Part 38.5 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster! 

KISS – “Psycho Circus” (CD/VHS single, 1998)

Unfortunately, the 3D wasn’t nearly as good in 1998 as it is now.  This video probably represents that best that we could do at the time.  However, it’s a part of KISStory now, and worthy addition to your collection for a couple reasons.

The video itself contains two versions of “Psycho Circus”. It has the regular 2D version, which doesn’t hurt your eyes to watch, the 3D version, and the glasses. If you concentrate really hard, you can kind of imagine everything looking 3D. It’s a gimmick I guess, Kiss were experimenting with 3D images live in concert at the time. I didn’t see that tour but everybody who told me about it said that the 3D didn’t work.

The video comes with a CD single. There were four different CD singles printed, each one with a different Kiss member’s face on it. They were random and collectible, but every copy I have ever run across had Peter Criss’ face on it. I’ve never found anybody else. So, that means either: a) Peter was packed more per crate than other members (a common strategy used in trading cards and action figures), or b) fans snapped up all the Genes, Pauls and Aces very quickly. Personally I think it’s a). If you find a copy with any other member’s face on it, I think you have something collectible.

The CD single contains the rare track “In Your Face” written by Gene and sung by Ace. This is probably the easiest place to find that song.  It was initially released on the Japanese version of Psycho-Circus.  It’s not a bad song, and since it’s sung by Ace is it valuable to Kiss fans for that reason.

3/5 stars. A curiosity, it’s kind of fun to watch the video, if you still own a VCR.