Kiss

Journey, AC/DC, Foreigner, now Kiss. The exclusive album through Walmart. All of those but AC/DC were the new album, old songs, live DVD combo deal. Seems to be a pattern! :)

When Kiss reunited with the original guys, it was the end of the band for me. I really liked where the band was before they threw that direction away for the high visibility original reunion with makeup. The album they put out was "meh". I always kind of hoped they'd get back to where the band was before they did that. When it was announced that Kiss was recording a new studio album after all this time, I wasn't sure what to make of it, and then they said who was going to be on it. Tommy Thayer is the new lead guitarist, and Eric Singer was back - so it was 3/4 of the Revenge / Carnival of Souls band. The question would be what musical direction would it take? Would it be an attempt to sound like the 70's, or would it be the Revenge/Carnival sound? Turns out it's more like the 70's, but it doesn't wallow in it. Before the album came out, there was a lot of stink from Simmons & Stanley about them not wanting to do just another Kiss album - this oen would have to be something special, or they wouldn't bother after all this time. Then when it got closer, we were hearing that it was the best Kiss album in 20 years or so. Heard that A LOT. I've heard many bands make those kinds of promises.

The Revenge album aside, turns out these remarks weren't all bluster. Sonic Boom is quite good. For me, the catchiest song on the album is "All for the Glory". It's seriously commercial, and has a great vocal hook, which I sometimes like way more than a guitar lick. Funny thing is that it was sung by Eric Singer. This is one of those albums that's solid from front to back, so I'm not going to list a lot of the individual songs, they are all pretty much good. I enjoyed this album way more than I thought I would.

The second disc is a re-recorded collection of Kiss's greatest hits. The band on the disc is Simmons, Stanley, Thayer, & Singer. It wasn't recorded for Sonic Boom, it had already been released on it's own in Japan only under the title of "Kiss Klassics". It was repackaged here. The live DVD is short, just six songs, was recorded in April 2009.

It's a nice value pack. The price of the package is about the price of a regular CD, so the second disc of hits and the DVD are really nice throwins. But the strength is really the new studio album. It really is the best Kiss in awhile (although I do like Revenge better).

Well, after Revenge, the guys went into the studio and recorded an album. Then the famed MTV Kiss unplugged where every member of Kiss (except for the late Eric Carr) got together at once and played a set. From that came the "Let's put the makeup back on" reunion of the original 4. That displaced Eric Singer & Bruce Kulick and the album they made together (Carnival of Souls). Souls was shelved (along with it's non original members) in favor of the reunion and Psycho Circus. At the time it really pissed me off, because I thought the band was great again, after all the years of plodding along in mediocrity. Then they shelved the album (which was great) in favor of this, which was just "OK" at best. After this I really lost interest in Kiss - mostly because of the treatment of the former members and the lost Souls album. It's also turned out to be the last album that Kiss would release, they've done a few Greatest Hits & live albums since then, but no new studio work, and I doubt I'll pick it up if there is any more anyway, the Souls thing really left a bad taste in my mouth.

Sometime between the last album and this one, Kiss drummer Eric Carr died. Former Black Sabbath & Badlands drummer Eric Singer is brought in to handle drums for Kiss, and he and the rest of the band produced what I believe to be the second best Kiss album - Revenge. Given the type of albums Kiss was making before this one, it was a radical change in style. Some really great music on here - even the Gene Simmons songs are good. ;)

At this point, I was still buying Kiss albums, and this is one I've wanted to hold on to, because I like a good number of songs from the album. Highlights for me are Rise to It, Hide Your Heart, Cadillac Dreams. Not the most accessible (or successful) Kiss album - I admit that, but I've always liked it, and that's the whole point of music, isn't it?

When Kiss split with Ace Frehley in 1982 or so, that's about when I started listening to Kiss. I bought all the albums from Lick It Up in 1983 through this one, but over the years whittled them down mostly due to the fact that I realized that this album contained just about every Kiss song I gave a crap about. Plus it covers all the eras of the band too (till this point), which is something I love to see bands do.

In my opinion, Kiss' best studio work. This album is solid from start to finish, and many of the songs are just brilliant pieces of work. If you buy just one Kiss album (other than a Greatest Hits), buy this one. One of the best metal albums of the 70's - and it still holds up now.

The standard from which all live albums that have followed are measured against. At the time, this was an absolute earth shattering groundbreaking album. Kiss Alive is considered by many to be the best live album of all time, and is one of the band's high points. There are also Alive 2 (1977), Alive 3 (1993), and Symphony: Alive 4 (2003), but the original is still the best. You asked for the Best, you Got the Best! ;)