The offical Kiss thread

I've said it many a time round here so I won't go off on my PSYCHO CIRCUS rant again, I'll just say that it was 50% cool and 50% filler. As far as I'm concerned, SONIC BOOM was the real KISS 'comeback' record, regardless of which lineup played on it.

I dig ELDER but never cared for UNMASKED bar one or two songs. CRAZY NIGHTS I won't even allow in my house. HOT IN THE SHADE - great tour, mediocre (at best) album.

Lookin' forward to the new disc. Release date is January/February of 2012? I sense a Valentine's Day tie-in with Wal-Mart. "Give that special someone in your life a big fat KISS!"

ultmetal wrote:

007 wrote:

KISS hasn't put out a weak album as far as I'm concerned. I love them all including some of the "weaker" albums (Unmasked,the Elder) so their releases are all first day buys for me.

I thought Psycho Circus was weaker than it should have been. Some of the b-side tracks were better than the album tracks. There are some great songs on the album, but there are some very weak attempts at radio hits. Half the material is killer KISS and the other half is filler fluff. "Psycho Circus," "Raise Your Glasses," and "We Are One" are good tsongs. "Into the Void" is an Ace Frehley penned song that is one of the best he has written for KISS since "Shock Me." One the other hand, the Peter Criss sung ballad “I Finally Found My Way” is horribly weak and "You Wanted the Best" has one of the worst choruses ever written.

I love The Elder and don't really feel it's weak album. It's just not what people expect from Kiss.

"Unmasked" has good songs but has a very watered down slick recording that robs the band of the heaviness and rawness they need. It's always puzzled me why they decided to use Vini Poncia, since he delivered the weakest of the four Kiss solo platters. I remember reading Peter had a lot to do with using him, but still, you would think they would snap that the only guy gaining a hit was Ace and the best selling album featured Eddie Kramer. Imagine if Unmasked and Dynasty had been recorded by Kramer with a more rock 'n' roll production. It's funny that decades later Gene, Ace & Paul all admit that using Poncia was a mistake and the production on those albums robbed the band of their sound.

A lot of people hold up Hot in the Shade as a weak album as well, but Iike that record, moreso than Crazy Nights actually, which is a far more popular record.

Fat Freddy wrote:

I've said it many a time round here so I won't go off on my PSYCHO CIRCUS rant again, I'll just say that it was 50% cool and 50% filler. As far as I'm concerned, SONIC BOOM was the real KISS 'comeback' record, regardless of which lineup played on it.

I dig ELDER but never cared for UNMASKED bar one or two songs. CRAZY NIGHTS I won't even allow in my house. HOT IN THE SHADE - great tour, mediocre (at best) album.

Lookin' forward to the new disc. Release date is January/February of 2012? I sense a Valentine's Day tie-in with Wal-Mart. "Give that special someone in your life a big fat KISS!"

The thing is, Psycho Circus could have been a great album IF the real KISS had been allowed to record that record. Again, bad choice of producers. He was looking for pop hits and thought Kiss should follow in Aerosmith's shoes. However, the fans wanted a Kiss record. The only song that was a true Kiss song, "Into the Void" is the best song on the album. I also love the title track, but Peter Criss is no where to be found on that song. "In Your Face" should have been included on the album. "It's My Life" would have been a great inclusion as well.

Also, reading the biography, Ace handed over a ton of material to be used on that album and "Into the Void" was the only song that Gene and Bruce Fairbairn decided the material wasn't strong enough. How funny that some of that material showed up on the very strong Ace Frehley solo album a few years later.

For being a marketing genius, those guys sure made some bizarre choices when it came to producers and their musical direction over the years.

ultmetal wrote:

The thing is, Psycho Circus could have been a great album IF the real KISS had been allowed to record that record. Again, bad choice of producers. He was looking for pop hits and thought Kiss should follow in Aerosmith's shoes. However, the fans wanted a Kiss record. The only song that was a true Kiss song, "Into the Void" is the best song on the album. I also love the title track, but Peter Criss is no where to be found on that song.

Oh yeah, the five songs on PSYCHO that I do like (title track, "Within," "You Wanted The Best," "I Pledge Allegiance..." and "Into the Void") are fantastic. Unfortunately, the number of cool songs is balanced out by an equal number of crap ones ("We Are One?" Ugh. "I Finally Found My Way?" Ugh x2. "Journey of 1000 Years?" Triple Ugh!!!).

Of course we fans didn't find out about all the backstabbing and other behind the scenes drama till years later, so at the time reaction was more or less "Is this the best they can do? Fugeddaboudit."

Oh sure, Psycho Circus could have been so much better. Like you guys said ,half are great tunes and the rest are kinda meh to downright terrible (I Finally Found My Way should NOT have been on that record). I was just excited at the time to get a reunion album out of them (and getting to finally seeing the original 4 members in tour in person) and it still gets regular spins out of me.

And when I said weak,I meant by the general consensus not by any generalization by me. I love the Elder too. In fact it gave me a strong renewed interest in KISS at the time.Heck,I'm disappointed that they won't perform anything off that in concert except when they played A World Without Heroes unplugged.

Totally agree with Ult and FF on Psycho Circus - 1/2 good, 1/2 crap. If the B-sides where included, it would be a MUCH STRONGER album. Plus, Bruce Faribrain? Seriously? Gene? Paul? It didn't work when you guys hired Ron Nevison after he resurrected Heart, what made you think the guy the brought another 70's act back from the dead would work????

I was so happy to have a new release from what I thought was the original line up, that I had loved the album 'Psycho Circus' over the years, I have to agree to much filter, and Fairburn should have learned after he worked with AC/DC, AC/DC did not let him talking them into using horns or outside songwriters, etc, he should have gone back and listen those classic KISS albums and helped the band create an excellent KISS album as opposed to just an ok KISS album.

I really like PC but towards the end there is a lot of filler. The title track is fantastic!

I don't tihnk KISS have put out a weak record either, though Music From The Elder gets the least play time, it has some shining moments, but the hole idea of the band doing a concept album is the musical equivalent of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. It just dosen't sound like KISS at all to me. Carnival Of Souls dosen't get alot of love from most people(the band members included, as they haven't played a single song on that album live to date) but it ha ssome great songs like "Master And Slave" "In The Mirror" "Rain" "Hate" and "I Walk Alone"

Vexer6 wrote:

I don't tihnk KISS have put out a weak record either, though Music From The Elder gets the least play time, it has some shining moments, but the hole idea of the band doing a concept album is the musical equivalent of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. It just dosen't sound like KISS at all to me. Carnival Of Souls dosen't get alot of love from most people(the band members included, as they haven't played a single song on that album live to date) but it ha ssome great songs like "Master And Slave" "In The Mirror" "Rain" "Hate" and "I Walk Alone"

Yes, "Carnival of Souls" is another Kiss record people seem to dismiss. I guess it's because the band tried so hard to conform to the times. Kiss were always good-time rock and roll, even at their heaviest and darkest. "Carnival of Souls" was an attempt at grunge, there's no two ways about it. They even went so far as to hire Alice in Chains producer Toby Wright. Though they didn't completely escape the Kiss sound, it's a very dark record for Kiss. Still, like you, I like some of the material on the album. Paul's vocals are great on this record IMO. It's pretty much a Bruce Kulick/Eric Singer album with Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons as guests. From what I have read, some songs don't have Gene or Paul playing any instruments at all, and Bruce and Eric play all the parts.

ultmetal wrote:

Vexer6 wrote:

I don't tihnk KISS have put out a weak record either, though Music From The Elder gets the least play time, it has some shining moments, but the hole idea of the band doing a concept album is the musical equivalent of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. It just dosen't sound like KISS at all to me. Carnival Of Souls dosen't get alot of love from most people(the band members included, as they haven't played a single song on that album live to date) but it ha ssome great songs like "Master And Slave" "In The Mirror" "Rain" "Hate" and "I Walk Alone"

Yes, "Carnival of Souls" is another Kiss record people seem to dismiss. I guess it's because the band tried so hard to conform to the times. Kiss were always good-time rock and roll, even at their heaviest and darkest. "Carnival of Souls" was an attempt at grunge, there's no two ways about it. They even went so far as to hire Alice in Chains producer Toby Wright. Though they didn't completely escape the Kiss sound, it's a very dark record for Kiss. Still, like you, I like some of the material on the album. Paul's vocals are great on this record IMO. It's pretty much a Bruce Kulick/Eric Singer album with Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons as guests. From what I have read, some songs don't have Gene or Paul playing any instruments at all, and Bruce and Eric play all the parts.

I loved that album, 'Carnival of Souls' was to me an excellent album and when I first heard I loved how heavy it was, I honestly was excepting 'Revenge II', inside we get KISSGARDEN, which IMO worked.

If you've heard any of the Union albums, you will have no problem hearing Kulick's influence on COS.

Carnival Of Souls is another one that works for me. I rank it fairly high on the list of my KISS faves. Of course I really like Alice In Chains so I'm sure that helps. It is a shame that they won't play anything off this live either.

my favorite tune on Carnival Of Souls is "I will be there"

Psycho Circus was a huge disappointment. I can't believe how badly they flubbed that one. Into The Void is great but the others tracks are forgettable at best. If they had released Sonic Boom back then instead of Psycho Circus they would have sold tons of discs. Oh well, at least is wasn't like Elder where we got a video with Gene crying. UGH!

Witchfinder wrote:

Psycho Circus was a huge disappointment. I can't believe how badly they flubbed that one. Into The Void is great but the others tracks are forgettable at best. If they had released Sonic Boom back then instead of Psycho Circus they would have sold tons of discs. Oh well, at least is wasn't like Elder where we got a video with Gene crying. UGH!

I thought that the title track was equally great as Into the Void. A classic Paul track.

The main difference between PSYCHO and SONIC is that SONIC BOOM sounds like it was recorded by a band.

PSYCHO CIRCUS was recorded by a committee.

007 wrote:

Carnival Of Souls is another one that works for me. I rank it fairly high on the list of my KISS faves. Of course I really like Alice In Chains so I'm sure that helps. It is a shame that they won't play anything off this live either.

it doesnt for me. I think it is by far and away their worst effort.

Witchfinder wrote:

Psycho Circus was a huge disappointment. I can't believe how badly they flubbed that one. Into The Void is great but the others tracks are forgettable at best. If they had released Sonic Boom back then instead of Psycho Circus they would have sold tons of discs. Oh well, at least is wasn't like Elder where we got a video with Gene crying. UGH!

I thought that the title track was equally great as Into the Void. A classic Paul track.

ultmetal wrote:

Witchfinder wrote:

Psycho Circus was a huge disappointment. I can't believe how badly they flubbed that one. Into The Void is great but the others tracks are forgettable at best. If they had released Sonic Boom back then instead of Psycho Circus they would have sold tons of discs. Oh well, at least is wasn't like Elder where we got a video with Gene crying. UGH!

I thought that the title track was equally great as Into the Void. A classic Paul track.

YES! The song Psycho Circus was GREAT. I cant remember for sure, but think I heard it on the radio first, then seen the video.
The video was very cool and it is exactly how I imagined KISS were like when I was a pre-teen, they were "Larger than Life"
but after a few times, was bored of watching it, but would turn the tv really loud to listen as I did other things at home.

I think maybe THIS was the sound they strived for in the mid - late 1980s, but just didn't quite get there.
They wanted to be a little slick and poppy like other major hard rock arena bands they had to compete with (eg. Van Halen), but still have that KISS feel.
They had it on Dynasty, because anyone must surely see that Dynasty opened the gates for bands like Bon Jovi.

Buying alcohol from someone that's been so vocal about not drinking sounds odd to me, but at this point I don't even know that I care...

Quote :

Legendary rock band KISS is raising a glass to celebrate its show-stopping spirit with spirits! KISS and wine distributor Rewine today announced the signing of a European licensing deal to create rare rock and roll vintages of KISS-themed Zin Fire Wine and Destroyer Beer. The private-label liquors, which feature customized KISS packaging, will be available in Europe this fall.

KISS Zin Fire is a bold and fruity 2010 California Zinfandel — the result of a cool, long growing season that promoted fantastic flavor, acidity, and color. A brazen blend of blackberry and pepper gives the vintage a hard-rocking kick and spicy smooth finish.

KISS Destroyer Beer is an easy-to-drink beer in the best German tradition. A careful brewing process creates its great head of foam and a balanced flavor, like an original "Pils." The brew will come in both a 33 cl (11.2 oz) bottle and 50 cl (16.9 oz) can.

"This isn't just something we put a label on. We wanted wine and beer unique to KISS and we got it," said Paul Stanley of KISS. "This stuff will set your taste buds on fire.”

"If you love beer and wine, this one is for you!" said Gene Simmons of KISS.

"Working with KISS was a fantastic experience," said Joakim Perani, managing director/partner of Rewine. "The band members were incredible partners in creating something that fans of fiery rock music, as well as great wine and beer, will enjoy."

KISS Zin Fire Wine and Destroyer Beer will launch in Sweden, Norway, and Finland, followed by Denmark, The Netherlands, and the U.K. Wine will be available at retail stores on September 20, 2011, at a price of 11-14 euros. Beer will be released in mid-October, at a price of 1.5-2 euros. Additional distribution details are online at www.kissrockdrinks.com.

All I know is this beer loving KISS fan will have to try himself some ! (if it makes it over here)

AC/DC even have a special wine now being marketed with their name, which I find in some what bad taste considering how Bon Scott died, but seems to be a new trend among veteran bands, have a wine named after your band.

007 wrote:

All I know is this beer loving KISS fan will have to try himself some ! (if it makes it over here)

X2!!!!!!!!!

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I can't even come up with a joke that would be funnier than the joke this already is.

Warrant Red - to help you get her pants off and you into that Cherry Pie