Kiss – ‘Chikara’ (1988) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic

Kiss were plugging along and everything is still right in the world. In 1988, as they were preparing for their Tour of Japan, the label and the band decided to release a greatest hits compilation. The CD was issued on May 25, 1988 and was limited to only 100,000 copies and only released in Japan. The was the 2nd greatest hits package to not be issued in the U.S., the first being 1982’s ‘Killers’. For that fact, this is a hot collector’s item for Kiss collectors and I didn’t even know about it until years after its release and I still don’t have a physical copy of this release (but I will get one someday).

The Japanese character on the back of the case and on the CD might look familiar. It is the same symbol that was on the bottom of the cover art for the band’s 1974 album, ‘Hotter Than Hell’. Eric Carr also used that symbol on his drum kits for quite some time. Chikara is the Japanese word for Power if you are interested in knowing that fact. And when you are looking to buy this CD on ebay or somewhere, the prize to get is the OBI strip with all the Japanese writing. A lot of the ones I’ve seen out there don’t have that strip anymore.

The CD came with a price included as well. You got a sew on patch of the Chikara symbol and if you can find one still with the patch and OBI strip, be prepared to pay a little extra for that as well.

The album consists of 14 tracks of which 4 are from the 70’s and the remaining 10 tracks are from the band’s 80’s output as they were really pushing the newer songs. The only reason I am talking about any greatest hits in this series is when the compilation actually offers unreleased tracks that they haven’t released prior to the album. The album only has one new unreleased remix of a song and a couple different variations of others. As far as the 70’s output you get “Rock And Roll All Nite”, “Detroit Rock City” (which actually has a strange cut-off at the end that doesn’t sound perfectly mixed, it is rather abrupt) and “Love Gun”.

You also get the 12″ Extended version of “I Was Made for Lovin’ You” for the first time on CD. I have the 12″ Single of this song and we talked about it a few weeks backs and let me tell you, they ramped up the disco on this version even more. They extended the entrance, they stretched out drum parts, they repeated parts, they did everything they could to extend the song and pushed the limits of how much you could take on hearing this song. They have since released this again on a 4 track CD single of the song “Psycho Circus” in 1998, 10 years later.

The other song that is a remix is the song “Creatures of the Night” which is actually not new. That song plus the other 2 songs from the album ‘Creatures of the Night’, “I Love It Loud” and “War Machine” are actually taken from the 1985 re-release of the album with the non-makeup band on the cover. You do get good helping of 80’s songs with 2 from ‘Lick It Up’, 2 from ‘Animalize’ and 3 from ‘Asylum’ but nothing from ‘Crazy Nights’ since that was the current release they were touring on.

If you are an 80’s fan, this is really a great set that gives you the basic 80’s hits. It isn’t anything extra special as there is really one song that was previously unreleased on an album or compilation prior and if you like that song, then you need this. If you are a collector you need this anyway. Overall, I would give a 3.5 out of 5.0 Stars as it really is not a very exciting compilation, but it is a cool collectible which is why I want it. There is another cool thing about this compilation is that it does feature every person that has been a member of Kiss up to that point. It has Paul, Gene, Ace, Peter, Eric Carr, Vinnie Vincent, Mark St. John and Bruce Kulick.

Next Up: Kiss – Smashes, Thrashes & Hits (1988)

Check out the rest of the series if you have time!!

The Kiss Review Series:

  1. Wicked Lester and the Progeny Demo Sessions (Bootleg)
  2. Kiss – Kiss (1974)
  3. Kiss – Hotter Than Hell (1974)
  4. Kiss – Dressed to Kill (1975)
  5. Kiss – Alive! (1975)
  6. Kiss – Destroyer (1976)
  7. Kiss – “Flaming Youth” 45 Promo Single – Bonus Edition (1976)
  8. Kiss – Special Kiss Album For Their Summer Tour (1976)
  9. Kiss – The Originals (1976)
  10. Kiss – Rock & Roll Over (1976)
  11. Kiss – Love Gun (1977)
  12. Kiss – Alive II (1977)
  13. Kiss – Double Platinum (1978)
  14. Kiss – Paul Stanley (1978)
  15. Kiss – Gene Simmons (1978)
  16. Kiss – Peter Criss (1978)
  17. Kiss – Ace Frehley (1978)
  18. Kiss – Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park Movie (1978)
  19. Kiss – Dynasty (1979)
  20. Kiss – “I Was Made For Lovin’ You” (1979) – 12″ & 7″ Singles (Bonus Edition)
  21. Kiss – Unmasked (1980)
  22. Peter Criss – Out of Control (1980)
  23. Kiss – Music From The Elder (1981)
  24. Kiss – Killers (1982)
  25. Kiss – Creatures of the Night (1982)
  26. Kiss – Lick It Up (1983)
  27. Kiss – Animalize (1984)
  28. Wendy O. Williams – WOW (1984) (Bonus Edition)
  29. Kiss – Animalize Live Uncensored (1985)
  30. Kiss – Asylum (1985)
  31. Kiss – “Tears Are Falling” 7″ Single (Bonus Edition) (1985)
  32. Kiss – Creatures of the Night (1985 Re-Issue)
  33. Vinnie Vincent Invasion – Vinnie Vincent Invasion (1986)
  34. Black N’ Blue – Nasty Nasty (1986)
  35. Ace Frehley – Frehley’s Comet (1987)
  36. Kiss – Exposed VHS (1987)
  37. Kiss – Crazy Nights (1987)
  38. Kiss – “Crazy Crazy Nights” – 12″ Single (Bonus Edition)
  39. Kiss – “Reason To Live” – 12″ Picture Disc (Bonus Edition)
  40. Kiss – Chikara (1988)

The Bootleg Series:

  1. Kiss – ‘Accept No Imitations’ (Bootleg Series) – Album Review (ASYLUM TOUR)
  2. Kiss – Look Wot You Dun to Me (Bootleg Series) – Album Review (CRAZY NIGHTS TOUR)
  3. Kiss – The Summer of Satan: The Devils Ride Out! (Bootleg Series) – Album Review (DESTROYER TOUR)
  4. Kiss – Return to Capital Center (Bootleg Series) – Album Review (DYNASTY TOUR)
  5. Kiss – With Fire & Thunder (Bootleg Series) – Album Review (HOTTER THAN HELL TOUR)
  6. Kiss – Northhampton PA March 19th, 1975 (Bootleg Series) – Album Review (DRESSED TO KILL TOUR)
  7. Kiss – The Hottest Show On Earth (Bootleg Series) – Album Review (THE HOTTEST SHOW ON EARTH TOUR 2010)
  8. Kiss – All the Way to the Ball Room (Bootleg Series) – Album Review (Australian Tour 1995)
  9. Kiss – Kiss of Thunder (Bootleg Series) – Album Review (The Rising Sun Tour 2006)
  10. Kiss – Agora Ballroom 1974: The Cleveland Broadcast plus Bonus Cuts (Bootleg Series) – Album Review (THE KISS TOUR)
  11. Kiss – Hotter Than Hell: Radio Broadcast 1976 (Bootleg Series) – Album Review (ROCK & ROLL OVER TOUR)
  12. Kiss – The Tickler (Bootleg Series) – Album Review (LICK IT UP TOUR 1983)
  13. Kiss – Barbarize (Bootleg Series) – Album Review (ANIMALIZE WORLD TOUR 1984 – North American Tour)
  14. Kiss – They Only Come Out At Night (Bootleg Series) – Album Review (ANIMALIZE WORLD TOUR 1984 – EUROPEAN TOUR)
  15. Wicked Lester and the Progeny Demo Sessions (Bootleg)

Kiss – The Box Set:

Gene Simmons – The Vault: