Kiss
Destroyer

THE REVIEW

Year 1976, the 4 demonic New Yorkers have three valid albums behind them, gaining notoriety (also thanks to their flashy look) slowly but surely. Many in the audience are realizing they are a valid group, playing great music, and have to change their minds.

This album confirms it: The Knights In The Service of Satan (ahaha) are not just stage animals, shocking with particular tricks and stage effects, but they are a group that has something to say and will continue to do so throughout the '70s. The band contacts the music producer who worked on Alice Cooper's early projects, who will stay with KISS for future projects, and they get to work on this album which, upon release, sold well enough but perhaps did not meet the expectations of Simmons & co. However, later things improved and now the album is in hard rock history.

In short, the singer "Star Child", the bassist "Demon", the guitarist "Space Ace", and the drummer "Catman" give us 9 famous tracks that are now classics of the band: pure, heavy, overwhelming, and gritty hard rock that simply must be sung along to and there’s no way to stay still in front of the wild rhythms the album offers us.

Everything begins with an introduction (atypical for KISS) to be enjoyed: someone is listening to the news on the radio, then they get in the car and the legendary "Rock n' Roll All Nite" (from the previous "Dressed To Kill") comes on the radio and the race begins... the fast and now famous riffs pave the way for Stanley’s incisive voice for one of the best KISS songs: "Detroit Rock City", short but direct guitar licks alternate with the spoken word, melodic and wonderful, the solo is perfect and Criss's drumming accompaniment is effective. The lyrics are carefree but full of grit for a timeless classic that ends with the crash of the introduction's car.

Heavy notes resonate in the air, "King Of The Night Time World" begins, a song with "low" tones but catchy and engaging in its sung parts, which certainly neither adds nor takes away anything from the album, but highlights the musical variety that KISS can offer us, the song dissolves and opens the doors to a child's voice leading us to the mega-track that follows: "God Of Thunder" sung by Gene Simmons, it fully represents the dark side of KISS, the bassist's voice booms heavy, dark, relentless and the repeated and distorted notes seem to drag us into the depths of Hell, typically metal riffs from hell for a diabolical and marvelous track.

A whole different atmosphere for the following track, which seems to bring us back into the light, extremely sweet and catchy makes us forget the tones of the previous songs, but still captures us with its melodic chorus, a significant and cleverly crafted piece of the album that aims to conquer a wider fan base. When the angelic choir ends, we return to the usual grit, classic KISS style track: "Flaming Youth" still melodic and energetic, with a distorted but characteristic solo, gives that touch of class to the record making it complete, followed by "Sweet Pain" also sung by the slithering bassist, perhaps the album's lesser episode, which falls into repetition, but Frehley's guitar is always perfect like Criss's percussion accompaniment.

At this point of the album, it can be said that the band with the kiss has experimented with different sounds not very related to their style and you might think there's nothing interesting or appealing among the last tracks, but you'd be wrong: the album makes a surge and from the weak previous track, we move to a classic: "Shout It Out Loud", short but direct, extremely melodic to capture every kind of audience, but certainly not sappy, an example of genuine and catchy rock to listen to at any moment of the day.

At this point, a delicate transition occurs, leading to the album's "ballad", sweet, romantic, moving, here comes "Beth" where every rocker’s sweet side comes out, you can't remain indifferent to this delicate song perfectly performed by Peter Criss on the microphone, almost feeling the need to hum: "O Beth What Can I Do?"

After the romantic yet cleverly crafted ballad insertion, the album closes with another famous band track: "Do You Love Me", a mix of hard rock and engaging melody interpreted in duet by Paul and Gene on the microphone, a typical '70s track that now seems too old and outdated, but that captures and engages us leaving a bitter taste as we didn’t want the CD to end now, indeed the only flaw might be the reduced overall length of the album.

The overall impression is of a great product, VARIED, that cannot leave you indifferent, the experiments in different genres are very successful, the product never bores, but envelops the listener from start to finish.

You may have hated them, mocked them, considered them just a "passing phenomenon", criticized them for their excessive and exaggerated look but it's official: the history of hard rock also passes through KISS but most importantly you can’t help but let loose and sing along:

"Get up! Everybody's gonna move their feet, get down! Everybody's gonna leave their seat!"