Classic Lightning, vocal frightening… t’s big and booming, it’s rock and roll and heavy metal, an homage to classic KISS and a testament to modern KISS. Sonic Boom is the 19th KISS studio album (after an 11-year gap since the last one – Psycho Circus, 1998); the 44th KISS release (counting Solos, Compilations and Live albums), the most successful KISS … Read More
KISS | Creatures Of The Night
Howling in the shadows until we start to bite… hey called Destroyer The Return of KISS. They called Dynasty The Return of KISS. And now Creatures Of The Night – The Return of KISS (hooray! Uh… what?). Then the next album without makeup – Lick It Up – The Return of KISS (again!), then in 1996, The Return of KISS (with original members)… … Read More
KISS | Lick It Up
And on the 8th Day, begins anew the naked journey… ISS – unmasked. No, really! Not like that album called Unmasked where it was just a joke. (Many would call that album a joke as well so, uh – ahem – moving on…) The news of KISS removing their signature makeup would, in a sense, overshadow the fact that Lick … Read More
KISS | Crazy Nights
Crazy, Crazy Fluff. No No No Thank You. razy Nights, the 14th studio album by KISS, and the fourth in a row to be certified Platinum, is the Unmasked of the unmasked era – the guilty pleasure. Crazy Nights is an anomaly in the KISS discography. Sandwiched between two heavier albums, 1985’s Asylum and 1989’s Hot In The Shade, Paul … Read More
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KISS | Destroyer
Modern day men of steel… y 1976, KISS were superheroes. Just look at the cover of Destroyer. See? It’s true. Destroyer, the fourth KISS studio album, marks the beginning of a new phase in KISS-tory. That phase where the fearsome face-painted foursome from New York (Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley, Peter Criss) would become the Biggest Band in the … Read More
KISS | Dynasty
No More Magic Touch. ISS disco? KISSCO! Dynasty was billed as The Return of KISS. It was their first studio album as a group after the four KISS Solo Albums. And after the hard rock havoc each member strutted individually in their Solo projects (except for Peter Criss), Dynasty was a shock to the senses, as we find KISS bringing … Read More
KISS | Psycho Circus
You Wanted The Best — You Got… a facsimile thereof. drummer that forced hotel staff to put tinfoil on his windows that faced a certain direction and a lead guitarist that would rather play cards with his friends than catch a plane to a gig with the biggest band in the world. It truly was a… Psycho Circus. Did … Read More
KISS | Unmasked
More lick-ass than kick-ass. nmasked should have been called Guilty Pleasure. With its sanitized disco pop and bubblegum bop, Unmasked was a calculated sequel to 1979’s Dynasty. But someone calculated wrong. Because 1 (album of shit) + 1 (album of shit) = more minus-fans than plus-fans. It was the first album since 1975’s Dressed To Kill that would stall at … Read More
KISS | Alive!
Headed For Commotion… he album cover is tectonic. You feel it shudder like those bad camera effects in 1970’s earthquake movies. If the San Andreas Fault formed a band, this is what it would look like. Lightning bolts on the guitarist’s body run in perfect action lines, like shockwaves turning his guitar upside down from the earth-shaking joltage. Shot in … Read More
KISS | Dressed To Kill
So let’s Write an Anthem Right, and Pawdy Evv-ree Day! s I write, it’s October 2015, and we’ve all read KISS frontman Paul Stanley’s book Face The Music: A Life Exposed — oh, you haven’t yet? I suggest you do, Outlander… … so we know of young Paul’s search for fulfillment, of discovering that fame didn’t bring it, that fortune … Read More
KISS | Hotter Than Hell
A four-alarm Firehouse. n October 1974, the second KISS album, Hotter Than Hell, would appear just eight months after their debut, Kiss (Feb 1974). What the critics thought was a one-off stunt – this bunch of klowns wearing makeup – came back and slapped them in the face real quick real hard. Like a mastodon struggling through quicksand, Hotter Than … Read More
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KISS | (Music From) The Elder
A Light amongst the Dark. he most maligned album in the KISS catalog, (Music From) The Elder – is also their best by a mile! The ninth KISS studio album shifts gears so ferociously that the gearbox falls out and everyone goes through the windshield. Constructed with a solid foundation of classically heavy riffs, augmented magnificently by orchestral flourishes and … Read More
KISS | Kiss
A Diamond in the Black. n February 1974, the world changed. Some might say, not for the better… They were The Lover, The Cat, The Demon, The Spaceman. KISS had arrived. In a hail of powerhouse rock and roll and a fog of crabby production, the debut album Kiss introduced the world to what would become a seminal influence on … Read More
ADAM LAMBERT: The Fury and the Passion (and the High Heels)
Over the entire season, you have been one of the best, most original contestants we’ve ever had on the show. And the whole idea about doing a show like this is that you hope that you can find a worldwide star. I genuinely believe with all my heart that we have found that with you. — Simon Cowell, AMERICAN IDOL … Read More
KISS MY ASS
Kicking Kissed Ass. KISS MY ASS is the 1994 home video release in conjunction with the 1994 album of the same name (Kiss My Ass: Classic Kiss Regrooved), but is a totally different rock animal. Unlike the album, it ain’t a bunch of popular bands doing KISS covers. It’s the Real Thing. On their 20th anniversary, KISS release another collection … Read More
KISS: X-TREME CLOSE-UP
Hardcore hard rock. Shit’s about ta get RAYL! Twenty years after their inception, and a mere five years after their comical “documentary” EXPOSED, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of KISS at last shed their 13-17 demo façade, grow a little facial hair, swear like they mean it, and tell it like it really is. Or at least how Gene Simmons … Read More
4TH AND LOUD
Football by old Ballers. Love KISS. Could care less about foopball. Hate reality TV. 4TH AND LOUD is a quirky combination of all three. If you like even two out of three, you’re in for a treat with this rollicking, bollicking reality series from AMC, that follows KISS founders Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley as they put together the first … Read More
KISS ROCK THE NATION – LIVE!
The new War Machine is now Dressed To Kill. For a KISS fan, KISS: ROCK THE NATION – LIVE! is the same great product we’ve come to expect from the Hottest Band In The World, their 11th video/DVD release; for a new fan or a non-fan who would like to sample KISS before diving in, this DVD is as good … Read More
THE DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION PART II: THE METAL YEARS
The Rise of Aquanetted Civilization: The Ladyboy Years. Rebellion, ambition, rock and roll, passion, lust… hair. Director Penelope Spheeris turns up the volume in her chronicle of the hedonistic 1980’s Southern Californian rock scene in THE DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION PART II: THE METAL YEARS. (We need to be precise about this rockumentary’s focus because it does only represent a … Read More
DETROIT ROCK CITY
God of Blunder. “If you’re down in the dumps – and you need sumpin that’ll bring ya uuuuup… sumpin that’ll bring ya uuuuup?… There’s only one thing that’s gonna do it faw ya…” No, not this movie – go dig out your record player and spin Rock And Roll Over. Named after a classic KISS song (the marauding opener from … Read More