THE ROCKPIT KISS ALBUM BY ALBUM RETROSPECTIVE

With the release of KISS’s great new album SONIC BOOM (click here for our review) we thought it an opportune time to go back and have a listen to their entire back catalogue (including solo albums and a couple of associated releases) one by one – all 60 of them!!! The things we do to bring you an entertaining read, eh!!!

 

Click Here for Part One

 

Come with us now, dear reader, through Part Two of the epic story of the HOTTEST BAND IN THE WORLD as we pick up the KISS story in 1982…

 

 

Between 1974 and 1982 KISS had gone from complete unknowns to the Hottest Band In The World, released 10 studio albums, 2 live albums, 3 compilations, 1 movie and even a solo album each, most achieving phenomenal success. They had redefined the role of marketing in the rock world, with hundreds of KISS related products sporting their faces and logo, sold millions of records, and still no-one knew what they actually looked like under the makeup.

 

That was about to change: following the relative failure of the KISS Meets The Phantom Of The Park movie and Music From The Elder album, and the departure of half the original band, KISS needed to do something radical to prolong their fame – it was time for the makeup to come off…

LICK IT UP

 

Released September 1983

 

KISS removed their makeup live on MTV in a prime-time special on September 18th 1983, debuting their first single and album sans facepaint. Vinnie Vincent’s first album with the band capitalised on the strength of Creatures Of The Night album, tearing out of the gates with opening song ‘Exiter’ (featuring a guitar solo from Rick Derringer).

 

Removing the makeup seemed to give KISS an energy and freedom they’d been lacking for a few years – Paul raps the intro to ‘All Hells Breakin Loose’, and Gene’s spoken middle section of ‘Fits Like A Glove’ (“and when I go through her, it’s just like a… HOT KNIFE… through buttterrrrrrrrr”) is perfectly sleazy.

 

The title track is a great song and was a big hit now that MTV had really hit it’s stride, and the band certainly capitalised on the visual aspect of the band now they could show their faces and wear what they liked. The video for ‘Lick It Up’ showed the band in a desolate post-apocalyptic milieu, with a plethora of nubile ladies feeding them whilst dancing, scantily dressed in 80’s styled rags. Ahhhh 80’s fashion – so many memories!

 

The album also boasted some other good songs – ‘Not For the Innocent’ & ‘And On The 8th Day’ are especially worthy of mention.

W.O.W. - WENDY O WILLIAMS

 

Released June 1984

 

Without a doubt the best, most consistent, most infectious KISS album of the 80s was this first solo album from ex-Plasmatics lead singer Wendy O Williams. After several years as Mohawk wearing avant-punk priestess, Wendy released a cover of Tammy Wynette’s country classic ‘Stand By Your Man’ duetting with Motorhead’s Lemmy Kilminster. When it came time for her first solo album it was Gene Simmons who stepped into the breach as producer, co-writer, bass player (billed as Reginald Van Helsing) and chief rockstar wrangler.

 

‘Bump and Grind’ features Ace Frehley on scorching lead guitar, ‘Ready To Rock’ boasts Paul Stanley in the same role. Eric Carr pounds the skins to great effect on ‘Legends Never Die’ – one of Simmons’ finest ballads ever. ‘I Love Sex (and Rock n Roll)’ is another great Simmons song, and best of all ‘It’s My Life’ is undeniably the finest KISS song of the decade.

 

The first Simmons/Stanley co write in a long time, Wendy snarls and sneers her way through this classic hard rock tune and makes it her own. KISS’s own 1998 version would later appear on their KISS Box Set in 2001, but it’s the W.O.W. version that I would recommend.

 

There’s not a dud song on this unlikely classic – ‘Priestess’ and ‘Thief In The Night’ are both great rock songs, ‘Opus in cm7’ shows Wendy has a fantastic singing voice and wasn’t just a punk growler, as well as featuring a beautiful piece of rock piano courtesy of Mitch Weissman, and album closer ‘Ain’t None Of Your Business’ is a stomping way to send the album off.

 

Wendy released a couple more albums before turning her back on the music business and volunteering at an animal rehabilitation centre and health food store (Wendy was a passionate animal activist and vegetarian), but she never again captured the scintillating form shown on W.O.W. In April 1998 she committed suicide after a period of despondency.

 

RIP Wendy.

 

Over the next few years Gene would produce 2 albums by Keel, 2 by Black n’ Blue, an album by EZO and more – but all to the detriment of his KISS output.

 

 

ANIMALIZE

 

Released September 1984

 

Now that KISS weren’t hiding their faces from the paparazzi and the world, they were able to explore film opportunities, and Gene went off to make Runaway with Tom Selleck and xxx with Rutger Hauer. The downside of this was that the quality of the KISS albums during this period suffered.

 

Vinnie Vincent was out of the band, and the rumours and lawsuits flew for years to come, with Vincent alledging Simmons deliberately cut short his solos both in the studio and in concert, whilst Simmons accused Vincent of breaching some moral code upon which he wouldn’t (and still hasn’t) elaborate upon.

 

 

 

What was the “unethical” act that got Vincent fired? Despite some internet gossip suggesting it was because Vincent was caught in flagrante delecto in some gay situations, (this is more likely juvenile name-calling relating to Vincent’s pink KISS costume – it seems unlikely Simmons, the self-styled Demon king of hedonism and debauchery, would object to someone’s discrete personal sexual peccadilloes) the truth is that there was ample tension between him and Simmons over their approach to playing, and the fact that Vincent wanted to be an equal partner in KISS whereas Simmons wanted only hired help must have made their tenure together finite from the start.

 

His replacement was Mark St John, a guitar teacher from Southern California. After studio tension with the band, St John contracted a form of arthritis, rendering him unable to perform live in support of the album – he played only 2 full shows on the Animalize tour, and was in turn replaced by Bruce Kulick. St John went on to form White Tiger with David Donato (briefly a singer with Black Sabbath), played with Peter Criss briefly, and sadly died of a cerebral hemorrhage in April 2007. RIP Mark.

 

At the time, Paul Stanley talked the album up by saying that it “has more balls than the World Series... In the past KISS put out albums that would crack glasses: I wanted one now that would turn them to dust” (Uncredited review, 1984). Gene commented, “Animalize is the climax to Lick It Up’s foreplay.”

 

Sadly, the music didn’t live up to these hawkers’ hype - so so material such as ‘Get All You Can Take’ and ‘Murder In High Heels’ feature heavily on Animalize, though almost no KISS album is without one or two killer tracks and Animalize featured the hit singles ‘Heaven’s On Fire’ and ‘Thrills In The Night’ (featuring a great solo from St John), both played heavily on MTV.

 

RUNAWAY

 

Stars Gene Simmons as Dr Charles Luther
Released December 1984

 

Gene is Dr Charles Luther, a “mad scientist” type who, in a similar world to ours where robots are commonplace in menial roles, has programmed some of them to kill humans. Enter Tom Selleck’s Ramsay, who is in hot pursuit, and let the games commence.

 

Runaway is good action/thriller, and Simmons is suitably menacing and malevolent in the bad guy role – apparently director Michael Crichton awarded him the role after asking him to stare at him menacingly for a full minute without making any facial expressions. His KISS Demon prowling obviously worked as good training for this!

 

The movie is a little predictable and, like many 80’s movies (especially ones about “advanced” technology) it is a little dated in parts now, but overall it is a fun ride, with solid acting, and a few entertaining jokes along the way. Well worth a watch.

 

 

KISS ANIMALIZE LIVE UNCENSORED Video

 

Released April 1985

 

The rise of MTV was consecutive with the rise of VCR’s as home entertainment, and the eighties saw the advent of the music video cassette (and later the dvd) as another release option for a band.

 

The KISS brand was certainly at the forefront of this technology, and Live Uncensored was the first in a long line of KISS video/DVDs to hit the shelves, recorded - as the title suggests - during their Animalize tour.

 

 

MIAMI VICE

 

Season 2, Episode 1 – Prodigal Son
Stars Gene Simmons as Newton Blade
Released September 1985

 

Gene plays millionaire playboy Newton Blade in this two part second season opener of Miami Vice, starring Don Johnson & Phillip Michael Thomas. It’s a good episode of this ground breakingly hip eighties cop show, but is eclipsed by many others in the series. Gene looks to be enjoying not playing the uber bad guy for a change, and once again shows he can act, even if a little workmanlike at times.

 

 

ASYLUM

 

Released September 1985

 

Asylum, with it’s oh-so-eighties cover, was very much a follow-up to Animalize: everything negative about the former was even more present on the latter. Simmons was still off trying to be a movie star, and again the song quality was lacking.

 

As mentioned earlier, no KISS album is without a classic song or two (at least not until 1998!), and Asylum does have ‘Tears Are Falling’ and ‘Uh All Night’, both frequent additions to the live set even today. ‘Who Wants To Be Lonely’ is another good song, and all of those mentioned so far come from the pen of Stanley. Simmons’ contributions are barely worth mentioning, apart from perhaps the Led Zeppelinesque ending to ‘Any Way You Slice It’.

 

Kulick certainly made his presence felt though, playing up a storm now that he was an official member of the band, and would stay that way for over a decade.

 

 

WHITE TIGER – self titled

 

Released 1986

 

Mark St John became the first ex-KISS member to release an album with this CD. St John heard demos from singer David Donato’s brief tenure with Black Sabbath (no official Sabbath music was released featuring Donato, though demos are available featuring sessions produced by the legendary Bob Ezrin) and immediately contacted him, thinking he would be perfect for this project.

 

The album is pretty much stock standard hair metal of the time, the band are good especially on ‘Live To Rock’ (which features a great solo from St John), ‘Stand and Deliver’ and the infectious ‘White Hot Desire’ and scorching ‘Rock Warriors’.

 

 

VINNIE VINCENT INVASION – SELF TITLED

 

Released August 1986

 

Vinnie Vincent has been called self destructive, unethical, and a whole lot of other things by Gene Simmons and others, but there is no denying the first VVI album is a rip snortin’, ball tearing, over-the-top shredfest of a feast for guitar fans!

 

Featuring Mark Slaughter and Dana Strum – who would later go off to form million selling band Slaughter – ‘Boyz Are Gonna Rock’ opens the album and absolutely slays. Vincent overplays insanely like a guy who has something serious to prove – which he did - and he succeeds brilliantly! The video for this song is a hilarious example of 80s hair metal excess, with fake amp fireworks as Vincent lays waste to his Marshall stack with his flying V.

 

The album tears along at a wild pace, histrionic solos at every turn, as though Vincent is making up for having his playing cut off by Simmons during his KISS days. Slaughter and Strum play hard and are obviously learning plenty of tricks so that when they did abandon ship and form Slaughter, they were already seasoned performers.

 

Apart from the aforementioned ‘Boyz…’, the best songs are ‘Twisted’, ‘Baby-O’ – which is pure bubblegum metal with a shredding Vincent laying an immense solo over the top - ‘Do You Wanna Make Love’ - which features a chorus as big as Texas and album closer ‘Invasion’ which is another song full of insane guitar histrionics and madness. Not necessarily a classy album, but one full of some of the enthusiasm and chaos that was lacking in KISS’s 80s albums.

 

 

TRICK OR TREAT

 

Released October 1986
Stars Gene Simmons as Nuke

 

What a great little underrated movie this is. Sure it has it’s faults (over acting, melodrama for its own sake, shallow characterisations, a ridiculous and gratuitous demon rape), but it really is a clever little satire on the whole “teenage alienation” thing. It seriously reminds me of my days being spat on at high school for wearing a patch laden denim jacket, and has some very clever moments.

 

Gene plays radio DJ Nuke, who gives our protagonist (Marc Price) a studio demo of a dead rocker’s (Tony Fields) last recording, which then gives our hero power through some demonic backward masking.

 

Trick or Treat very cleverly taps into the paranoia surrounding Metal in America in the late 80’s, and Gene’s performance, as well as Ozzy Osbourne in a self-parodying role as an evangelist preacher, are respectful and well considered.

 

 

WANTED:DEAD OR ALIVE

 

Released November 1986
Stars Gene Simmons as Malik Al Rahim

 

Gene is terrorist and extremely unpleasant guy Malik Al Rahim opposite Rutger Hauer’s bounty hunter Nick Randall. Simmons is pure evil as he walks calmly out of a cinema in which he has just planted a bomb, smiling gently caressing the hair of a small girl walking into the cinema with her family to their doom.

 

Randall and Rahim play a cat and mouse game for most of the movie before Simmons is caught and Randall exacts some revenge for the loss of his best friend, girlfriend, and the countless others he has murdered, using duct tape and a grenade, in a great final scene.

 

Simmons was in danger of being typecast as the swarthy bad guy by this stage, but he plays this part to the hilt – ice cold and evil – and the movie stands up better to the ravages of time than many others of it’s era.

 

 

KISS Exposed video

 

Released May 1987

 

From the start of this long-form video release you just know that KISS had a great time making Exposed. A cameraman and interviewer knock on Paul Stanley’s door to shoot a video, and a cavalcade of bimbos, silly hi jinks and attempts to inflate KISS’s own legend and ego ensue.

 

Interspersed between rock videos (‘Lick It Up’, ‘Uh All Night’, ‘Tears Are Falling’, ‘Heavens on Fire’, etc) and rare live songs, Stanley & Simmons talk (occasionally seriously) about their “Kisstory”, while Kulick & Carr make an occasional appearance here and there.

 

The overall feel is that KISS, now sans makeup and on show for the world, felt the need to create a new kind of mystique around the band, so they try to perpetuate the myth that being in KISS is like living in a fantasy world.

 

Lingerie clad nubile young models abound. Stanley makes a succession of jokes about his insatiable libido, still playing the “Lover” character. Simmons’ “Demon” persona is on show in a room decorated like Satan’s throne-room, complete with beautiful female heads mounted on the wall. It’s all gloriously tacky and cheesy and yet, KISS being KISS, somehow it works.

 

The trick of course, as always with KISS, is to keep the tongue firmly in cheek and remember that with KISS – nothing is as real as it seems! It’s rollicking good fun and a great use of the relatively new video format, finally giving KISS fans an exclusive look behind the scenes of their heroes – regardless of how fabricated that look is!

 

 

FREHLEY’S COMET – ACE FREHLEY

 

Released July 1987

 

Ace took a while to get his first album out – he’d left the band after 1981’s Muic From The Elder – but he immediately proved he could still rip and tear his guitar to pieces.

 

Song one, ‘Rock Soldiers’ is the first in a long line of songs lamenting his over-indulgences, and features a great lead guitar line, and the album continues in style from there. Anyone familiar with an Ace Frehley album will know there is always a couple of rockers, a ballad or two, a quirky song (Dolls), and the album closer is always a guitar showcasing instrumental called ‘Fractured’ something (‘Fractured Too’ in this instance). There’s even a cover of Russ Ballard’s ‘Into the Night’ (remember Ace scored a big hit with his cover of Ballard’s ‘New York Groove’ on his KISS solo album). It may be a little formulaic but there’s nothing trite about the album at all – it’s a great introduction to Ace’s solo career post KISS.

 

Tod Howarth sings about half of the album, and whilst he has a better range than Ace, you’re left wanting more of the main man’s voice and personality.

 

 

CRAZY NIGHTS

 

Released September 1987

 

Crazy Nights kicks off with ‘Crazy Crazy Nights’ which was not only a big hit around the world, but which encapsulates the KISS ethos in a three and a half minute song: believe in yourself, believe in rock n’ roll, and believe in KISS, all to a solid rocking beat, loud guitars and monolithic melodies. With Crazy Nights KISS said loud and proud “We are back on form”.

 

After the previous two rather average slabs, Crazy Nights was more than just a return to form though. For this album they sounded like a band again, possibly for the first time since Creatures Of The Night. The songs herein are more cohesive: Simmons was contributing a little more, Kulick’s guitar shines throughout, and Carr seems to have come into his own - simultaneously rock solid and inventive.

 

The songs on Crazy Nights are irresistibly catchy bubblegum metal and one wonders if the new wave of hair metal bands selling millions of records actually made KISS have a look at themselves – they certainly sound like a band given a shot in the arm. Even the layers of keyboards that drench the album can’t hold it back.

 

‘My Way’ is another chest beating, uber-catchy self belief song the likes of which KISS excel at. ‘Reason To Live’ is a KISS ballad par excellence. But this album is far from “Kiss by numbers” – it’s the sound of a band who have realised what they are best at, focussing as a unit, and making great music. Just take a listen to seemingly throwaway fare such as ‘Bang Bang You’, or the triumphant hit ‘Turn On The Night’ and you’ll hear an almost reborn band. Great stuff.

 

 

SMASHES, THRASHES AND HITS

 

Released October 1988

 

Smashes, Thrashes and Hits was released to capitalise on the success of the Crazy Nights album and celebrate the hits of years gone by and it does that brilliantly. This is a concise collection of great songs, and the two new tunes that open the album are both well worth the investment. ‘Let’s Put The X In Sex’ was the single, and is a classic KISS ode to the joys of sex, with a nice lyrical twist in that Paul professes to not know who his admirer is until he sees “those black lace panties, then I knew that it was you”. ‘(You Make Me) Rock Hard’ is another slice of classic KISS double entendre.

 

The rest of the track list is KISS classics – Love Gun, Detroit Rock City, Tears Are Falling, Heavens on Fire, Strutter, Beth (featuring vocals from Eric Carr), and many more – and does a very good job of integrating the scant classics from the more recent albums with the original lineup’s glory days.

 

What the album does more than anything else is remind us that no matter how mediocre some of the band’s albums could be, especially during the fallow mid eighties, there was always a ball tearing classic amidst the chaff.

 

 

FREHLEY’S COMET - LIVE + 1

 

Released February 1988

 

Ace followed his first post-KISS solo album up with a live EP before a second album, billing his band as just that – a band, now named Frehley’s Comet. This is an odd little release – 4 live tracks, recorded at Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom on September 4th, 1987, plus one new studio recording.

 

Of the live songs, 2 are from the first Comet album – though certainly not the best two from that album – with ‘Rocket Ride’ from the studio side of KISS’s Alive II album and ‘Rip It Out’ from Ace’s KISS solo album making up the numbers.

 

‘Break Out’ features an extended drum solo from Anton Fig which seems rather pointless, while ‘Something Moved’ rocks along nicely.

 

Studio track ‘Words Are Not Enough’ is really good, (it’s Mark Rockpit’s favourite Frehley song) and almost worth getting this album for alone.

 

 

FREHLEY’S COMET – SECOND SIGHTING

 

Released May 1988

 

“Frehley’s Comet” was now the name of Ace’s band for this, his second post-KISS release. Once again featuring Tod Howarth on lead vocals for about half the album, Second Sighting rocks along nicely but isn’t quite up to the standards of the first Comet album.

 

‘Juvenile Delinquent’, ‘Insane’ and ‘Separate’ are highlights, and for once the album doesn’t finish with an instrumental call ‘Fractured…’ – instead here we have a mostly instrumental ode to boxing ‘The Acorn Is Spinning’ with Ace “calling” the fight under the ferocious soloing action.

 

 

VINNIE VINCENT INVASION – ALL SYSTEMS GO

 

Released May 1988

 

For the second VVI album, Vinnie Vincent reigned in his tendency to overplay on the debut album, and the result is a more polished – but less eccentric and over the top - second disc. With Mark Slaughter, Dana Strum & Bobby Rock this was even more of a band effort than the debut as well, and ‘Love kills’ & ‘Naughty Naughty’.

 

This could almost be considered a prototype for the successful Slaughter albums soon to follow, and it’s a very enjoyable listen from the former KISS guitarist.

 

 

HOT IN THE SHADE

 

Released October 1989

 

Released two full years on from their last studio album, Hot In The Shade was lauded at the time as a strong return to form, and if my memory serves me, was the first KISS album I bought on CD.

 

The album is full of strong material: ‘Forever’ was a massive top ten hit, and is one of Stanley’s best ever ballads. ‘Hide your heart’ is a gritty urban Romeo & Juliet tale, ‘Read My Body’ and ‘Rise To It’ are classic bawdy KISS ditties, but things drag a little through the second half.

 

‘Betrayed’ is also notable as being Tommy Thayer’s first KISS co-write (with Simmons), who would join the band in Ace’s makeup almost two decades later.

 

 

ACE FREHLEY – TROUBLE WALKIN’

 

Released October 1989

 

Released the same month as his former band’s latest opus, Trouble Walkin’ was Ace’s second official solo album (Allowing for the 3 Frehley’s Comet releases to be considered band output).

 

Featuring the single ‘Do Ya’, Paul Stanley’s ‘Hide Your Heart’ (which also appears on KISS’s Hot In The Shade), the title track and – of course – another searing guitar blazing instrumental in ‘Fractured III’.

SHOCKER OST

 

Released November 89

 

Wes Craven assembled the soundtrack for his schlock horror movie Shocker using a stellar lineup of big names and newbies from the heavy metal front lines, including Megadeth (Dave Mustaine so heroin addled at the time he couldn’t even play guitar and sing at the same time on their cover of Alice Cooper’s ‘No More Mister Nice Guy’), Saraya, Dangerous Toys, Dead On, Voodoo X & Iggy Pop.

 

Of more interest to Kiss fans will be German band Bonfire’s version of Bruce Kulick’s ‘Sword & The Stone’ (Kiss’s own version can be found as a bad quality demo version on the internet, in almost the exact same arrangement as Bonfire’s version).

 

The title track and one other are performed by a ragtag bunch of lads known as The Dudes Of Wrath. No spring chickens here – Paul Stanley sings and plays guitar, Tommy Lee of Motley Crue pounds drums furiously, Rudy Sarzo (Quiet Riot, Ozzy Osbourne, Whitesnake) on bass and Vivian Campbell (Dio, Def Leppard) on lead guitar put in an explosive performance on the track ‘Shocker’ – which is exactly the sort of song KISS SHOULD have been writing.

 

‘Shockdance’ is the other contribution from The Dudes of Wrath, and is mainly notable for a hilarious rap from Alice Cooper (“He’s evil and malicious, and he never does the dishes” being my favourite line). The most abiding last thought is that why oh why didn’t these dudes do a whole album?

 

 

RED SURF

 

 

Released 1990
Starring Gene Simmons

 

Not available for review

 

After Red Surf Gene appeared to realise that his “day job” with KISS had suffered while he spent many months on movie sets, so he indulged himself with occasional guest appearances in TV shows and movies but mainly concentrated on the band.

 

 

BILL N’ TED’S BOGUS JOURNEY OST

 

Released July 1991

 

Eric Singer drums on the only Kiss track on the album, ‘God Gave Rock n Roll To You II’ with Eric Carr on backing vocals. This was Singer’s recording debut with the band, and was remixed for later inclusion on their "Revenge" album.

 

On 24th November 1991 – the same day Freddie Mercury of Queen died - Eric Carr passed away after a fight with cancer. Aged only 41, Carr had spent 11 years with the band, starting in makeup as “The Fox”, and progressed to be an integral part of the band.

 

RIP Eric.

 

Eric Singer now joined the band officially, and KISS were ready for another chapter in their exciting history…

 

By Shane Rockpit December 2009