KISS non-makeup years...

Chairman_Smith wrote:

I was surprised how much I loved Asylum when I got it.

Asylum's a great piece of pop-metal, it was the last KISS album that completed my collection amd I saved it for last because I was afraid it was going to be a lot like Crazy Nights (which I didn't dig at first).

Who Wants to Be Lonely, UH! All Night, and Tears Are Falling totally make that album. The rest of it is good too.

King of the Mountain!

Quote :

Hide Your Heart (although I like Ace's cover better)

Really? I thought Ace's version was pretty weak. The drum machine doesn't sound so great, and Ace's vocals sound kind of half-hearted. I've always been a huge Ace fan, but I was disappointed by that track.

777Stryken777 wrote:

Quote :

Hide Your Heart (although I like Ace's cover better)

Really? I thought Ace's version was pretty weak. The drum machine doesn't sound so great, and Ace's vocals sound kind of half-hearted. I've always been a huge Ace fan, but I was disappointed by that track.

Drum machine? I didn't think it sounded like a drum machine. I like Ace's rough, "can't sing-don't care" vocal style. If you want to hear a disappointing version of the song, listen to Molly Hatchet's version. I love Hatchet but man did they butcher that song.

I love the cover too. Ace have done a lot of KISS cover.

Bruce Kulick was a friend of the band and working with them as a non member for years before Creatures was released-TJ

Didn't know about that. His brother was suposed to be at the lead guitar but Ace was better ( I think that the Twisted Sister's guitarist too)

Todd Jaymz wrote:

Bruce Kulick was a friend of the band and working with them as a non member for years before Creatures was released-TJ

You sure you're not thinking of Bruce's older brother, Bob? I believe Bob Kulick was the one who had a working relationship with the KISS guys, going back as far as the makeup era.

Bruce have done the band...Bob didn't. I think it was him too.

AceFrehley655 wrote:

Bruce have done the band...Bob didn't. I think it was him too.

Bob played on Paul's solo album in '78 (and legend has it that he played some un-credited guitar on the studio side of ALIVE II as well because Ace was un-available.) So I would imagine that the KISS guys got to know about Bruce through Bob.

Mabey...I will ask to Gene when I'll buy his rubik-cube.

I had a real love/hate relationship with Kiss during the 80's. I really liked "Lick It Up" quite a bit, and I loved Vinnie Vincent. I wish that he and Kiss could've had somekind of amicable relationship and kept things going. Then came "Animalize", which I felt was a decent album. "Asylum" followed, and I absolutely loved this album. I played it all of the time. I couldn't get enough of it, and it was great that "Tears are Falling" was getting so much airplay on the radio!

So, after loving "Asylum", I figured Kiss could do no wrong. Well, I was wrong. I absolutely hated "Crazy Nights", so much so, that I never listened to the second side of the tape! I think I even remember a quote from Gene that stated he had become one of the biggest "Corporate whores", and the album was a reflection of that mentality. In other words, that album fell way below Kiss standards, and I wholeheartedly agree!

I can't say that I even remember what "Hot in the Shade" sounds like, but I did enjoy a couple of songs that came out on that album. Ultimately Kiss redeemed themselves in my eyse with "Revenge". Very strong album, and a side that many hadn't seen from Kiss since the "Creatures" album. I've never listened to the "Carnival of Souls" album, but I've thought about getting it. If anyone wants to comment on that one, I would be interesting to hear people's responses.

Lick It Up (Favs: All Hell's Breaking Loose, Lick It Up, Exciter, A Million to One)
Animalize (Favs: Heaven's On Fire, I've Had Enough (Into the Fire), Under the Gun)
Asylum (Favs: Who Wants to be Lonely, Tears Are Falling, Trial By Fire, Radar For Love, King of the Mountain)
Crazy Nights (Favs: Nothing)
Hot In the Shade (Favs: Hide Your Heart)
Revenge (Favs: Unholy, Heart of Chrome, Everytime I Look at You)
Carnival of Souls (Never listened to it)

The entire Lick It Up and Asylum albums...

Tears are Falling
Lick it Up
Unholy
Domino
God Gave Rock n Roll...

I've said it many times before, but the 80's were my favorite era of KISS and the non makeup years the best of that time. Lick It Up and Asylum are at the top of my favorite KISS stuff. Hot In The Shade is terrible, though.

So, after loving "Asylum", I figured Kiss could do no wrong. Well, I was wrong. I absolutely hated "Crazy Nights", so much so, that I never listened to the second side of the tape! I think I even remember a quote from Gene that stated he had become one of the biggest "Corporate whores", and the album was a reflection of that mentality. In other words, that album fell way below Kiss standards, and I wholeheartedly agree!

I can't say that I even remember what "Hot in the Shade" sounds like, but I did enjoy a couple of songs that came out on that album. Ultimately Kiss redeemed themselves in my eyse with "Revenge". Very strong album, and a side that many hadn't seen from Kiss since the "Creatures" album. I've never listened to the "Carnival of Souls" album, but I've thought about getting it. If anyone wants to comment on that one, I would be interesting to hear people's responses.


KISS in the 80's was hit or miss for me - I LOVED creatures, lick it up was great (not as good as creatures), animalize not as good as LIU, Asylum not as good as Animalize, etc - a downhill slide. I do like the 80's material, but it's hit or miss. When HITS came out, it had, well, 3 HITS and the rest were MISSES. THANKFULLY they release REVENGE was a GREAT album, but that was 1990 I think.

CoS isn't a bad album, I think about 1/2 of it is good songs, the other 1/2 not so great. The album did have the grunge-type production. Worth checking out! You can also hear Bruce Kulick's singing debut and then understand why he wasn;t allowed to sing on any previous album!

Quote :

I LOVED creatures, lick it up was great (not as good as creatures), animalize not as good as LIU, Asylum not as good as Animalize, etc - a downhill slide

Animalize is the weakest album on that list...Asylum rules...

i like crazy nights but is not the best

Come on Crazy Night is the one I hate the most. Animalize rulz.

its the only non makeup album i have at the moment so it it obviosuly my favourite

Lick It Up definitely got things off to a great start. It sounded like a glam version of Creatures. That album and Animalize had an awesome metallic sound to it, what with the crunchy riffs and high speeds thrown in.

Asylum is where they started to slip. That album still has some of the sound left from the previous two albums, albeit diluted with overly-commercial glam.

Crazy Nights is BY FAR my least favourite KISS album. While there are a few cool tunes (Hell Or High Water; Bang Bang You (yes, I like it); Good Girl Gone Bad), there are many crap tunes. In fact, this album has the only two KISS songs that I actually don't like, whatsoever: Turn On The Night and My Way. I HATE THESE SONGS WITH A PASSION! There's nothing KISS about them. And, they just plain suck.

Hot In The Shade is much better. It sounded like they were returning to their true rock selves (if there was any of that left), or, at least, pretending to. I love Rise To It and Silver Spoon.

Of course, Revenge is an outstanding album! That's one of the best comeback albums ever. I don't really care for COS.

TheGooch wrote:

its the only non makeup album i have at the moment so it it obviosuly my favourite

Pick up, in this order:

Revenge
Lick It Up
Animalize
Asylum
Carnival Of Souls
alive III
hot in the shade

i do want to get Revenge actually real bad but there is a lot f other kiss album i need first as i only have three so far

TheGooch wrote:

i do want to get Revenge actually real bad but there is a lot f other kiss album i need first as i only have three so far

Which ones do you have?

IronAge wrote:

Considering Vinnie played on alot of it,they should have released a cover with him on it.Could have put him on there with the "Egyptian Warrior" make-up.I agree totally "Creatures Of The Night" does rule ! Excellent album ! Vinnie Cusano could never win a lawsuit against these guys because he couldn't afford those d--mned high price attorneys that KISS always got maybe ?

They did have one, it was the 83 Brazil release of it. I managed to get it pretty cheap, but it goes for a damn fortune nowadays. It always bothered me that they never took the time put the Vinnie cover on any other editions of the album, since neither Ace or Bruce had a damn thing to do with that album. Which is why I made my own insert for my cd

Fat Freddy wrote:

AceFrehley655 wrote:

Bruce have done the band...Bob didn't. I think it was him too.

Bob played on Paul's solo album in '78 (and legend has it that he played some un-credited guitar on the studio side of ALIVE II as well because Ace was un-available.) So I would imagine that the KISS guys got to know about Bruce through Bob.

Freddy's right. When Vinnie left they had asked Bob to join, but he couldnt so they went for Bruce, but at the time he was involved with something else and couldn't do it, and ended up joining during the Animalize tour to replace St.John.

Also, not that it means anything except for me being a smart ass, but Anton Fig who was later in Frehley's Comet and a good friend of Ace's played alot of Peter Criss' drum parts.