{"id":39790,"date":"2006-06-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-06-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/destroyer-2\/"},"modified":"2006-06-08T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-06-08T00:00:00","slug":"destroyer-2","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/destroyer-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Destroyer"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Few things in the world are as rewarding as cracking
\nopen a beverage and cranking the stereo to 11 to hear a pure rock
\nalbum. And when one thinks of the ultimate party rock band, only a
\nfew names come to mind. At the forefront of that list is Kiss.<\/p>\n

I never owned any Kiss but I decided to check out
\nDestroyer<\/i> because of its supposed classic status. Wrong! I
\nwent into it expecting a good time but was sorely disappointed; the
\nband’s legendary live shows and energy do not transfer over. What
\nyou hear on Destroyer<\/i> is a band attempting to fly but seeing
\nthe plane explode on the runway.<\/p>\n

“Detroit Rock City” manages to avoid the fate of its
\nbrethren; this is a wide, sweeping, epic rocker of sorts. The
\nlyrics especially are more serious than usual, detailing the death
\nof a Kiss fan and his way to a show. The uptempo nature of the
\ntrack may bely its meaning, but the song just flat-out rocks
\nanyway. “Shout It Out Loud” in my opinion is its equal; Gene
\nSimmons’ bass work on the track is unique, and of course the
\nrefrain is one of the most anthemic in rock history.<\/p>\n

I’m unfortunately going to have side with criminal
\nmastermind Chris Thelen on this one; the album sounds lousy.
\nConsidering that Bob Ezrin, producer for all those wonderful Alice
\nCooper albums and Pink Floyd’s The Wall<\/i> was at the helm, I’m
\ndisappointed. The rock numbers suffer from a muddy sound (“Great
\nExpectations,”) though a few tracks like “Beth” manage to break
\nthrough on pure quality alone. Speaking of “Beth,” you cannot help
\nbut like it. It’s the polar opposite of what Kiss had been to this
\npoint; a sugary, sweet ballad with no guitar? Gah! However, its
\nsweetness is what saves the track. As far as romantic bonbons go,
\nit works.<\/p>\n

In addition to the production, there’s the little
\nmatter of “Outro.” I believe it was supposed to be the close of the
\nconcert that the main character in “Detroit Rock City” was going to
\nsee, but it’s unclear and poorly conceptualized. “God Of Thunder”
\nclearly is Kiss trying to be Alice Cooper, and what becomes even
\nmore apparent is that Alice did it better. “Great Expectations” is
\nan interesting attempt at Kiss creating an epic, but as I mentioned
\nbefore it suffers horribly from the production. Let’s just say it’s
\nnot “The Prophet’s Song.”<\/p>\n

Destroyer<\/i> is not a horrible album, and if it
\nwas somebody else I might have rated it higher. However, this is
\nKiss; you know, the band behind the Kiss action figures, the Kiss
\nlunchbox, the Kiss flamethrower etc. They have become bigger than
\nlife as their career has transpired, and I expected the music to
\nmatch that. It didn’t.<\/p>\n

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