Part 23 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster!
KISS – Asylum (1985)
My bias with this album is simple: Asylum was the “new” Kiss album when I first started listening to the band. “Tears Are Falling” was getting a lot of airplay, and it was the latest thing. I still think, on a whole, it is superior to Animalize. The reason for this is all around stronger songs, with Bruce Kulick contributing heavily. Recall that when we last checked in with Kiss, Bruce Kulick was temping, filling in for the ailing Mark St. John. He was their fourth guitar player in as many albums.
By the time to record a new album, Bruce was a full member of Kiss. Gene was still off in la-la land trying to become a movie star, as he was cast as a transvestite in the John Stamos vehicle, Never Too Young To Die.
The good news is, Paul was steering the ship as best he could, considering he was effectively working without his partner in Kiss. Paul contributed some decent material with a bevy of cowriters including Kulick.
King Of The Mountain (awesome)
Tears Are Falling (awesome)
Who Wants To Be Lonely (great)
Radar For Love (decent)
Uh! All Night (decent)
Gene’s good songs include:
Trial By Fire (good)
Secretly Cruel (great)
That only leaves three duds by my counting: Gene’s and Paul’s first co-write in years, “Love’s A Deadly Weapon”, Gene’s “Any Way You Slice It”, and Paul’s “I’m Alive”. “I’m Alive” is almost a carbon copy of other fast Paul songs such as “Gimme More”.
The cover art is bland, but it does have links to Kiss’ past such their traditional “aura” colours (purple for Paul, red for Gene, blue for the guitar play, and green for the drummer). Production is a little glossy on the drums (samples?), but there are no keyboards, or anything like what would happen later on Crazy Nights. It’s a little more pop than Animalize, but I think it’s just a better album. Just better songs.
Part 22 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster! I’m generally not going to be covering DVDs, but this one was crucial to me. I heard a lot of these versions so often, that they were the “original” versions for me. So I have a soft spot for Animalize Live Uncensored.
KISS – Animalize Live Uncensored (VHS, 1985)
This video was recorded live at Cobo Hall, Detroit Michigan December 8th, 1984. It has never been released officially on DVD, although as you can see there are unofficial versions to be had. (It’s clearly unofficial since it has a picture of Carnival of Souls era Kiss on the back!) Annoying subtitles are the only real drawback to the DVD.
There’s not much crossover between this and the two Alive albums, as it leans heavily on newer material (Creatures, Lick It Up, Animalize). The tempos are, in general, faster. The energy is high, and Paul is singing at the peak of his talents. The solos by Bruce Kulick are flashy in that 80’s sort of way, which isn’t my thing. Basically this is 80’s KISS, like it or lump it. I like it somewhat, probably due to nostalgia.
Visually, Gene and Paul are all over the stage, while Eric stands on his drums and demands to be seen and heard. At the end, the band climb onto a flying platform. Very cool live show.
One special treat was Eric’s lead vocals on “Young and Wasted” and “Black Diamond”. I also quite enjoyed Eric’s drum solo. Gene’s bass solo is nothing much to speak of, just a chance for him to introduce “I Love It Loud”, but far more musical than solos past or present. Actually he only speaks twice on the whole DVD. Before “I Love It Loud” he says to the crowd, “Oh yeah? Ohhh yeeeah? Well alright, come on.” And then at another point Paul says, “How you doing Gene, alright?” to which Gene responds, “Welll ooooooohhhh yeeeeaaaah!” Quite comical really. Paul’s raps are some of his all time classics. “Paul, what you are doing with a pistol down your pants?” (“Love Gun”) His story about Gene’s “little child” (“Fits Like A Glove”) is also classic. His guitar solo is nothing special, I guess Bruce Kulick was just too new to the band to warrant a big solo? The fact that Paul has one is somewhat a rarity in KISStory.
The video quality of the DVD is fairly low. Don’t quote me on this, but I think I heard that this concert is going to be reissued on the next installment of the KISStory DVDs.
3/5 stars
There are several CD bootlegs (incomplete however) of this concert. The only live audio from this concert to be officially released was “Heaven’s On Fire”. Kiss contributed that track to Ronnie James Dio’s Hear N’ Aid LP (also being reissued!) which donated proceeds to feed people in Africa.
I’ve been reluctant to post anything about this, but I’m an honest fan. I’m no fanboy — when a band does something I don’t approve of, I say so.
Everybody knows I’m a huge Kiss fan. I first started noticing Paul’s voice getting raspier on the 2004 DVD Rock the Nation Live! Now, it’s…man it hurts to say this…it’s almost tuneless. You can hear Gene and Eric Singer holding down the melody while Paul struggles to sing.
I read recently that Paul had vocal cord surgery in November 2011, and that he says he has simply done too many tours with not enough time off to rest his voice. I think that is a real shame. Paul, listen to me — I consider you to be one of the top five rock singer frontmen of all time. Right up there with Freddie and Ronnie. To hear the guy that I once saw in Phantom of the Opera croak like this, something’s clearly wrong. Paul, if time off is all you need — take it!
We, the Kiss Army, would gladly, patiently wait years between tours if it meant preserving your voice. In the meantime you guys could continue to issue box sets and DVD’s with worthwhile unreleased material, and we’d buy it.
I fully expect the new album, Monster, to be good. I have no doubt that in the studio, a controlled environment, Paul nails it. But live, Paul, you need to give your voice a rest and take some time. We’ll still be here when you come back. For yourself, please think about it.
Part 21 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster! Still flushing out the last of the lo-fi cell phone pics, sorry about that.
KISS – Animalize (1984)
Exit Vinnie Vincent. Enter Mark St. John aka Mark Norton, a music teacher that came highly recommended, but had no touring experience. Looking for the next young hot shot to compete with Eddie Van Halen and Yngwie, Kiss took a chance.
In addition to yet another lineup change and third lead guitar player, there were other fractures setting in. Gene Simmons was dead set to become a movie star, and played the villain role alongside Tom Selleck in a movie called Runaway, written and directed by Michael Crichton. Paul Stanley was left to produce the next album.
Paul and Gene recorded in separate studios, shuffling Mark St. John between them when needed. Gene didn’t play bass on several of Paul’s songs, and studio musicians were brought in to add guitar solos, drum overdubs, and backing vocals. All songs but one were co-written by outside writers.
Animalize is one of those albums that was hugely popular (2 x platinum I think?). It has a couple hot singles, a couple decent album cuts, but disappointly Animalize is mostly filler. Gene’s material is particularly forgettable and uninspired. It’s like you’re listening to half a band.
Mathematically, here’s how it breaks down:
1. I’ve Had Enough (Into The Fire) – good song
2. Heaven’s On Fire – good song (but overplayed)
3. Burn Bitch Burn – bad
4. Get All You Can Take – great song
5. Lonely Is The Hunter – bad
6. Under The Gun – bad
7. Thrills In The Night – great
8. While The City Sleeps – terrible
9. Murder In High Heels – terrible
4 out of 9 good songs, and not one of them by Gene Simmons. All of Gene’s stuff on Animalize sucked, leaving the kids of the 80’s to think that he was a sideman and Paul was the main guy. Gene also has the worst lyric in Kisstory here: “I wanna put my log in your fireplace.”
However, a highlight of the album are some of the solos. A fast neoclassical/jazz player, St. John was miles away from Kiss’ roots. It was the era of the fast classically trained player. Even so, when the band thought that Mark wasn’t nailing the feel, they asked Bruce Kulick to fill in on two songs. He appears on “Lonely Is The Hunter” and “Murder In High Heels”. So, technically Animalize was Bruce’s first Kiss album, although nobody knew at the time that Kulick was destined to replace St. John, who was struck with a freak arthritic condition that left him unable to tour.
Kulick wouldn’t be granted full member status until the next album, while the band felt him out. Later, St. John too went on to make some great solo work — check out his Magic Bullet Theory CD.
Animalize is far from outstanding. I would rank it among Kiss’ three worst albums, the other two being Hot In The Shade and Psycho-Circus. It’s historically important because of how popular the tour and album were. Most of the good songs, however, can be found elsewhere such as the Kiss box set.
Part 20 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster!
KISS – Lick It Up (1983)
And off came the makeup. Showing up for the cover photo session in their street clothes, the world now knew what Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Eric Carr, and Vinnie Vincent looked like. I always found that concept kind of funny — like, did anyone care what Vinnie Vincent looked like? It wasn’t until much later — around 1986 — that I first saw a photo of Ace Frehley without makeup. I cared a lot more about that!
Musically? What a rebirth! Like a snake shedding its skin (ooh, I bet Gene would have loved my analogy there) Kiss found new life on Lick It Up. This is a strong, strong album, almost as strong as Creatures Of The Night. Fresh blood, a fresh look, and new freedom to be taken seriously as musicians gave Kiss a serious kick in the pants. It might not be considered classic today by critics, but the song “Lick It Up” only left the setlist briefly during the 96-97 reunion tour.
Witness the strenths:
1. All songs written by the band, no outside writers, thanks to the strong talents of Vinnie Vincent.
2. All songs played by the band except one solo by Rick Derringer (“Exciter”).
3. A fresh sound thanks to Vinnie Vincent.
I’ve always said this: When restrained, Vinnie Vincent is one of my favourite guitar players. His tone on Lick It Up is just oustanding and so unique. When left to his own devices like on his solo albums, his playing sounds like razor blades in your ears. Here, he plays melodically, powerfully, and manipulates his tone with his hands like an artist. Hear his guitar whine and cry as only a master can make it do. He could have been a guitar hero if he wasn’t a psycho!
Every song is good, not one bad tune in the pack. Some of my favourites include:
“Exciter”, a great riffy opener with a catchy chorus.
“Not For The Innocent” which has a bit of Vinnie’s “Boyz Are Gonna Rock” riff at the end there.
“A Million To One” which probably would have made a great third single.
“Dance All Over Your Face” which is a slow monster plod Gene song with a great chorus.
“And On The 8th Day”, the album closer, and another song that spun off of Vinnie’s original “Boyz Are Gonna Rock” demo.
Any one of those songs can stand up with the best rock songs in the Kiss canon. And you’ll noticed I didn’t include “Lick It Up” itself. That’s how strong this album is. It’s also worth noting that two other songs from this album were frequently performed live. Gene’s “Fits Like A Glove” was one of those speedy songs that Kiss were starting to do in the 80’s. So was “Young and Wasted”, which Eric Carr sang live.
The Japanese had a neat idea when issuing this on LP. They put on obi sheet over the non-makeup cover, featuring Kiss in makeup — you had to buy the LP and remove it to see Kiss’ real faces! This was a great idea, and is the origin of the rumours that Japan had a makeup cover while the rest of the world did not. Also, this obi featured Vinnie’s only cover photo in makeup.
Vinnie Vincent proved to be too unstable a personality to stay in the band much longer. Gene and Paul have always said Vinnie was a gifted writer, and he’d come back as a writer 1992’s Revenge. Keep reading LeBrain’s Blog for the story there!
Lick It Up to me is a classic, and it deserves no less than:
Part 19 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster!
KISS – Creatures of the Night (1982, 1985, 1997)
Creatures Of The Night is one heavy, over the top & loud Kiss album. Very very loud. Hot on the heels of The Elder and Killers, Creatures was a defiant “we’re back!” from a band who was written off by the end of 1981.
It is important to note that there are several versions of Creatures floating around. At one point in 1985, shortly after Asylum, it was reissued with new (non-makeup) cover art with Bruce Kulick instead of Ace Frehley. Interestingly, neither played on Creatures. The reissue with the non-makeup cover has the songs in a different order, and they were remixed to bring down the loudness of the drums. I guess someone in the mid 80’s decided the album was just too loud, and the remix was done. Thankfully, the original loud drum mix was remastered in 1997, finally available on CD.
Interestingly, the 1985 remixed version featured a picture of Gene’s ass in leather pants on the back cover! See below for a gander at Gene’s buttocks.
And yeah, the drums are loud alright! They sound awesome, like John Bonham shooting cannons off the back of the stage. They are the cleanest, most powerful, natural and clear drum sounds this side of Led Zeppelin, and Kiss had a lot to be proud of. Just listen to “I Love It Loud”. Wow.
Creatures really is a stellar album featuring songwriting by Bryan Adams, Mikal Japp and a guy named Vincent Cusano, better known by his stage name Vinnie Vincent. Guitars were by Paul Stanley, Bob Kulick, Vinnie Vincent, Rick Derringer, Steve Ferris, and who-knows-how-many-others. Kiss claim to have lost track due to the process of auditioning and recording at the same time. Eric Carr, who had no songwriting credits this time, played bass on Paul’s “I Still Love You”.
“Creatures Of The Night” is an amazing fast paced opening, starting off with a barrage of Carr’s toms. I think The Elder was a dissapointing way to introduce the new drummer. Creatures overcompensates, and I am sure Carr was very happy. The main riff and guitar lick in “Creatures” is driving and catchy, and the chorus will stay in your head for days. This is Kiss’ statement of purpose.
Gene takes the tempo down a bit with “Saint & Sinner”, a rebellious one about standing your ground: “Get me off this carousel, you can do as you please, you can go to hell. Put my back against the wall, well, I’m not gonna fall on my knees, no, not at all.” At this point Gene was trying to sing in his low “monster” voice more, and this is such a great song. Shame it has not been resurrected live.
“Keep Me Comin'” is a pretty self-explanatory Paul title. The riff is very Zeppelinesque, and Zep was a seemingly huge influence on this era of Kiss. It has some serious groove to it and Paul sings his ass off.
“Rock And Roll Hell” was a song that was played live a couple of times on the 1982 tour. I would describe this Gene song as a slow burner. It seems to be about a kid who “might even steal a guitar” to get out of his rock and roll hell, and make the big time. Very cool groove and lyric.
“Danger” is probably the weakest song on the album. It’s another fast Paul track with a somewhat weak chorus. It would be followed in the exact same album slot (last song side 1) by similar Paul songs on later albums: “Gimme More” on Lick It Up, and “I’m Alive” on Asylum. All three songs are below standard and interchangeable.
Side 2 begins with “I Love It Loud”. Everybody knows “I Love It Loud”. Your grandma knows “I Love It Loud”. At the time as a kid, I thought this was the greatest Kiss song ever. That drum beat, that chanting, and Gene’s awesome lyrics about taking no crap — yeah! That’s what every grade 8 student felt like! Unfortunately the novelty wears off after a couple of days and today I feel it’s one of Kiss’ most boring songs. After all, there’s not much to it. Shame it still finds its way into setlists in 2012, while other songs have fallen by the wayside.
The sole ballad “I Still Love You” is next. When Kiss used to play it live (the last time was the 1995 Unplugged concert), it became Paul’s vocal centrepiece. It’s a slow with not enough dynamics, but Paul again sings his ass off. As mentioned, Eric Carr on bass.
“Killer” (probably written at the same time as Killers?) is a really cool Gene Simmons song that has lots of interesting riffs and twists. I can’t believe how cool this song still is today. It’s fast, it has interesting backing vocals, and is insanely catchy.
The album ends with Gene’s plodding epic, “War Machine” which still gets played live to this day, despite being retired briefly during the reunion tours. Gene wrote the song with Bryan Adams which would be a surprise to Adams fans. Who knew he could get so heavy? The lyrics are pure, vintage Gene: “Strike down the one who leads me, I’m gonna take his place, I’m gonna vindicate the human race.”
Creatures wound up being the first Kiss studio album to have only two lead singers: Gene and Paul. Sadly this would remain the case until Eric Carr got his first album vocal much later in 1988. I am glad that the Kiss of today have decided to let all four members sing, as that was one of the factors that got me into the band in the first place.
This would also prove to be Kiss’ final album in makeup. They had grounded themselves musically once again, while their biggest change was yet to happen….
Part 18 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster!
KISS – Killers (1981)
Killers is a greatest hits CD with four “new” tracks, released in ’81 everywhere except North America. After The Elder bombed, the European record company requested demanded a greatest hits album with new songs, specifically rock songs, no exception. Paul Stanley sings lead on all four new songs, and Paul, Bob Kulick & Robbin Crosby play guitar in Ace’s absense. Yes, Ace was on the album cover but nowhere on the album. He was effectively though not yet officially out of the band.
The new songs:
“I’m A Legend Tonight”: A great song with Eric Carr finally showing off what he can do on the drums. Although Paul himself tends to disown the songs on Killers, this is great. The riff is very memorable and the song is catchy (even if the chorus reminds me somewhat of “I’m So Excited” by the Pointer Sisters).
“Down On Your Knees”: Co-written by Bryan Adams (his first but not last collaboration with Kiss), this is a nondescript rocker. Catchy enough as an album track, but not outstanding. The cymbals are mixed a little high.
“Nowhere To Run”: The was one of the first songs written for The Elder sessions, and you can kind of tell by the falsetto that Paul employs in the bridge. It was dumped when they decided to go all concept album on The Elder, but here on Killers it is the standout track. The riff is stellar, the acoustic intro is cool, and Paul’s singing is perfect.
“Partners In Crime”. The weakest song. It’s a slow plod with nothing really going for it.
The rest of the album is filled with the greatest hits, but it is crucial to note that aside from one track on an Australian-only version (“Talk To Me”), all songs are sung by Paul and Gene. I do not believe any of the hits are remixed, but some feature edits/fades not present on the original albums (“Detroit Rock City”). I loved that “Sure Know Something” was included as it’s one of Paul’s under appreciated classics.
The Japanese, which I have, included “Shandi” from Unmasked and “Escape From The Island” from The Elder. An instrumental, “Escape From The Island” was one of the few rockers on The Elder, which Ace wrote. Therefore, the Japanese version is a much more complete version and the version I recommend.
Killers is actually a great CD for new and old fans alike, which is a rare thing in the KISS catalog. There are cheaper compilations out there, but this one has a nice variety of tunes including oddballs like “Sure Know Something”. Of course there’s the four new songs too, two of which are really special.
Part 17 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster!
KISS – Music From The Elder (1981, 1997 remaster)
Exit Peter Criss. Enter Eric Carr.
Music From The Elder has grown on me a lot since I first heard it back in 1986. It will grow on you if you let it. Its reputation is that this is the worst album Kiss have ever made, but I disagree. It’s very flawed, but it does grow on you and it does have many redeeming values.
Here’s a brief version of the story behind The Elder: Kiss intended to make a rock album, after the way-too-pop Unmasked. The material they were coming up with (including “Nowhere To Run”, released on the next album Kiss Killers) was deemed to be too much like what Kiss had done before. Producer Bob Ezrin (Destroyer) was brought back into the picture, and he encouraged them to do a concept album (he had recently finished The Wall). Gene dug up a short story he wrote about a group of god-like beings called The Elder, who seek a hero in every time to fight evil. This hero, The Boy, is the protagonist of the story. Got that?
If you have the original LP, cassette, or CD editions of Music From The Elder, the songs are in the wrong order. Y’see, the record label (Casablanca) wasn’t too confident in Kiss’ new music, so they decided to change the track order so that the album started with a rocker (“The Oath”). This makes the story completely jumbled and unintelligible. The 1997 remaster with the restored track order also has some Gregorian chanting at the end of “fanfare”, that was previously cut.
I won’t get into the story except that there’s a boy (“Just A Boy”) who is recruited by The Elder (“Under The Rose”) to fight the evil (“Mr. Blackwell”). There’s an escape (“Escape From The Island”) and some self-affirmation (“I”) and that’s about it. All the epic battles were to happen in Music From The Elder 2: War of the Gods. Ahh, but that’s another story.
Here’s a song breakdown.
“fanfare”: An orchestral bit by Ezrin based on Paul’s “Just A Boy” melody.
“Just A Boy”: Fantastic Paul ballad featuring his falsetto. Acoustic and powerful with epic verses and choruses. Great guitar solo too.
“Odyssey”: Paul sings this orchestral song as well. When I was a kid, I loved any rock songs with orchestras.
“Only You”: Gene’s first song, and the first tune that resembles a rocker. Starts off slow, then goes into a groove. Not a bad song, although not a standout. At the end it goes straight into Paul’s “Just A Boy” melody again, which recurs on the album. This has been covered by Doro, on a Gene Simmons produced solo album.
“Under The Rose”: Eric Carr’s very first songwriting contribution to Kiss. Gene sings this slow song, which has a very gothic chorus sung by what sounds like a men’s choir. Very odd, but I quite like it.
“Dark Light”: Formerly “Don’t Run”, this is Ace’s first song and only vocal on the album. It’s not as great as any of Ace’s songs on previous albums. Still, it sounds like basic stripped-down Kiss, and it’s Ace, and it is one of the few songs on the album that has noticeable Ace guitar.
“A World Without Heroes”: Formerly, “With Every Little Bit Of My Heart”. Paul’s excellent demo apparently impressed Gene, who rewrote the lyrics with Lou Reed. One of Kiss’ softest songs, it has since been covered by Cher.
“The Oath”: Finally, a real rocker of a song that showed off Eric Carr’s drumming for real. Possibly the best song on the album, “The Oath” was just epic. Kiss could play it live today if they chose. The riff is the main focus of this song. Paul sings in falsetto again on the chorus.
“Mr. Blackwell”: A Gene song, probably my least favourite.
“Escape From The Island”: A Frehley instrumental, and a firecracker of a song. Ace makes some interesting sounds on his Les Paul and the song just rocks along at a furious pace. Eric Carr had a hand in composing this one as well. This song didn’t make the Japanese release for some reason.
“I”: “I don’t need to get wasted, it only holds me down”. Obviously this is Gene’s baby, it is his philosophy on life. It is also a great song and a great single. A fast rocker, Carr doesn’t actually play drums on it. Allan Schwartzberg (of Gene’s solo album) does. I didn’t know that at the time. Ends with a spoken word coda.
Music From The Elder was thus named because it was supposed to be the first part of a series, perhaps a series of soundtracks to a movie. Thus, Music From something. It was so poorly received that all plans were cancelled, and the band never toured for it. The shame of it is, when they played on “Fridays” with Ace Frehley, these songs sounded great. Frehley complained that Ezrin cut out half of his guitar work, and live there were ample extra solos. It makes you wish for what could have been.
Frehley left the band, sick of being sidelined by Gene and Paul and The Elder was his last straw. The fans hated it because, frankly, it doesn’t sound like Kiss. I don’t know what it sounds like. It doesn’t sound like progressive rock because it’s a little too clumsy, a little too blocky. It is Kiss after all, not Genesis. They get an “A” for effort, and the truth is the songs are pretty good. Production could have been better and there could have been more guitar. It is what it is.
3.5/5 stars.
Incidentally there are some great demos and outtakes from this album that are worth checking out, and one track was later used by Ace Frehley on his first solo album as “Breakout”. The very same track was used by Kiss on Revenge as “Carr Jam 1981”. I have a CD (seen in the gallery below) called Demos 1981-1983. It features intrumental Elder outtakes such as: “Heaven”, “The Council of the Elder”, and “The Unknown Force”.
Part 16 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster!
KISS – Unmasked (1980)
As a kid I remember loving this album cover. I loved any album cover that was different, and you could stare at trying to make out the details. It didn’t occur to me that this cover represented a newer, cartoonish Kiss far removed from the one on the Destroyer cover.
Indeed, if Kiss were falling apart at the seams on Dynasty, now they had truly run out of steam. Peter Criss was effectively gone, and Anton Fig played the drums on all tracks once again. The band were increasingly separated. Ace Frehley played all the basses on his own songs, and even Paul played bass on a couple of his. “Shandi”, the top 10 single in Australia, featured no Kiss members at all, except Paul Stanley.
The public never knew this at the time. Unmasked, on the surface of it, was a newer brighter poppier Kiss, but underneath there was nothing new about the fragmenting that had set in years earlier. Vini Poncia (Dynasty) was brought in to produce once again, hot on the heels of “I Was Made For Loving You”. Kiss had never sounded so pop, with keyboards in the forefront and compression on the drums. The soft production removed the normally thunderous lifeblood from the songs. This all went hand in hand with their increasingly colourful image. Indeed, the demo and live versions available elsewhere reveal a heavier Kiss, almost punk-like in delivery.
There are some good songs here, most notably Ace’s. Heavy on melody, “Talk To Me” and “Two Side Of The Coin” feature some great soloing by the Spaceman. “Torpedo Girl” is campy but fun; imagine Kiss doing a summer beach song. It’s odd but, I like it. Paul’s “Shandi” is a great song, and continues to be a great song when it is performed on special occasions by the band. Gene Simmons once again is underreprensented here, with only three songs: “Naked City” (OK), “She’s So European” (better) and “You’re All That I Want” (best).
It is arguable that Unmasked wasn’t even the nadir, that Kiss sank even lower of the next album, Music From The Elder. I don’t agree with that. The Elder may have failed as an album, but it did succeed in bringing some seriousness back to the table and some rock values back into the production. To me, Unmasked represents the nadir, maybe not the worst album Kiss ever made but probably the least Kiss-like. Even so, many of the songs are well crafted and memorable. It won’t be something you want to listen to in the car with the windows down, or anywhere that someone might overhear you!
Part 15.5 leading up to the release of Monster: I had to mention these two albums, rare as they are. My sister Kathryn bought me The Originals. It is missing the booklet and Kiss cards. The Originals II, I’ve never even seen that one. Here’s what I can tell you.
KISS – The Originals & The Originals II(1976 & 1978)
These are both three record sets, containing a set of three studio albums. The Originals contained a booklet and 6 Kiss cards. The Originals II was released only in Japan, and I’ve never seen a copy.
The Originals was a repackage of Kiss, Hotter Than Hell and Dressed To Kill. It was released on the heels of Kiss Alive!, which of course was a massive hit for the band. Why not repack the studio albums that everybody had missed?
Japan released The Originals II in 1978 to promote Kiss’ Japanese tour. In the pre-internet days, its very existance was considered rumour. Many thought it was a bootleg at best, myth at worst. This set contained 4 cardboard masks to wear. To find one mint, complete? Yeah right, as if the wife gives me that much in my allowance!
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