When Kiss decided to re-form with their original line-up
\n(including guitarist Ace Frehley and drummer Peter Criss) and
\nreturn to using the kabuki make-up, they dusted off their tour gear
\nfrom
\nDestroyer<\/i>… and why not? After all, that’s the album that
\nmade them superstars. So, why tamper with something successful?<\/p>\n
After finally catching people’s ears with
\nAlive!<\/i> and “Rock And Roll All Nite,” the hard rock quartet
\nre-focused their energies into the studios on
\nDestroyer<\/i>, an album that was as varied as it was fomula…
\nand despite a muddy sound (which could just be my cassette), it
\nworks well.<\/p>\n
Opening with what would become a rock anthem, “Detroit Rock
\nCity” is a powerful example of ’70s hard rock – one that sounds
\ngreat today. Anyone who doesn’t think much of Gene Simmons as a
\nbassist needs to only listen to the riff he plays in the verses to
\nsee how good he was. (So he’s not Geddy Lee; he doesn’t need to be
\nin this particular vein of hard rock.) This song, simply put, is a
\nclassic.<\/p>\n
But the real fame from
\nDestroyer<\/i> came not from the cock-rock attitudes or the
\nhead-banging beats. No, it came from a ballad – one sung by the
\ndrummer, no less. “Beth” became Kiss’s first top ten hit in
\nAmerica, and is a decent enough song detailing the struggles a
\nmusician faces when their family life and band life divide them.
\nCriss’s singing isn’t the greatest, but it does fit the mood of the
\nsong well.<\/p>\n
\nDestroyer<\/i> holds a few other cards up its sleeve, as well.
\n“Great Expectations” is not your traditional Kiss number; it boasts
\na richer, more orchestrated sound – almost as if they were trying
\nto create an epic with this one. Unfortunately, they don’t succeed.
\nThis one comes off as being a little too self-indulgent, even for
\nKiss, and it just doesn’t work.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, there’s a lot of solid rock and roll that holds
\nthis album together. “God Of Thunder,” featuring Simmons’s vocals,
\nseems menacing at first (possibly this is where some narrow-minded
\nfools thought Kiss was Satanic?), but in the end proves to be more
\nshow than threat, even in all its bombasity. “Shout It Out Loud”
\nand “Do You Love Me” are decent rockers that have become classics
\nto members of the Kiss Army, while “Flaming Youth” and “Sweet Pain”
\nare two under-rated tracks in my book.<\/p>\n
What makes
\nDestroyer<\/i> work in the end is that the music still sounds as
\nfresh today as it did in 1976. If only the overall sound of this
\nalbum were better – although the sound might have been improved
\nwhen it was finally issued on compact disc. (Opinions on this
\nsubject are now being welcomed.)<\/p>\n
Kiss is still very much a force to be dealt with in the world of
\nrock and roll – and they have
\nDestroyer<\/i> to thank for that… as do we.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24921,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5731],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-36126","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-kiss","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36126"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36126"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}