The first (and second to last) time I ever tripped
on acid, I thought it would be really, really cool to
listen to The Residents (readers, see THAT section)(on
second thought, DON'T, because you will NOT understand
or like the reviews OR the music involved, and that
WAS intentionally condescending)...where was I?
Oh, yeah, acid. Listening to the Residents. BUT!
When it came right down to it, I didn't want to hear
The Residents. Not that it was too scary or too
trippy or complicated. It was just BORING. I didn't
want to hear The Residents. All I wanted to hear was
KISS. Fortunately, my host for that evening had some
(it was the pre-no-make-up days, so it was fine), so I
was good to go. I listened to some KISS, and then
went outside to find myself chased by a giant Paul
Bunyon statue and then commence to walk to the Sun. I
walked for an hour toward the rising sun before I
realized that you can't, in fact, get there on foot (I
guess the effects of the drug were wearing off).
And THAT is my favorite KISS story.
PS - When are you going to review Bread? Man, THERE'S
a 70s band just CRYIN' OUT for some modern recognition!
I don't understand this album title - is it a sex joke? Is Kiss smart
enough to come up with a difficult sex joke? Ah well. Bob Ezrin is gone
(thank Gob) so there's some grit to the mix again. Also, you might notice
bassist Gene Simmons doing some neat against-the-guitar-riff playing here,
which is nice and unexpected! There's still some awfully shitty generic
rock and rollers on here though. What else can one call "Love 'Em And Leave
'Em" and "Baby Driver" but simply bland? Forgettable? Truckle? Hyssop?
The definition of the word "filler" if you willer, but luckily there's
enough killer diller hard rock tunes to make it worth your pile, including
"Calling Dr. Love," "I Want You" and "Makin' Love" (all three of which
appear to be about the narrator inserting his penis into a female object).
And don't forget "Hard Luck Woman," a GREAT Rod Stewart song that somehow
was neither written or recorded by Rod himself. Probably too busy
gargling squirt.
Contains "Plaster Caster," which I'm sure you know by the Lemonheads. GREAT
song selection on this one. Almost every tune is a PERFECT Kiss hard rocker
("Love Gun"), angry trudger ("Shock Me") or pop gymnasium ("Christine
Sixteen"), with terrific production diversity (acoustic guitars on
occasion!), excellent vocals from a full THREE members of the band, and best
of all, an album cover featuring big fuckin' tits the size of your fuckin'
Winnebago!!!!! I have personal issues with a couple of the tunes
(seriously, "Plaster Caster"? Please, I despise sexism in all its many
facets), but the only real shitter on here is the party hearty beyond-dumb
generic rocker "Tomorrow And Tonight," which I can't even imagine the band
members themselves enjoying. The rest is tons o' fun and buns - ending with
a sugary cover that brings joyful new life to the old girl-group
song "And Then He Kissed Me." Way to to, Kisses!
I always considered Kiss as a serious musicians and composers.
Contains a cover of the Dave Clark Five's "Any Way You Want It," which I'm sure you know by the Ramones. Three more studio albums, it must be time for another
live double-album! Two interesting points: (A) not only does this one not
contain any of the same songs as the first one, it doesn't even contain any
songs at ALL from the first three albums! and (B) Side four isn't live; it's
five brand new studio tunes! And they're GOOD! Straight up Kiss rockers.
No pandering pop bullhockey. Except of course the Dave Clark Five song, which
has always ruled anyway. So that's two live double-albums, both great!
Whatever will the Kissers lodge up the anus of society next?
When Alive II came out, the afore-mentioned idiot
step-dad came up with the banal theory that KISS,
under the make-up, was, in fact, the Dave Clark Five,
minus the sax player! I honestly think it was a
serious theory on his part, too. I offer these two
pieces of evidence:
Sure, he could have been just trying to pull the leg
of a gullible 13-year-old, but, for one, how the HOLY
FUCK would I have known the Dave Clark Five?? His
theory was the first I'd ever even HEARD of them.
And, anyway, I think I have already established that
he was a dumbass jarhead. He was all of 26, maybe 27,
and, well, a moron.
He reckoned that KISS was the Dave Clark Five!!! He
really believed that!
KISS fans. Man, oh man.
This greatest hits compilation is an absolutely essential purchase for any
rock fan who doesn't already plan to buy the first six studio albums. A
wonderful blast of marijuana past - two albums worth of perfect dumb
heavy rock!
1.STRUTTER 78: DISCO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CALM DOWN GUYS! STILL DISCO SUCKS EXCEPT THE BEE GEES!
2.DO YOU LOVE ME? I ALREADY SAID ABOUT SWEET TASTY DREW BARRYMORE? YES!
3.HARD LUCK WOMAN: PRETTY. IT DOES SOUND ROD STEWARTISH BUT GET THIS. THE SONG WAS COVERED BY....... YEP GARTH BROOKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
4.CALLING DR.LOVE: SWEETIE I AM DA DOCTOR I NEED YER PERSCRIPTION!
5.LET ME GO ROCK N ROLL: PLEASE DO NOT LEAVE ME AWAY FROM THE FAGGOT RAPPERS AND WANNABE PUNKS!
6.LOVE GUN: U PULLED DA TRIGGER OF OF MY............................................. LOVE GUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
7.GOD OF THUNDER: HELL, BLOOD, SPIT, DEATH, MONSTERS, GOBLINS, SEX, TITS, DEMONS,LUST, BABES, SOWRDS AND FIRE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
8.FIREHOUSE: ELECTRIC FIRE! MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM LIV TYLER! TASTY! SHE'S A FIREHOUSE! CAUSE SHE SET MY SOUL ON FIRE!
9.HOTTER THAN HELL: MORE SEX! HOT HOT HOTTER THAN HELL!
10.I WANT YOU: SWEET FRY LET'S HAVE SWEET GAY MAN LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOUR JUICES ARE SO STICKY I LICK YOU, TASTE YOU, FEED YOU, HIS UNDERWEAR IS SO CLEAN AND WHITE IT IS SO SEXY! HIS LEGS ARE SENSUAL! HIS BELLY IS SO LICKABLE! HIS LASERCANNON I WILL SUCK! HARDCORE PORN, BITCH! HOW ABOUT THAT!
11.DECUE: SHUT UP!!! AND GET THE FUCKING HELL OUTTA HERE NOT HERRRRR YA GAY ASSED RAPPERS!
12.100,00 YEARS: I CANNOT WAIT THIS LONG!
13.DETROIT ROCK CITY: BEST MOVIE OF 1999! FUCK 6TH SENSE! PUKE, GUITARS, HITS, SEX, GAY MEN, AND FACE PAINT!
14.ROCK BOTTOM/SHE: METAL EPIC BY KISS STANDARDS!
15.ROCK N ROLL ALL NITE: FUCK RAP UP IT'S COCK! BUT LIKE MY DAD SAID ON THE RADIO. CLASSIC ROCK RULES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BITCH!
16.BETH. sweet tender beth let me take you.
17.MAKING LOVE: WE ALREADY DID. LAYING NAKED WITH MY LOVER. IT FEELS SO GOOD.
18.C'MON AND LOVE ME: DON'T BE A STUCK UP BITCH!
19.COLD GIN: GIMME A COLD GIN!
20.BLACK DIAMOND: DIAMONDS ARE NOT A GIRL'S BEST FRIEND.
fuck the cables! dem fags like 50 cent. I only trust you mr. fratzl. as for this I give it a 10. I was hammered I got 5 beers!.
FOUR SOLO ALBUMS AT THE SAME TIME???? Isn't it clear that Kiss as a
collective unit already have enough trouble filling up ONE album with good
tunes, let alone FOUR???? But four solo albums it 'twere, because their
creative juices were just flowing so very strongly back in the halcyon
summer of yesteryear 1978. Despite a ridiculously overimpressive guest
list (Bob Seger, Joe Perry, Helen Reddy, Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, Donna Summer,
Janis Ian, Rick Neilson, Cher and... HOLY FUCK!!! A COUPLE OF GUYS FROM
BEATLEMANIA!!!! I LOVE BEATLEMANIA!!!!! THEY WROTE THE BEST FUCKING
SONGS!!!!), Gene's album runs like a particularly frustrating Kiss album.
You'll recognize the guitar tones, the voice, the midtempo thumping -- but
most of the melodies just don't DO IT. "ss You Tonite" is a great pop
rocker and "Always Near You" is just hauntingly gorgeous, but the entire
rest of the album sounds like half-written outtakes from their earlier
records. Predictable verse-chorus constructions that only occasionally
catch fire and burn down your suburban home on stilts while you're inside
having a key party and knowing that some other guy is dorking your wife
because you're a stupid cocaine addict who wears gold chains around his neck
and has a mustache and no self esteem and is really just trying to fit in
with what 'The Joneses' deem So yeah, when the best song is a cover of "When
You Wish Upon A Star," your solo album is less than essential. Unlike
Patti Smith's Horse Fucking and Liz Phair's Exile In Shitville,
of course! Oooo, you just gotta have THOSE in your collection! Along with
Radiohead -- boy, THEIR albums sure are consistent! You'd better believe
every music critic and run out and buy their entire back catalog
immediately! Otherwise how will you possibly be able to take yourself
"seriously" as a music fan????? Fuckin' dork Kiss fan. They're a joke
band - you're supposed to only like them ironically. Because that's what
being cool is. Accepting the underground standards of artistic quality and
only liking hard rock to be ironic. Whoops! My ire is showing!
Ah yeah, music critics just LOVE Radiohead!! Why, Melody Maker loved 'em
so much they gave Kid A a perfect one and a half stars!!
I've never researched nor penned a tome re: Kiss, so I don't know exactly
what prompted the band to record four solo albums at once. However, after
listening to the four of them in the same setting, one begins to wonder
whether it was Ace's idea. As demonstrated here, he is a fantastic
Kissongwriter, effortlessly tossing out neat guitar riffs and
catchy-as-a-worm vocal melodies that dig into your brain like a maggot,
fester and boil until you suddenly leap up onto a subway bench and scream,
"I'm speedin' back to my BABY! And I don't mean MAYBE!!!!" However, for
some reason, this fine lead guitarist's tunes are hardly ever featured on
Kiss' releases. Was he hoarding them for a solo project such as this? Or
did Paul and Gene refuse to put them on their Kiss albums, choosing instead
to subject us to bland tripe poopadiddly like "Tomorrow And Tonight" (which
somehow made it onto Alive II!!!???)? I guess we'll never know.
Unless we ask them I guess. But who the hell wants to talk to them wrinkly
old transsexuals? The important thing is that this is a really damn fine
Kiss album - one of the best. Ace knows his way around angry metallic rock,
lighter pop fluff and of course good old backbeat toe-tappin' ROCK AND
ROLL!!!! His voice may not be as confident and masculine as Kiss' two key
spokespersons, but he has a very interesting delivery that makes up for it
(he always sounds like he's right on the verge of missing the notes, but he
always hits them dead on - it's hard to explain. Maybe I'm hallucinating.
Look man, the white-out was just sitting there. What the hell choice did my
nose have? A nose gots to smell!). Oh! That reminds me. Ace likes to
sing songs about drugs. And take them.
It's kind of cruel for the three other guys to have forced drummer Peter
Criss to come up with a whole solo album on his own -- not only for Peter
himself, who probably had to stop using cocaine for a good hour and a half
to write and record these songs, but also for the loyal Kiss fan, who must
force himself to sit through 40 minutes of bland 50's style rock and roll if
he wants to be able to claim that he's sat through every complete Kiss
album. There's a couple of nice "Beth"-esque ballads, but the rockers are
straight out of the book of Elvis. But '70s drugged-up energy-free Elvis
rock and roll, around the time he shot the TV and hit it big with "(Jackie
Onassis Ain't) Nothin' But A Dicksocket." Still, it's hard to get mad at
the guy when you know he was forced into this crap. Say - why does he
dedicate his album to "Michael Benvenga"? Is Peter Criss packing a fudge
tunnel locomotive train in his gold-plated trouserpants? Well, is
he? Look you fuck, when I ask you a rhetorical question, I bleeding bloody
well demand an answer. Do you like my big smelly balls?
Much poppier than I would have expected, and too many weak sissy ballads.
Some good catchy rockers though. Jesus, what do you want from me, a
500,000-page thesis on the Paul Stanley solo album? Interesting
observation: The lead guitarist on this album is Bob Kulick. Later, Kiss
signed up a guy named Bruce Kulick to be their full-time lead guitarist.
Are they the same guy? Like Brad Pitt and Ed Norton in Fight
Club? Oh shit, I didn't ruin that for you, did I? I hope not. In
The Sixth Sense, Bruce Willis is dead the whole time.
I already knew about the Sixth Sense though.
Strange record, but great! First of all, it's known as their "disco"
record, featuring a good two or three songs pumpin' that 4/4 "thump-thump"
beat for you to shake your gay afro ass to (including the classic "I Was
Made For Lovin' You"!). Secondish, the vocals sound weird -- are these the
same guys singing? The macho gruffness is gone, replaced by - well hell,
does Ace Frehley sing all of these songs are something? Then of course the
songs themselves -- only about half of them actually sound like traditional
Kiss hard rock! The others are great though - moody drivin' down the
highway late at night high on cocaine and a Beverly Hills prostitute mood FM
guitar rock/disco. The album seems a bit less dumb than their earlier
releases (although "Dirty Livin'" certainly isn't winning anybody any Nobel
prizes - surprise surprise - it's a Peter Criss song! His last with the
band, thank God - he quit soon after this album came out), but I'm told that
its slick sound alienated a lot of old fans. Lick 'em and stick 'em! Who
needs fans when you've got Mark Prindle?
As for you Hull, go stick it!
Slick, wussy production?? You sure you weren't talking about Unmasked? Cuz
this one has raw heavy guitar all over it.
Once again Mark, you're right on the money. You managed to ignore the
idiotic propaganda of old time Kiss fans who disowned Kiss for putting out
this so-called sell-out album. It's truly a great record, and not what you
expect at all from these guys. It's certainly the most diverse sounding one
yet. Great writing, and despite the fact that a couple of tracks have the
disco beat, they still rock hard and indeed do have moody sounding melodies.
Of course, everyone knows their biggest hit, "I Was Made For Lovin' You" and
"Sure Know Something" has the sleaziest bass line ever aside from those
recent Pornosonic releases. And "2000 Man" is far superior here than the
original Rolling Stones version! Man, there are some dark sounding riffs and
melodies on most of these songs though! No party hardy anthems, and even the
sleaze is kept to a minimum. I'm assuming that the four solo albums the
previous year were a result of tension in the band and when they re-convened
to record Dynasty this translated into the angrier sounding material heard
here...a lot of this stuff kinda reminds me of early Blue Oyster Cult
actually. And only two tracks with Gene Simmons singing?? What gives? Ace,
with his new found confidence, sings a whole THREE songs here, and he's
fantastic! The cover is quite the sight with their four mugs in
close-up...Gene and Paul with the usual pathetic posturing, while Ace and
Peter look like they don't even know their own names, and hilariously
enough, it reflects the current state of things in the band at the time.
Criss left the band shortly after (or even during the recording, as some
people say), thereby bringing the golden era of Kiss to a close
simultaneously the great decade of the 70's. In retrospect, since I didn't
rate the albums in previous comments, I'll just do it all here: Kiss 9/10,
Hotter Than Hell 8/10, Dressed To Kill 7/10, Destroyer 10/10, Rock 'N Roll
Over 8/10, Love Gun 9/10, Gene Simmons 7/10, Ace Frehley 9/10, Peter Criss I
guess around 2/10, Paul Stanley 6/10, and Dynasty 9/10. On to the CRAP years!
How anyone can sincerely enjoy this as good music is beyond me...Gene is
at his most idiotic, jeez! And you thought his solo album was bad! I
thought he did that album to express himself in a non-Kiss fashion. WELL,
HE WASN'T DONE! Very inappropriate Gene! Comon! You're my favorite member
of the band! You write the heavy shit! (Have to wait a few more albums for
Gene to get his head out of his ass for that!) It could have been
worse...he could have written three or four songs on this record instead of
just two. Of course, the man responsible for cutting away a Gene song or
two, Ace Frehley, didn't fully succeed either on his first multiple-song
outing. "Hard Times" rocks, but is not that memorable and "2000 Man" is
shorter and much cooler as a Stones' tune. "Dirty Livin'" by Peter Criss is
decent, but is basically yet another disco tune on this sell-out of an
album. Plus, no one buys Kiss records for the Criss tracks anyhow.
In summation, I know you Kiss fans will buy it. I'm just warning
ya...At least on Unmasked Kiss ditched the damn disco and actually wrote
some pretty good tunes throughout (see review below)...
Fast Forward 27(!) years later and now I can’t stop listening to this record on my iPod. It’s fucking genius! Especially the Stones cover 2000 Man sung by their best singer, Ace. Fortunately I still kept the original vinyl as well. Yeah I realize I’m a spoiled fucking brat. Where do I get all these Kiss records at that age w/o a job? Thanks mom and dad.
Eeeeeeyarko! Does anyone know where Kiss ran off to? And why their record
company replaced them with Diesel? I'm not sure if you know Diesel. Old
mediocre power pop band with one good song ("Sausalito Summernite"). I need
to work on my references. Anyway, my point is that Unmasked doesn't
only not sound like Kiss -- it doesn't sound like ANY good band you've ever
heard! The guitars are slicked and sheened over with a touch of studio
magic, the mixes are heavy with back-up vocals and, most tiresomely, the
songs are weak power pop. There's not a single rocker on here, nor one
interesting dark moody disco tune to shake your bake to. It's just a
collection of predictable poppy chord sequences played wussily with no guts
as a wuss might play it. Kiss has always been a band where you could call
up your friend on the phone and go, "Dude! You gotta hear this great song!
It goes "A-A-E-F-A!" The difference is that if you did that with the songs
on here, your friend would likely sing it in his "perfect-tone" brain and
reply, "Why did they bother recording that? That's not interesting at
all!" It's not a complete waist. Ace's "Talk To Me" is a great song! But
the others are...shit man, not even remarkable enough to be BAD. They're
just predictably pleasant little power pop songs with guitar. The kind of
music you could play for your mother. While you're in bed fucking
her. The whore.
The first Kisser to go in the shitter!
What happened?? Peter Criss leaving the band couldn't have made such a huge
difference in their sound! I can't believe that they even put this one out.
Totally boring mellow pop with no hard edge at all, on any song! And it's
not even good pop! The record is completely lifeless in every regard. They
should have at least saturated the album with new wave synths and keyboards
to make it cheesy enough to be enjoyable, but they didn't even do us that
favour, the imbeciles. The only song that's sorta kinda maybe half decent is
"Shandi", which is still a limpbizkitwristed cute little discoey tune. As
for the rest, if you ever run out of sleeping pills, just throw this puppy
on. Gets a 2!
Just because there's no "I Was Made..." on this album though does not
mean this is a worse album than its predecessor. Okay, two of the first
three songs suck donkey balls, but after this, there is some good cheesy-pop
rock songwriting..."Naked City", "What Makes The World Go Round," "Two Sides
Of The Coin," "She's So European," and my favorite "Easy As It Seems," are
all pretty damn good. Pretty damn cheesy, yes, but take away Vini "Can't
Produce Worth A Shit" Poncia and insert Eddie Kramer, and this album is
right up there despite the cheesiness (which Kiss has always been anyway)!
Well, I know a lot of you disagree, but at least the band has turned to
straight pop music, (more to their strengths than disco!), Gene has injected
some mood and energy back into his songs, and the album seems a lot more
cohesive than Dynasty. That's my argument, and I'm sticking to it! Thanks
for your time, have a nice day...
1.IS THAT YOU: OKAY I LOVED THIS SONG THAT GOES LIKE THIS: CAT'S DROOLING ON THE BARSTOOL SHAKE YOUR HIPS AND CRACK YOUR WHIPS
CHEAP 17 AND TRASHED OUT YOU GONE TOO FAR BEEN THE BITCH YOU ARE! I LOVE THAT LYRIC THE SONG IS NOT TOO BAD
2.SHANDI: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
WHAT THE FUCK! IS THIS THE GO GO'S?! THIS IS THE KIND OF CUTE SOUND THAT WILL DOMINATE THE ALBUM CUTE STICKY SWEET AFTERTASTE OF BUBBLEGUM POP! CRAP! PAUL ARE YOU SMOKING WEED?
3.TALK TO ME: IT SOUNDS LIKE A BAD EPISODE OF CARLES IN CHARGE REMEMBER THE SHOW? I DO THIS COULD BE LIKE THE SONG FOM BAD 80'S TEEN FLICKS LIKE HOT DOG THE MOVIE
4.NAKED CITY: not bad gene saves the day in this tune
5.WHAT MAKES THE WORLD GO ROUND: PAUL SINGS LIKE A KID WHO CAN'T FIND A COOKIE IN HIS LUNCHBOX! IT SOUNDS LIKE GREASE 2!
6.TOMORROW:ACK! PLEASE GOD WHY IS THAT DETERGENT VOICED MOTHERFUCKER SINGING POP SONGS?! THIS IS SWEET SUGARY DIPPY CUTESY TASTY BUBBLEGUM! HEAR THE STUPID LYRICS: I DIDIN'T EVEN KNOW YOUR NAME LIKE A MOTH THAT WAS IN YOUR FLAME!! PAUL! SHUT UP!
7.TWO SIDES OF THE COIN: thanks ace for saving me from that evil pop sound check out the drum solo
8.SHE'S SO EUROPEAN: GOOFY SONG I WAS EXPECTING DEVO WITH THOSE SYNTHESIZERS
9.EASY AS IT SEEMS: PAUL IS A CRACK SMOKING WHORE! DISCO IS DEAD WHY SEND IT NOW!
10.TORPEDO GIRL: YOU MEAN SUPERGIRL I'D TAKE OFF HER WAISTBAND PANTIES AND FUCK HER! SORRY JUST A JOKE THIS IS A GOOD SONG
11.YOU'RE ALL TAHT I WANT: AND THIS CONCLUDES THIS ALBUM OF CRAPPY STINKY DISPOSABLE POP! THAT IS A TRAVESTY! BYE!
Leave it to Bob Ezrin to mess with their heads yet again! At least they
deserved it this time after that last misguided jujube of a record.
Music From The Elder is a concept album about "a young boy's destiny
to become a warrior battling evil that was threatening to destroy the
universe." Not important. Forget about it. The key thing to know about
this record is that the entire first half is completely unrecognizable as
Kiss. It's art rock! With strings and orchestras and FALSETTO VOCALS!!!!
Most of it is pretty darned awful too, reminiscent of early Genesis but even
duller if such a thing is possible (which reminds me -- my friend Christian
brought up this point a long time ago -- at what point in history did Peter
Gabriel become "alternative"? The man is a dull art rocker who hit it big
in the 80s with a few shitty pop songs. What's the deal? Terrible stuff.
Untalented shit man). But anyway, about The Elder... It forced Ace
to quit the band, but luckily the last half at least sounds kinda like Kiss!
It's rock anyway. Not great rock, but good rock. It's an entertaining
record!!!! And sounds nothing at all like anything else in their catalog.
If you've got a few extra bucks, blow it just for curiosity's sake. Or buy
me a vial of marijuana drugs.
And yeah, I probably just pissed off thousands of Kiss fans.
Oh, dear god, no.
...Don't forget W.A.S.P.!
Unintentionally funny album. Not what Kiss should be doing. 5.
HEE HEE HEE!!!!!!! HO!!!!!!!!!
hehe...he...he...
PPPFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFTTTTTTTTTTTTAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You have just made me VERY, VERY MAD.
Peter Gabriel is great - I force myself to sit through
tons of boring music (Yes, Joy Division, Dylan etc) so
I can consider myself a well-informed music listener
and I in that capacity I have no hesitation at all in
calling PG a genius. That's right - a GENIUS. But,
being an American, you have probably only heard
Sledgehammer and In Your Eyes (plus an album you
scandalously gave a five to) - that's like hearing
Ballbreaker and declaring AC/DC to be 'shit', or
hearing Changes and concluding that Sabbath are
'soft'. Or hearing Revolution 9 and deciding that the
Beatles are 'the worst band ever.' Tut tut.
I forgive you, but only because you are a wasp. And I
do feel slightly embarrassed about being THREE
QUARTERS through a review page of a band I would not
listen to if your life depended on it. I guess
nobody's perfect.
To me, KISS is Paul doing the "Yeah, I'm just trying to fuck you, but I really do love you...", Gene doing the "I treat you like shit, and make you do nasty things, but you like it, bitch," Ace proposing sex acts so weird in his unearthly voice that your eyes widen whether you know what he's talking about or not, and Peter doing a decent job of imitating an early Rod Stewart (getting the "torch" songs...). Why couldn't they have built a concept around that?
No! Bad Kiss!
And one poster even brought up Jim Jones. Know why there are no jokes about Jonestown? The punchlines are too long!
Kiss' much ballyhooed, huzzahed, hurrahed, celebrated and podiatristed
return to straightforward metallic hard rock after three albums of
critically-slammed experimentation. But for all the fizzy champagne jives
of fist-slammin' abandon, a good third of this album is completely throwaway
generic '80s hard rock - for philadelphia's sake, the title track sounds
like a frick-frack-friddly-diddlyin' Judas Priest outtake, for love's poop!
Kiss had something special in the 70s, but this -- their first in a long
string of '80s give-or-take hard rock LPs -- puts them in the unenviable
position of having lost TWO key players in their success (lead guitarist Ace
Frehley, who is pictured on the album cover eevn though he doesn't play a
note on it, and Peter Criss, the most vibrant, talented drummer since
whoever played on some old Gene Pitney album). With only two songwriters
left (and spotty songwriters at best, as you bleeding well know), the band
turned to outside help. Including (oh jesus christ) BRYAN ADAMS. And if
you've got Bryan Adams helping you out with your metallic hard rock songs,
you're shit out of canoes in a creek of luck. Luckily, a young gent by
the fake name of Vinnie Vincent helped the guys write three absolutely
KILLER tunes (including a catchy pop one that is actually *entitled*
"Killer," of all unbelievable song titles for one to entitle a song that is,
in fact, killer!) to close the album on a cocaine high note. And the song
you know from it is one of the best songs they ever recorded -- remember "I
Love It Loud"? With that hilarious video where the kid gets the creepy eyes
from watching the Kiss video on TV? BONERS FOR SALLY!!!!
Okay, the non-classics are awful, the classics aren't great... does
the album really deserve a six then? Apart from 'Strutter' and maybe a
couple others, the songs are written and played as generically as
possible.
I have to agree with the review. No Kiss album has aged well.
They were always about aping what was hot at the time, and were obviously
watching the Dolls very closely during this period.
You wankers have all subjected yourselves to artsy fartsy stuff like
Yes so much that you've forgotten what real rock 'n roll sounds like. This is a
great debut album. It's probably the most consistently solid album these
jokers ever made, and I get the feeling that even Kiss fanatics under
estimate it. No, they weren't virtuosos, but they had an uncanny talent for
coming up with interesting, if simple, heavy riffs and adding really catchy
vocals to that...it's just real gritty, meat and potatoes hard rock with
great hooks, the exact same ingredients for which other bands of the era,
like AC/DC, are revered. If anything, Kiss is more diverse than those guys;
they never stooped to re-writing the same riff again and again ad nauseam. I
think in Kiss' case the make up has actually hurt perception of their music
because it has always served as a distraction and caused people to think
that such a visual band must be doing that to compensate for the songs. This
is simply not true, and I don't even see what's wrong with the non classics
here...they may not be as inspired as the rest, but none of these ten songs
are bad. I think if Kiss had been just a normal jean and t-shirt wearing
band and released this album in 1974, it would have been considered a
Detroit style garage rock milestone, along with the Stooges, early Alice
Cooper, and the MC5. They may have been watching the New York Dolls, but
Kiss wrote much more memorable material. The album is just oozing with
in your face attitude, impressively confident considering that they were not
stars at all at the time. And how many other bands have all their members
sharing lead vocals, with each one bringing a distinct flavour to the song??
If only the production were a bit better...but Mark, I guarantee that ou'll
feel the true power of this record if you turn it up real loud, otherwise it
does maybe sound tame, so keep that in mind too. This stuff is trash glam
rock at its finest, oozing with sleaze and as raw as Houston's gang banged
pussy.
It's a very good start! This album is adorable and shows the great musical
abilities of Paul, Gene, Ace and Peter to the full. It's one of the "golden albums of
rock". "Strutter" is admirable song and one of the best Kiss songs ever.
How brilliant sounds Stanley's vocal, how click the band plays! Catchy "Nothin' To
Lose" is worthy continuation with groovy rhythm, this song moves. "Firehous"
is a little worse, but nevertheless good and exciting. Not everybody can like
Hendrix-influenced "Cold Gin", but I like it. You had noticed right, that "Let
Me Know" is nice and uplifting. "Kissin' Time" is decent and then comes superb
song of Simmons named "Deuce". Excellent song with a superb drive! "Love Theme
From Kiss" is rather beautiful, "100,000 Years" is another groovy song
from Kiss, and the last track "Black Diamond" is the third best song on this
album (along with "Strutter" and "Deuce"). Magnificent!
Okay,i'm gonna try this again,apparently I did;nt put the album titles in the
first time I commented on the KISS reviews. I should probably start off by
saying I'm a huge fan of the band,and own most of their albums ,so I know
what I'm talking about.First off this is one of my favorite KISS albums.All
the classics are here Cold gin,Deuce,Strutter and my favorite KISS song
ever,Black Diamond.I don't understand it,George trashes KISS and now I see
Mark hates 'em too,actually it's nothing new for critics to slag this great
band,but it seems everybody who commented on his reviews trashed 'em
too,listen to the songs first ,you idiots!
Man, you musta been too young when this one came out to remember what was
really going on back then!!! If you recall any of the other music of the
day, you CAN drop words like "limp wristed" and "tame"... by 1974's
standards, Kiss was the heaviest stuff out there! Except maybe Sabbath and
Zeppelin... Especially live... Kiss was really heavy live. Kiss' debut was
great. Sure it was 3 chord rock n roll but that's what rock n roll is all
about. Tough and Heavy. Strutter, Cold Gin, Deuce, Black Diamond,
Firehouse... These tunes are mainstays of the Kiss live act even today!!
There isn't really a "bad" track on this album!!!
All this talk of how KISS's music is simplistic. How it's three-chord songs and et cetera.
Sorry for emailing this at 4:10 AM (ET), but I just got back from
watching Superman Returns, and I decided to check out what the critics
said about it afterwards. It seemed fairly well received--with the
exception of three particularly vile-spirited flames from the "Elite
Critics" section. It seems they thought it wasn't "postmodern,"
"tongue-in-cheek," "whimsical," or "wink-wink nudge-nudge" enough. At
least not compared with the Golden Age Of Wink-Wink Nudge-Nudge, aka
the late '70's. Unsurprisingly, all three of them were from New York.
Sigh. I guess I'll never understand the minds of these goateed
lunatics. (critics.)
Why is everyone so afraid to admit that Kiss is more than a credible rock band. They are principally responsible for influencing many current artists, and let’s get the record straight their first album is a serious kick ass staple in anyone’s collection. I’d put up Songs like Deuce, black diamond, and strutter against the shit being produced today. By comparison if a band like arowsmith cut cold gin it would have gone down as a rock classic, but because a bunch of guys in make up wrote it, it went largely ignored. I’ve listened to so many current rockers take a stand and praise kiss for making rock roll what it should be about, fun and chicks. All of those chicken shit nay sayers out there throw on songs like strange ways, cold gin, or Detroit rock city, sit back grow a set of testicles and appreciate a band that rocked for the people. It may have taken the visual show to grab your attention at first, but believe me there was a whole lot of substance behind the sizzle.
KISS 8/10
I've never heard this Kiss album so I can't really say much about that,
but I HAVE heard that song you hate, it's called "My Generation" and it's
by Limp Bizkit. Say! Did I mention how much I hate popular music? And
here in Canton that's all they play!! No college stations around here, so
when you're in the car listening to the radio and those crappy Eminem
songs come on, what're you supposed to do? URRRGHH!! Still, worst song
ever? Well, it's bad but do you really think it's as bad as, say, "Baby
One More Time"??
Love "Goin' Blind". The title track is pretty cool too. I agree with your
review. By the way, that "My Generation" song you are talking about is by
Limp Bizkit. It is, indeed, fucking horrible. Its definatly sickening to have
it share the same title as The Who's song..
Not a whole lot different than the debut, but where the first one was more
garage rock, this one veers close to metal on several tracks. Hotter Than
Hell is probably the meanest and heaviest album by the original line up, but
it's also one of the most obscure, considering that the only well known song
here is "Hotter Than Hell". I think it's more than enjoyable to listen to
though. I listen to a really wide range of music, including a lot of complex
stuff, but every now and then I get tired of wanking, and I throw something
like Kiss on because it's a refreshing antidote. There's no bullshit in this
music; it's basic, straight forward, and oh so entertaining and catchy. And
you're right Mark, about Kiss not sounding nearly as threatening as their
image would lead one to believe...if anything, most of their music is good
times rock 'n roll, with lyrics about partying and filled with sexual
innuendo. There's nothing dark about their music, so I really can't
understand why people considered them "devil's music" in the 70's,
especially when dark bands like Sabbath, BOC, Zep, Doors, Alice Cooper, etc
were already well established by the time Kiss first came up...compared with
those bands, these guys are harmless! Hotter Than Hell will melt your brain
though if you turn it up. Just listen to the great riffs on "Watchin' You",
"Strange Ways", and even the thrash metal riff of "Parasite"! That song is
an undiscovered gem. "Goin' Blind" is a decent stab at balladry, but Gene
Simmons should not have sung that one because he is the weakest singer of
the four members. "Mainline" and "Coming Home" however, are pretty boring
songs that go nowhere. I wish Kiss had used Peter Criss more on lead vocals,
especially on the heavier material, because he has such a cool raspy,
whiskey soaked growl...I still say that after he left Kiss in 1980, he would
have made a much better replacement lead singer in AC/DC than Brian
Johnson.
"Goin' Blind" is a marvellous ballad! It's the best song from this
album! Simmons is a good songwriter! And he can sing well. "Parasite" and "Watchin' You"
are awesome and the closing track "Strange Ways", which is written
and performed by Frehley is glorious!
Another good one,but not as good as the first.Best song----Goin' Blind.
Not sure if you've heard of the book "Memories of My Melancholy Whores" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (maybe everyone has and I'm the last one!), but it's basically about a 90 year old man who falls in love with a 14 year old prostitute. He's a Nobel prize winner, but now we know he stole the idea for this book from "Goin' Blind." Got the ages mixed up though.
HOTTER THAN HELL 10/10
Change that seven to a one for me, if you please. No, wait, a TWO - I
do admit that 'Rock And Roll All Night' has some sort of 'party cool'
to it. But that's the only half-decent song on the album.
The big difference, I think, is that when I want to headbang I don't
NECESSARILY need to slosh all of my intelligence out as if it were a
pre-required necessity: 'If you still have some brains, you need to
weed 'em out before you can truly headbang'. No thank you. I'll
headbang along to the truly gritty Rolling Stones stones, the powerful
and majestic Who sound, at worst I'll headbang to the tongue-in-cheek
goofiness of AC/DC or to the hilarious minimalism of the Ramones.
Headbanging to Kiss might have been fun in the mid-Seventies, when
there weren't that many OTHER bands to headbang to (although this also
turns out to be a false assertion in the end), but bringing this
stupid, dumb, brainless, melodyless crap into the 21st century is no
different from collecting all your dirty underwear and cherishing it
all the rest of your life as if it truly and verily reflected all the
good and honest sides of it. No thanks.
wow.. did the first commenter on this album really recognize the Doors
like solo on She?? I thought I was the only one!! hahahahha wow!!
This is one of their best albums, in my opinion. Hilarious
Paul-as-David Johansen vocals, ridiculous lyrics, etc. but for some reason, I have a
special place in my chest cavity for this record. I give it a 9.
That George guy has got a massive pickle in his buttocks. You have to
remember that Kiss came along at a time when musicianship and melody were
still required ingredients in a successful rock band. Kiss never would have
lasted if they hadn't had at least a significant amount of those two
categories, and they certainly do. They're certainly better musicians than
AC/DC. Again, while most of their stuff is not complicated or challenging,
they certainly were no worse than most hard rock bands of the 70's in
playing ability or song writing, and even had a dynamic live show to boot.
And in today's pathetic rock climate, the music of Kiss sounds like the work
of genius in comparison. And the harshest Kiss critic cannot deny the vocal
talent of Paul Stanley...he has such great range and power. How many other
hard rock singers could pull off a demanding role like the Phantom Of The
Opera? I saw him as the Phantom here in Toronto and he was magnificent,
completely silencing all those idiots who snickered when it was first
announced that he was taking over the role. They keep saying it time and
time again; their music has never pretended to be anything other than highly
enjoyable, sing-a-long type upbeat feel-good rock 'n roll, and nobody could
do it quite as well as they could. So many people despise them for making it
so big with so-called "stupid" music, but the truth is that the success of
Kiss, inspite of the constant criticism since the start, is an inspiration
for every kid who has dreams of hitting the big time. Pretentious, cynical,
wet-blanket critics like that George commenter simply are unable to come to
terms with this aesthetic.
George Starostin is absolutely wrong here. It's my favourite Kiss album!
All the songs here are frigging good. It's a masterpiece! It doesn't matter, plays Ace
Frehley three notes for exactly two minutes or not in "Rock Bottom"
(actually, it's a beautiful chord sequence), because he does it AWESOME, this intro
sounds nice, and the song itself is probably the best song here (it means,
that it's probably my favourite song here). The following song "C'mon And Love
Me" is the second best tune here (in general, it's hard to say, what are the
best tunes here, I would like to say, that the best songs from "Dressed To Kill" are
all songs except "Room Service" and "Love Her All I Can", which are a little
worse). The songwriting of both Paul Stanley ("Rock Bottom", "C'mon And Love
Me") and Gene Simmons ("Two Timer" (what a good song!), "The Ladies In Waiting"
(I'm allready tired to find epiphets, but all these songs are magnificent),
"She") is on a very high level. "Getaway" of Ace Frehley is also colossal.
Can you give a higher rating than 10? Oh well,This is KISS's best.George
Starsoo...oh,whatever his fucking name is can just stick to his shitty YES
records.
Not only did the Carpenters write more of their own music than Kiss, but
they performed more of it, and they performed it better than Kiss ever has.
Josh Cable is a fucking moron! Kiss are very good performers and no
man with a sanity can deny it! Their music IS
essential, interesting and notional. I know, it's a subjective factor,
but one must have a respect for every good
classic rock band, coming from 60s-70s. "Little kids with no musical
taste" - boy, you're a stupid fucker, KISS are
elite band, at least now, and you, Josh Cable, is ignorant. And Slayer
sucks!
Notice how Josh couldn't even name one song from Dressed to Kill, but
managed to cut up KISS without really ever listening to them? This is, in
my opinion, by far the best KISS album. These guys were starved for success
at this point and looking at the end of the line. Thanx to Bill Aucoin's
credit card, the tour continued, Alive! was released and over the top KISS
went. No more lean days. Love Her All I Can, Room Service, Anything For My
Baby, Ladies in Waiting... the sleepers of the album... overshadowed by the
monotonous yet hugely successful Rock n Roll All Nite. My personal fave was
She. Still is my favorite KISS tune. So heavy for the day and live was
even heavier. If one wants an album that sums up what KISS is/was all about,
Dressed to Kill is IT.
Yeah, Jeff Cable has got it right. Trust me, I owned all of Kiss' catalog at one point when I was certain that they had to kick ass. Granted, Alive is a killer album, but get real, kids.
KISS is total shit. Its called a Gimmick. Lynyrd Skynyrd KILLS KISS even with 3 of them 6 feet under. Seriously, go buy a New York Dolls album. Kiss is a fookin joke, playah.
Kiss do a good job in covering the Doors classic "Five To One" here.
DRESSED TO KILL 9/10
It's a cool record! I like Getaway best. I miss Peter's vocals on the 80's and 90's albums. Also on the now in progress ALIVE 35 tour. Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer are great musicians and, i have no doubt, nice guys, but Ace and Peter, are unreplacable.
Yes, I admit it, I love this album, I'm just gonna give it a
ten and ignore that stupid patter in 10000000000000000000000000 Years. "I
whanah know. How mahny pehople heah like to ghet high?" Isn't
Paul one of the guys who doesn't do drugs? Who cares? "It lookths lahk
wh gohna half ourthelws a rock n roll pahty to-nite!"
Okay, this is indeed the only Kiss record to own if you only wanna own
one, but not because of the 'party factor' - rather because a) Kiss
sound grittier live (yes, they do - the guitars are louder, more
distorted and kicking) and b) the song selection saves us the
necessity of enduring TOO MUCH crap from the first three albums. Even
if there's still enough crap on here to make me puke. And the Paul
Stanley stage banter, this time, overdoes the stupidity factor to
actually appear funny. (God help me!)
oh.. a good one-liner from Paul Stanley from this album right after
they crank out 'She' .. 'ACCE FREEELEEY ON GEEEETAWWWWW!!' Kind of
funny, since Paul can't put two damn notes toghether. Ranks right up
there with 'Our next one is the first song.. off our neewww album' from
cheap trick. hehe.
Oh, all right...It was a '70's thing. Great live album, and
before we all go laughing up our sleeve at Kiss, remember that they never claimed to be
anything other than what they were. They were a mindless,
overblown excuse to get loud and rowdy and have a good time. That's what rock and
roll is about, I think.
This isn't a live album, it's a studio album with crowd noise added (Kiss
fans aren't smart enough to notice; they're fucking dumb). And it still
sucks, because these guys are homosexuals that like fucking men in the ass
with their gay dicks.
They excel at delivering entertainment? Is that supposed to be a
joke or something? It SOUNDS funny, but it's also pretty
depressing depending on how seriously you take such a comment,
since everyone knows and accepts that Kiss were nothing but
gimmicky no-talent sellouts who single-handedly ruined the entire
music industry by turning it into a giant million dollar money game,
instead of the art that The Beatles and The Who tried to make it. If
it weren't for Kiss, the radio probably wouldn't suck today. Then
again, Styx was popular too.
This John Cable fool is another ignoramus. The music industry was always a
multi million dollar game long before Kiss came along; they were just
business savvy enough to cash in on it, instead of going the "struggling
artist" route, which is a crock of shit anyway. You make it sound like its
despicable for a band to make a living off its music. You also make it sound
like they had a mission to lower the standards of the industry; more
poppycock sir. When they started out they never could have known that they
would become successful...they became successful because people were getting
sick of the completely overblown and ridiculous forms that progressive rock
and hard rock were taking in the early to mid 70's, and Kiss' back to the
basics approach was a breath of fresh air. Punk picked up this same
philosophy a few years later. A natural system of checks and balances is
always in place in order to combat extremes. And I don't know what you
define as a sell-out, but I've always understood it to be a calculated
extreme change in musical direction and image designed to appeal to a wider
demographic to maximize record sales...they kept the same style from day one
until the 80's, so how exactly did Kiss sell-out? And if you respond by
saying that Dynasty was a disco sell-out, then that's bullshit too...there's
plenty of hard rock on that record with the vintage Kiss sound, just with a
disco flavour on a few songs, not a total change in direction for mainstream
appeal resulting in a watered down sound. There's nothing wrong with a band
keeping up with technological developments and experimenting with different
genres...ever heard of diversity? Most bands do it, and it's often necessary
to keep a career going. The Elder was a major musical departure...would you
call that album a sell-out, you doofus?
I COMPLETELY AGREE. I also believe Kiss was trying to
make a living instead of going the other way and
stagnating early on. If being popular is a crime,
then Kiss should be arrested for life.
The best live album ever made by any other band,go ahead try to find one with
this much energy.This is what rock n' roll is all about!! By the way
these Cable fuckers have no idea what they're talking about.
Sure this was a heavily edited album but it doesn't take away from the whole
package that was Alive!. The tunes were killer, the power was undeniable.
The treats that came with the album set a standard for what I expected in a
rock n roll album package. These Cable guys should stick to wiring TVs if
they've got the brains for it.
I always thought Paul said: "I've got a leaky cock!" at the end of
"She"...
Ok... are you finished mocking this album yet? If not, I'll wait... Never mind. Fuck you and listen... Kiss never, EVER claimed to be musically
important. They know better. They always knew better. They (Paul and Gene) said from the beginning that if you wanted intellectual, thought
provoking music, go buy an ELP album. But if you want simple, three to five chord chunky rock and roll that basically channels the Beatles (yes,
the Beatles) and the MC5, yet who were also into the theatrical elements that early to mid-70's rock gravitated toward, you've found a home in this
album. There is no pretentiousness to this album. It is a true document of a mid-'70's Kiss arena experience and believe me, it was cool at the
time. Simply put: if you don't like Kiss, you won't like this album. If you do, this is STILL the best album they ever released.
20 out of 10 for Paul's silly-ass banter, alone. The bit about Vodka and Orange Juice is priceless.
I think if Kiss hadn't come out with ALIVE! when they did-we probably
wouldn't be reading about them much right now.Their first three albums
are loaded with junk.The production is amateurish and inaffectual and
the mixes,for the most part,are just awful and imbalanced.Peter's drums
often lack drive and power Occasionally something came out good.I
addition,hey were fledgling songwriters,and most of their material at
this time needed ALOT of work.What ALIVE! did was distill the best they
had to offer in an excellent,high-energy live performance
presentation.After that,things improved GREATLY thanks to BOB EZRIN who
had the experience and tenacity to whip the boys into shape.DESTROYER
is STILL there shining hour in my opinion.I think it is their most
consistant "make-up" album as far as songwriting,production and overall
performance.Except for about 8 cuts,their first three albums,to me,are
completely pedestrian.
The only live album that wasn't live. i was at a kiss convention with all these kiss geeks running around buying the same albums over 20 times just
because it was released in another country.At this convention bob erzin gave a question & answer, and told us the alive album is not live. quote: the
album is called alive, there is nothing live about the alive album.
the story goes that bob erzin went to a stix concert and payed a bunch of hippies 20 dollars to hold a kiss sign. i mean if it was a kiss concert, where are
all the guys with makeup on or the kiss t shirts and why do they all look like hippies right? it was a stix concert!
anyways, being aroused by this story i bought the album just the same, and it sounds great.
i love the songs, but i think it soooooo lame that a band would do a studio live album.
I was a sophomore in high school when this came out and I played it every freakin morning to charge me up. Deuce, Firehouse, She, and Black Diamond all put steam in my stride each and every A.M.
The album is very tame I agree but it contained the "set list" for their initial years. It shows the initial melange of these four musical prodigies and gives insight into their musical characters. Genes songs tend to have a sort of dark side, Paul's songwriting is abysmal, Ace sort of adds a fun comical flair or spark and Peter actually sounds good on these early albums. In fact, in the early days, before Pete coked himself into oblivion, he was the most solid and musically advanced out of the four. This makes sense, as he was trained and also was the oldest. Ace had alot of talent promise but he was raw (from masturbation), Gene had a very dark side but also it was this dark side that gave him his extremely creative "touch" , Genes early work that I would say had a dark, artsy sound were Watchin' You, Going Blind, She. These soungs were definitively Gene, moving a medium pace, with development, dark. Lastly, Paul was just like gay flash at this time. He knew like three bar chord riffs and all his songs sometimes sound like his other songs. Pauls songs revolved around bar chords and Genes songs revolved around riffs. When they started writing together they exchanged techniques and soon both knew how to use bar chords AND riffs. This was the main songwriting development that took place in the early years. And by the album destroyer, Paul was writing much better, whereas promise of fame and (pussy) took Gene's attention away from being serious, musically. Hotter than Hell was an attempt by Paul to "stepup", some of the ideas in the songs more difficult that the original first album, which frankly, any 16 year old with a guitar and some knowledge of bar chords high on pot and booze could crank out. By the time Alive I came out, Ace and Peter were at the top of their game, Paul and Peter would give them long solos in concert, despite turning down their songs. Paul had progressed incredibly as a song writer, but Gene was writing stuff like "Love em and Leave em" and stuff, which to him, was probably funny and stupid. As they broke into mainstream fame with Destroyer, Pete and Ace became less reliable, Gene more "showy" and "imagy" and Paul started to take over the band, musically. Whereas the first four years, Gene, and perhaps Peter really led the way, Paul started to take control, and his musicianship, in terms of his singing and songwriting really took off. God of thunder was an excellent tune for them and their image. Shout it out Loud, Love Gun, Detroit Rock City, were legions beyond Paul's writing on the first album. With their image and fame, it didnt take but one big hit to put an album together, and with Paul writing well, Gene could sit back and be the demon. His songs were more for his own entertainment, how much could he get away with singing and how many sexual metaphors could he include. "Larger than Life" about his dick, "Plaster Caster" "Christine Sixteen" about his lust for young girls.
Oh come on Mark! Bob Ezrin is a producing genius who instilled a sense of
diversity into so many bands. The first three Kiss albums sound almost
identical to one another, so how long could they have kept that up before
getting really really boring and even more predictable? They saw how well he
produced Alice Cooper's material up to 1976. What Ezrin brought to the
studio is exactly the kick in the ass these guys needed. He pushed them
extremely hard, and it shows because their musical performance on Destroyer
was their best ever. And their highly visual live show didn't have the
theatrically bombastic anthems that it truly needed until this album came
along in 1976. The early material was gritty but more suited to a club,
whereas this stuff is really appropriate for an arena, which they were
filling by this time. Each member is given his moment to shine, although Ace
Frehley's first lead vocal performance still wouldn't appear until the next
album! Just listen to this stuff; it's so huge, powerful, bristling with
energy and conviction. The music is diverse, and much more interesting than
on previous albums. Criss' drumming never sounded so powerful before!
Stanley's vocals soar! Simmons sneers delightfully and his bass thunders!
Ace lays down some of his tastiest riffs 'n licks, including some gorgeous
dual guitar lines, ala Thin Lizzy and Iron Maiden! even the lyrics aren't as
silly as before. Massively enjoyable hooks on each track. The best all-round
Kiss studio album. Destroyer is a must have for any classic rock fan. 9
songs. 9 classics. Easy 10.
This album is very diverse: wonderful is ballad "Great Expectation" (Simmons
got a really good voice), wonderful is the opening track "Detroit Rock City" (a
term "another frigging fresh and exciting dose of rock'n'roll" is also aplicable
to Kiss), wonderful is authentic "God Of Thunder", in one word, all is wonderful!
This album is a little autobiographic, hey, and it's better than all the Nineties-crap
put together. I agree with Roland Fratzl, that it's a must have for any classic
rock fan. I like this album. Is that clear?
Contains my second favorite song,Detroit Rock City.The rest.....brilliant!
This album is for gay homosexuals which pretty much sums up KISS fans.
This is a classic KISS album full of 3 chord greatness. Shout it Out Loud, God of
Thunder, Detroit Rock City... Great tunes. Beth can KISS my sweaty balls though. I HATE this
song. It's not even KISS. I don't know what it is. Beth, call someone else... please.
These reviews are hilarious! I'm willing to bet
Ernest had more little red beaver than Paul and Gene
put together, Mark.
ladies and gentelmen! welcome to the kiss album destoryer!
Oh yes - an absolute classic. The church bells at the end - surely a stroke of genius. Even as a 10 year old in England I knew all about this album. Yes they are in it for the money but at least they don't pretend not to be, like some people I could mention.
Finally got my ADSL back. I'm living in Dalian now.
NEW TOWN! I hate going to a new town. But now I make
more money than God does, so there we go.
This one is definitely back to basics after the ambitious epic grandeur of
Destroyer. But it doesn't sound much like a party rock record, containing
lots of more serious sounding heavy riffs, kinda like Hotter Than Hell,
except the sleaze is back in full force on 9 of 10 songs! Man does this
album start off strong! The first three songs will blow you away! Awesome
hard rock! And "Baby Driver" ain't bland either! It's got a wicked mean
sounding heavy groove, perfect for driving, and features Peter Criss with
his raspy growl! "Love 'Em and Leave 'Em" isn't bad either, even if it
isn't quite as inspired as some of the other stuff. I cringe whenever I hear the
slide riff on "Mr. Speed" though, which sounds way too rednecky for me,
although the vocal melody redeems the song quite a bit. "Hard Luck Woman" is
a nice mid-tempo acoustic song, which actually does remind one of Rod
Stewart, especially with Criss' singing! "Makin' Love"...what can I say?
It's another fast rocker and it's about fucking! What a shock!
It's exciting and brilliant rock'n'roll! One more Kiss classic (it means,
another great album), what else to say?
I agree what else to say except pick it up,put it on,and turn it up loud!!!!!
Awesome album. I Want You, Calling Dr. Love, Mr. Speed.. grab your tennis racket and
start air jammin!!! I was in LOVE with this shit when I was a kid and playing it today just
brings back memories that make me long for those simple, don't have to worry about
nothing, days. Got the sticker outta this album!!!
two words. "take me". "put your hands in my pocket/grab onto my rocket." utterly brilliant paul stanley utter brilliance. rock and roll over is severely bad-ass.
Gets a 7. Play "Shock Me", and then put on "Lit Up" by Buckcherry.
Enjoy them both equally, because they're virtually the same song. Ace
now cancels out his Doors "theft" on "She".
Another great one??? How did these guys manage to put out so many winning
albums within a few short years? No band could keep up such an exhausting
schedule nowadays and still put out consistent quality product. Mark,
"Tomorrow And Tonight" is simply an extension of their patented brand of
party rock...there's nothing bad about it, and the chorus is catchier than a
magnet! The only song on Love Gun that I think doesn't cut it is "Got Love
For Sale"...hmmm, I always seem to pick Gene Simmons songs as the worst...I
just think his singing isn't all that appealing. Not that he's bad bad, just
not as cool as the others. And who the hell is that singing on "Shock Me"???
Why, it's none other than...than...ACE FREHLEY!!!!! Finally, after 5 whole
albums, Kiss' lead guitarist makes his first appearance as lead vocalist on
a song, and he's not bad at all! His voice is kinda flat, lacking the depth,
range and power of Stanley, the smoky cool of Criss, or the sneer or
Simmons, but it's charismatic sounding, and soft and soothing in nature with
it's own personality, bringing a fourth distinct vocal sound to the band.
It's such a shame he didn't sing before, especially on tracks that he wrote
in the past, and especially considering that their peak period was almost
over by this point. I've read that he was shy and didn't have the confidence
to sing before this song, but he got such a positive response that on future
albums he took over lead vocals much more often...so there Mark, that's FOUR
different singers this time around, not the usual 3! The song "Love Gun" has
to be one of their best ever, with the catchy as hell chorus, vocal
hamonies, and thumping bass! "Almost Human" must be the weirdest song they
recorded up to this point; the guitar riff sounds like something Richie
Blackmore would have come up with, and then some porno bass kicks in...just
the way the melodies blend together sounds really strange...I guess the best
way I'd describe this song is as psychedelic porno!
I admire this album! Excellent! These songs are really VERY CATCHY (all
the time I'd like to put this record on); what is AWESOME, it's the title track! It
seems to me, that it's one of the best songs of Kiss ever! And what else
I'd like to mention, it's "I Stole Your Love" by Stanley and "Almost Human" by
Simmons. Excellent songs! And the guitar solo of Ace Frehley in "Shock Me"
(which was written also by him) proves, that this guy is very talented guitar
player.
Another killer release,remember I play these albums,I know what I'm talking
about.
The first album I ever bought with my own money. I think I wore the grooves out of that
album before it melted in the sun one day.. Shock Me was definitely my fave here... also
I Stole Your Love, Almost Human, Love Gun... Had no idea Plaster Caster was about making
plaster casts of rock stars dicks!!!! Kiss had a way of singing about sex that made
perfect sense to any horny adult but us kids were CLUELESS to the whole thing. My album came
with the Love Gun but I didn't get the piece of paper you were supposed to fold up and
put inside that said "BANG" on it... boo hoo... I got ripped off!!!
About six months ago I pulled out "Love Gun". When the first song came on, I
was like "Man, this is really good! Why don't I listen to KISS more???" Then
"Tomorrow and Tonight" came on while I was doing something else and I
listened in horror for about 45 seconds and have had no desire to listen to
KISS since.
Yeah, the new studio tracks are indeed quite tubular! They are often
overlooked and I don't think they ever performed them live. I also read
somewhere that for some strange reason, Ace Frehley didn't play guitar on
any of those new tracks, but rather a studio ape by the name of Bob Kulick,
older brother of future Kiss lead dicksmacker Bruce Kulick!
Great!!!! 3 sides live ,plus five new tracks.Damn, I love this album.
Aside from the cover and the inside photo, this album BLEW. I remember seeing it in a
list of "all time worst live albums" it was right at the top and I had to agree with the
reviewer. Sound was awful, the tunes were rushed and chopped all to shit... not my idea of
a good album at all. Side 4 wasn't even live, like they didn't have enough material..
Rocket Ride was the best song on the whole album.
1977, 4th grade, I loved this album. My favorite guitar solo is on all american man & larger than life....all these years thinking it was Ace only to find out now it was Rick Derringer. WHAT A BUMMER.
Remember my comments about Destroyer? Well, I have
another hilarious KISS story:
A TEN?!? I mean, seriously, the studio versions like crap
compaired to the live ones, and this leaves off some of Kiss' better stuff. I don't
even listen to this anymore. Why should I? I've got some new
Daniel Johnston tapes. 8. When I'm in the mood for shallow cock rawk.
Awesome! Truly a great starting point for the uninitiated Kiss fan! All the
best tracks from 1973 to 1977 are here, avoiding most of the filler, and
there's nothing from the 4 solo albums. My only complaint is that they
should have expanded this collection when it was re-mastered in 1999 to
include a few more songs up until 1979, which was the end of Kiss' golden
age, and would have provided true closure on that era. Dammit, where's
"Parasite"?? "I Was Made For Lovin' You"? Can't have everything I guess, but
it's worth buying just for the newly disco-fied "Strutter '78"!
The first in a series of "greatest hits" albums... Kiss made way too many of these. This
being the first was great. Loved the cover.
ARE YA READY FOOOOOOR SOME FOOTBALL???????????????????????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A MONDAY NITE PARTY?!??!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!?!??!!?!?!?!?!?!?!!!?!?!??!???!?!??!?!? sorry! what we are dealing with is a total lack of respect for the law! now then for the first time... pedro andino will review a hits collection for people who loved or hate kiss!
RADIOHEAD RULES YOU LOWLIFE YANK WANKER!!!! Their albums ARE consistent!!
And catchy too! With cool noises! But how would YOU know, the only one
you've heard is OK Computer!! Have YOU experienced the wonderful
surreal awesomeness that is the "Just" viseo?? Have YOU bumped "Fake
Plastic Trees" in your car with full bass?? No, you fucking HAVE NOT!
Loved the Beatles-influenced stuff. Wimpy rockers. Adventurous solo album. Give him credit. 6.
What a weird album! Certainly a big stylistic departure from Kiss. This
album is so kooky that it's consistently entertaining, but contains lots of
great pop hooks! Sounds like a cross between ELO and Meat Loaf!
This was the first of the four solo albums I bought by the band back when it
was a couple years old (about 1980) and I still listen to it today,Gene was
actually a good singer and most of the songs here are good. It does'nt sound
like KISS at all, but it sounds good to me, even now.
When you wish upon a star?? Turned the monster into Bambi right there. Bold move.
Other than Radioactive, I don't really like anything on this album. To sum it up in one
word... disappointed.
I dug this album back when it came out (but shit, I was eight. What the fuck did I know about music?). The laughing intro to Radioactive played up the "evil demon" persona of Simmons, which all of us eight year olds bought into; and Tunnel Of Love had that nasty groove that I still think is cool today (ok, maybe not). Of course, listening to it these days, you hear it for the tripe it really is. Here's a little bit of trivia about this album: Katey Sagel (Peg Bundy, that cyclops bitch on Futurama) sang backup on a few of the songs. You can make out her voice on Tunnel Of Love during the chorus. Pop this in, close your eyes, and imagine a big-titted, beehive-hair-having, shitty dressing redhead in the studio with Gene singing this shit. Or that cyclops chick on Futurama. Hmm... probably a better fit.
Gene Simmons solo album was a let down to me. I thought he would go more heavy instead of a bunch of lame shit.
The beginning of "burning up with fever" sounds like a Paul Stanley song to me. then it turns into total fried chicken and soul train jive
Ace's solo record is the finest of the four for many of the same reasons
that, say, Harrison made the most impressive Beatle solo debut (yeah,
Lennon's is stark and excellent, but holding up for three LP's takes
the prize): he had several good songs that weren't making it onto the
Kiss records. In all honesty the band should have saved them; this
record is 100,000 light years ahead of anything the band would record
between 1979 and 1981.
Agree completely with halhorn. By far the best solo. By the
way, that's Dave Letterman's own Anton Fig and Will Lee on drums and bass. 8.
Wow! All these songs are great! Of the four solo albums, this one
sounds the most like Kiss, but the musicianship is so much more complex, intricate and
detailed! And it rocks hard and raw, with many awesome riffs and melodies!
Ace really shows us here that he's a lot more dimensional a guitarist than
his Kiss material would indicate...free of the reigns of dictators Paul
Stanley and Gene Simmons, he really unleashed on this album and made the
other guys look like total amateurish fools in the process. And he was even
rewarded for this accordingly by the record buying public, which made this
by far the most popular of the 4 solo albums, and the only one yielding a
big hit with "New York Groove". I'll betcha Gene and Paul were mighty
pissed! It's complete evidence that Kiss could only have benefitted had Ace
been allowed to contribute more songwriting to the group.
The best of the solo stuff,for sure. This one really rocks like a bastard ,
most of the songs are about drinking and driving, snorting coke,and more
drinking.Great! 10!!!!!!
Great Album. Lyrically stupid, but then we're talking about Ace here. This album put
Ace's ego out of control for sure. Still love Rip it Out the best. One of my favorite in
the whole KISS catalogue even though technically it isn't "KISS"...
anyone who compares Stanley and Simmons to Lennon and McCartney...needs a lobotomy....the best of the solo albums....next we can pick the best of my dog's shit.
Ace frehley's solo album was total pothead, jerk off to the hustler magazines under your mattress, squeeze zits while singing ozone, and feather your greasy hair while thinking your sexier than chachi on happy days. this album will make you turn into a hoodlum(MOTHERS WATCH OUT!!!}
Ima Hoodlum coase of Ace....hell yeah!! wheres my beer?,take a choice who would you rather hang with Gene Simmons and his bla-bla Im the shit or hang and kick a few back with Ace and make fun of Gene and Pauls wigs!!
I only briefly scanned this one once a few years ago at HMV and was so bored
that within a few minutes I quit listening to it and have not heard it
since...seemed like really mellow jazz influenced muck and a few wimpy
rockers. Bah.
Ummm...Michael Benvenga was the bassist in Peter's
pre-Kiss band, Lips. He died while Peter was
recording the album, thus the memorial dedication.
The "gay" thing was kind of insensitive, dontcha think?
Musik Guy's comment is like one of those times where you make a mom
joke, and the person on the end of the mom joke goes, "My mom is dead,
ASSHOLE! She had an accident with a George Foreman grill. Thanks". And
then you feel really bad, and don't mean any personal disrespect - but
what the fuck, are you supposed to know the history of the entire world
and all of its citizens before you make a joke?! I bet Michael Benvenga
died of asphyxiation from too much cocaine-laced Peter Criss semen up
his nose. "Ben-veg-aaa I hear you calling, and I'm gonna shoot in your
nose again..."
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ what... oh... I fell asleep... is it over yet? GOOD. BYE.
One listen to Peter Criss's solo album was like licking shit on a stick that was sold as a suger daddy sucker.
If you want to torture someone, put them in a cell with this pathetic solo album playing over and over.
This was as lame as watching my parents make love through the hole in the keyhole.
I would have preferred spending the money on space dust candy and eagle eye G.I. Joe
Hey fudge nipples! Why'd ya hafta go ruin Sixth Sense for me???
Not bad at all, Paul Stanley is an excellent singer,a great powerful voice on
the rockers and the ballads show a different side. Didn't he invent the power
ballad?
Good Album! Paul Stanleys Album sounds more like KISS than the others, Ace's is a very close 2nd.
Also Bob is Bruce's brother, Bob also was in Meatloaf...he was also a member of Meatloaf's band lol!
Rock n Roll... Paul's album was great except for the mush. Why did Paul always have to
write so much mush? Love in Chains was a good rocker. Move On, Wouldn't You Like to Know
Me, Goodbye.... Lotsa good tunes here. Just scrape off the mush.
Wait…I never finished watching Fight Club. What do you mean they are the same guy? Huh? Tell me!!
"wouldn't you like to know me". paul sure loves his raspberries don't he??
Terrible record. Horribly slick, wussy production. 4.
DIE NASTY! I made a funny! HARDY HAR HAR!
I like this album very much. Great! "I Was Made For Lovin' You" and "Sure
Know Something" are certainly the masterpieces! It's not a disco record, it has
got only a slight disco feel. It's more what true rock'n'roll is about. Of
course, it's a less good than previous Kiss album, but nevertheless great.
Those of you who call this a disco record have never played it.Most of it
kicks ass,a few weak songs here,but not a dissapointment.Check out CHARISMA!!!
I understand everyone has their favorites. Up to this point in the Kiss
catalog, it's Rock And Roll Over for me. For some, it's the debut album or
Love Gun. For many, it's Alive! or Destroyer. However, there are some
albums that will never be labeled "The Best", and some which should never
even be purchased! This record is one of them! Of course, like any Kiss
fan, I own this, and in its own way, it's appealing. HOWEVER, THIS HAS
NOTHING TO DO WITH THE SONGS, THE TALENT, THE ENERGY, OR THE PRODUCTION!!
Be forewarned! Not only is this not Kiss, this is NOT good! Sure, "I Was
Made For Lovin' You," was a big hit and is a great song. But other than
this, "Sure Know Something," (stupid, but catchy) and "Save Your Love," (the
best song on this album), are the ONLY reasons worth checking this out....
Where in the hell do you hear disco on thi album besides "I was made for
loving you"? This is a real decent KISS album......and Peter Criss has an
exellent voice,you call yourself a fan?
Disco? I don't know, but there were some really cool tunes this one. Charisma was my
fave way back when. Hard Times is a cool little tune. It was clear that Peter was NOT
drumming on this album cuz the drumming was GOOD. This album was really the end of Kiss as
we knew it. Paul turned into an opera singer practically overnight. Must have taken
singing lessons or something.
Kiss is pure shite, the absolute lowest common denominator, a subpar New York Dolls imitation led into the absolute depths of sleaze by a sickening, greedy, manipulative frontman (Mr. Gene Simmons). Yet "I Was Made for Lovin' You", the sleazy, nasty, "disco"-ish throbbing pop-rock song on this album, is just superb! It's incredibly stupid fun, inanely catchy, made even better by that clanging bass line and that downright absurd falsetto in the chorus. Who cares about the lyrics, just shake it to this hysterical sleaze artifact.
DYNASTY is THE best KISS album ever made. I was in first grade when it came
out and it has shaped my life in oh so many ways. I can't believe KISS
"fans" don't like it. I used to WORSHIP those turds and DYNASTY was my first
album I could actually sort of relate to. It was like a gift from God. If
you go back and look at how and when it appeared in relation to KISS entire
recording career, it is simply brilliant. Classic "band about to break-up
syndrome". It's really KISS's IN THROUGH THE OUT DOOR, or LET IT BE. That's
right bitch Someone said the songs were "silly". What KISS song isn't silly?
MR. SPEED.!?! Anyway, go but a copy of this album right now. Gene really
needs the money and I hear Paul is finally getting his/her sex-change.
Ok so I’m reliving my past now. Do you realize I’ve hated this album since it came out and I was only 9 years old? Here’s why. I was a HUGE Kiss fan since I was 6 (“destroyer age” in Kiss Years). Then a few years later my parents bring home one of those K-Tel disco compilations, throw it on the turntable and start dancing to “I Was Made For loving You”. I was like “This sounds a lot like Kiss”. Sure enough, Dynasty comes out and my head is blown. My parents were supposed to hate me for listening to Kiss and now they like ‘em? Fuck that! (as a side note my parents actually had a dance floor in our tiki room style basement) That was the day I stopped listening to Kiss.
Peeeeyooooooo!!!!
Well, it's not a bad album. Surely it's a letdown, but I enjoy "Naked
City", "Is That You?" and "Shandi". Those songs (especially "Naked City") are very
decent.
Got to be honest (and I have been so far) this one kinda sucks.best
song---NAKED CITY
Oh boy....that comment is not directed toward the album, but instead, the
album's listeners. If you dislike this album, fine. But don't anybody dare
say this is worse than Dynasty! Take away "I Was Made For Lovin' You" and
does anybody like Dynasty? I thought not.
crap! what the hell is that?! i mean this is like bad like the osmonds! i listen
to this album in 1986 when i was 9 i still say it sucked! now here come the track list you have been warned
Wait, wait, wait... You're slamming Peter Gabriel as "terrible
and untalented" on the same page where you're giving 8's and 9's to Kiss records??
Pete had more talent in the tip of his left pinky than every member
of Kiss combined and squared. I know they're a "joke" band, but they still suck
constipated walrus balls. It's irritating that artists who actually take time to
put WORK into their music get labeled as "pretentious and pompous" while every lame
two-chord, one-note rock band that comes along gets hailed as "the savior of rock music." Give
me a freaking break.
I have to agree with Rich, sort of. I hate Peter Gabriel, and
like Kiss (a little), but Kiss are a bunch of sweaty, insincere
guys responsible for
Motley Crue, whereas Peter at least tried to do something other
then Cawk Rawk. Don't have this, and probably won't get it. I'll just get
some more Daniel Johnston tapes! $5 each, get some today! http://members.aol.com/yipeye
Nah, Peter Gabriel has talent, he's just a boring old fart. Kiss are
entertaining old farts. Either way Type O Negative and Blind Illusion can
beat all their punk asses into next week....
Rush had released Moving Pictures, and had a pretty big hit
with Permanent Waves the year before. Might have had something to do with this
weird one.
Total novelty record. Doesn't sound anything like anything else they ever
did, and despite being the cheesiest album they ever made, it's still a lot
more interesting to listen to than the coma inducing Unmasked, or any of
their completely nauseating 80's Bon Jovian hair metal, a decade during
which Kiss miraculously managed to become far more irritating than ever
before. I respect them for at least taking a stab at other genres, even
though rock opera and classical is really something that these boys could
hardly handle, producing the decidedly mixed results here. What's even more
shocking though is that they actually came up with some good material in
this style! "The Oath" opens the album ferociously with a thundering gallop
riff, kinda like typical Iron Maiden, only much heavier! And Paul sings it
like his nuts are in a vise. Lyrics about riding into battle like a knight
on horseback drawing his sword?? THIS IS KISS????? The lyrics are beyond
cheesy throughout the whole album, with these total sleazebags suddenly
pretending to be noble and virtuous, championing medieval chivalry! Could
you make me gag any worse? Then there's a fanfare interlude! After that we
have "Just A Boy", which showcases the most extreme example of Paul's
falsetto which Mark mentioned, but the melodies are gorgeous, sounding like
typical European music from the Middle Ages! "Dark Light" is an Ace song
which sucks and sounds out of place here because it sounds more like a
normal Kiss song. "Only You" is an eerie Gene track that kinda reminds me of
Kashmir. "Under The Rose" has to be heard to be believed...who could take
Gene Simmons seriously singing about being "pure of heart" and of
"prophecies"?? For fuck's sake! "A World Without Heroes" is actually a
beautifully melancholy haunting ballad sung by Gene...I've even seen the
video for this song, and the less said about that, the better. Why do I keep
thinking of Braveheart while writing this review?? Man, they must have been
listening to Uriah Heep or Dio for inspiration. I mean, some of these songs
contain the most beautiful music Kiss ever wrote, but it's overshadowed by
considerable mediocre crap and of course, the lyrics, which is something I
rarely harp on, are tormentingly horrendous. Anyways, "Mr. Blackwell" is a
pretty weird song...can't make up my mind if it's ok or downright horrible.
"Escape From The Island" is an instrumental where Ace let's her rip again.
"Odyssey" is a great mid-tempo piano song with use of large choir and
orchestra! That one definitely sounds like it's straight out of an Andrew
Lloyd Webber musical! "I" is a terrible way to end the album and the lyrics
are about as idiotic as they can possibly get; "I! Belive in me! I! Believe
in something more than you can understand yes I believe in me!" Yes, yes!
Pull the trigger already!
After that last song, there's about a minute of insipid dialogue between
some grand wizard and the little boy of the story who is the "chosen"
one...YOU STILL HAVEN'T PULLED THE FUCKING TRIGGER!!!!!
I would wager that this single album was the entire inspiration for the
movie Spinal Tap.
KAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Perfect! It's quite untypical for Kiss and it's another masterpiece
from Kiss, that proves their abilities as a serious composers. It's art! Their musical abilities
are apparent here in full blossom. What a talented band! "The Oath"
and "Just A Boy" feature an awesome vocal perfomances by Paul Stanley, groovy
Frehley's "Dark Light" reminds me of "Talk To Me", "Only You" and "Under The
Rose" feature a good vocal perfomance by Gene, beautiful "A World
Without Heroes" reminds me of Uriah Heep and it's gear to put vital "Mr.Blackwell"
next to "A World Without Heroes". "Odyssey" is an excellent song with
use of large choir and orchestra and "I" is another groovy life-asserting tune.
And I also like the lyrics and the themes here. Successful album to my opinion!
Way better than some people claim it is.Great vocals from Stanley and
Simmons,weird story line though.Still I'd much rather listen to this or even
UNMASKED than anything E.L.P. or YES ever did!
PRINDLE...
I always thought I hated Kiss until I heard this
record. I knew I had to buy this after reading about
the story behind it all. I couldn't believe Kiss had
actually made a fantasy-themed concept album. It's not
bad! It's at least entertaining. I thought it'd be
really wussy, but "The Oath" totally rips and "Mr.
Blackwell" is mega-sassy! Then there's great stuff
like "Just a Boy" and "Under the Rose," songs whose
choruses have to be heard to be believed. I think this
is a killer record, though I may have fallen victim to
the "so awful that it's great" syndrome. Either way,
I'm actually persuaded to check out more of the Kiss
discography now.
When I first listended to KISS THE ELDER, I started crying. Being a little kid at the time I thought they were breaking up or something. Even a little kid knew something was definately wrong with this album. IT DIDNT SOUND LIKE KISS!!! It was like some weird religous brainwash that KISS was trying to spill on its fans. Kind of a Jim Jones drink the kool aid type thing. Ace frehley was damn right when he threw the cassette against the wall after he heard it for the first time. Ace claims that they cut out alot of his guitar work and he said he did some of his greatest stuff......NOW JUST GO DRINK THE FOOL AID....AWK AWK!!!!!
I've become OBSESSED with how terrible this record is. I've had Music From the Elder playing in my car for the last week, and Unmasked on my turntable (I disagree about "Unmasked." It might be boring and predictable, but I think it DOES sound like KISS...). For one, KISS is doing a "concept" album. For two, KISS is doing a concept album when they're already in the shits, losing a band member, and in danger of losing their core audience after two pop records. For three, the concept is the absolute most redundant story in the history of the universe. And finally, NONE of it works. Not only is the story insipid (wow, a BIG word...), but they're not bright enough to pull it off. And bringing in Lou Reed to help? He can't even be bothered to put thought into his own lyrics half the time, and he seems like the type to intentionally give them something horrible, and cash their checks.
Kiss takes on the task of creating something "of substance" and tumble off of their collective platform boots on to their pancakey, greasepaint slathered faces.
Doesn't "Sex Type Thing" sound a lot like a speeded up "War Machine"?
Sure it does. Another one for Kiss. 5.
Hey, this one is a lot better than I expected! I was immediately skeptical
upon seeing the release date on the back - 1982. That was around the time
great bands from the 60's and 70's really, I mean REALLY started to suck a
mean cock. This one was billed as a return to form, but it certainly doesn't
really sound like classic 70's Kiss. I think the band was observing what
style was really taking off at the time, which was the new wave of British
heavy metal, and they adjusted their sound accordingly. Personally I think
they went overboard on the heaviness, without instilling the personality and
humour they had before...all of it is brutally heavy and mean, and it's way
too serious...no fun party tunes here, or tongue in cheek innuendo (except
for "Keep Me Comin'"). When I first listened to it I was blown away by the
energy and power, but it doesn't take long for a certain foul stench to
permeate the surroundings...most of it really does sound like typical 80's
metal. Not pop metal, but aggressive dark metal, and it just doesn't sound
like Kiss at all. It actually reminds me a lot of Dio-led Black Sabbath
circa 1980, when that band also suddenly resorted to simplistic metal.
Vinnie Vincent is a good guitar player and he certainly delivers some cool
crunchy riffs, but his playing isn't unique and the style is so different
from Ace that it's hard to stomach...the coolest thing about Vinnie was the
"Egyptian Ankh" make-up and outfit...that's right, you Kiss fanatics, Vinnie
had the best make-up out of all of them, so FUCK YOU! There's not enough
variety from song to song. Another thing that annoys me is that we're down
to only two singers now, Gene and