Tag: Hotter Than Hell

Kiss – ‘Gold’ (2005) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)

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Between 2002-2008, The record labels in control of the Kiss Catalog released not one, not two, heck not even 3 Greatest Hit Compilations. Nope. They released a total of 7 greatest hits compilations spread over those years. I am sure there are more, I just haven’t found them yet. Over the last few weeks, we have been through a bunch of them and hopefully this is the last one for a little while. At least until I find more…which I will. As far as compilations go, this one is worth taking notice. Let me explain.

Originally this was released in 2004 as part of the KISS Sound and Vision box set. This set was released on January 11, 2005 and is a 2 CD Set called ‘Gold’. The label for this one was Universal Music Corporation. This set covers the make-up years from 1974 up to 1982…except it doesn’t include anything from ‘Creatures of the Night’. The 1982 in reference here is for the ‘Killers’ compilation. There are 20 songs per disc which means we get a handful of releases from almost every album with some minor exceptions. There is at least one from every release though (except maybe Double Platinum. If you want a comp that gives you the best coverage of the make-up era, I don’t know if you can do better than this.

DISC 1:

Kiss (1974): The representation of the debut album is strong as it gives you five tracks:

The album kicks off with the song “Strutter”.  The song was written by both Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons and over the years, this would be a rare experience as they would wind up writing songs by themselves.  The music of the song was based off an old Gene song called “Stanley the Parrot” which was recorded even before there was a Wicked Lester. 

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Kiss – ‘The Millennium Collection: The Best of Kiss (1973-1979)’ – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)

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Back on August 5, 2003, Kiss released, okay, the record company released a greatest hits compilation called The Millennium Collection: The Best of Kiss (1973-1979). It was the first of three volume set which we will get to the other two soon enough. In a move only a record label would do, the label issued the ‘Icon’ Series with two volumes. The first volume is the exact same track list as ‘The Millennium Collection: The Best of Kiss (1973-1979)’ and was released in 2010.

In a cash grab kind of move, they changed NOTHING!! The Icon version is the exact same except for crappier cover art and no inserts/liner notes. A very bare bones set. I do not really recommend any of these sets as they weren’t done by Kiss per se. But us collectors buy it all. And as a collector of Kiss albums, I do have it. So for now, let us go through this set and talk about the songs since we are here as there is nothing else good to say about this…wait, have I said anything good yet???

The album kicks off with the first song of their debut, “Strutter”.  The song was written by both Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons and over the years, this would be a rare experience as they would wind up writing songs by themselves.  The music of the song was based off an old Gene song called “Stanley the Parrot” which was recorded even before there was a Wicked Lester.  The song has a great opening drum fill by Peter and is an uptempo rock song that was inspired by all the sexy women in New York.  There is a great bass riff by Gene why Ace belts out the solo. Paul sings the song and shows all the confidence a lead singer should show.

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The Collection: Episode 4 – Kiss on Vinyl (Part 1)

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This week we go we back to the very beginning for me when I fell in love with my first band…KISS!!! When you have older siblings, their music taste can influence what you like and my brother, Gary, was a huge Kiss fan and that spawned me bing one as well. From about 7-8 years old all the way til now at 55, I am still a Kiss fan.

We go through my Kiss albums on vinyl, but instead of doing all of them, we will go from the debut up until Creatures of the Night. We will save the rest for another show. I am still missing some of the more rare pieces, but I have a couple cool extras in this one.

I hope you enjoy this episode which goes “live” right now…Monday night, March 11th at 8pm. Please do leave a comment and I promise I’ll address them as soon as I can! Don’t forget to click “Like” and “Subscribe”. Thanks for watching.

Kiss – ‘Icon’ (2010/2023) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)

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Back in 2003, Kiss released, okay, the record company released a greatest hits compilation called The Millennium Collection: The Best of Kiss (1973-1979). It was the first of three volume set. Well, then in 2010, the label issued the ‘Icon’ Series with two volumes. The first volume is the exact same track list as ‘The Millennium Collection: The Best of Kiss’. There is nothing different to it at all except for crappier cover art and no inserts/liner notes. A very bare bones set. I do not recommend any of these sets as they weren’t done by Kiss per se.

However, as the collector in me, I do have the brand new, first time on vinyl version of Icon as Walmart has just released an Exclusive Silver Black Splatter vinyl. And since I collect everything vinyl for Kiss, I had to have it for my collection wouldn’t be complete. Okay, my collection is not complete anyway as I am missing a couple pieces that are extremely pricey, but that is for another time.

For now, let us go through this set and talk about the songs since we are here.

SIDE ONE:

The album kicks off with the first song of their debut, “Strutter”.  The song was written by both Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons and over the years, this would be a rare experience as they would wind up writing songs by themselves.  The music of the song was based off an old Gene song called “Stanley the Parrot” which was recorded even before there was a Wicked Lester.  The song has a great opening drum fill by Peter and is an uptempo rock song that was inspired by all the sexy women in New York.  There is a great bass riff by Gene why Ace belts out the solo. Paul sings the song and shows all the confidence a lead singer should show.

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Kiss – The Best & Worst Song From Every Album

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I have done a few of these already on the Best & Worst songs from every Judas Priest, Cheap Trick and Whitesnake albums. I really enjoyed doing those so I thought I would continue that process and this time we would go through every Kiss studio album (including the 4 solo albums) and see what is the best song and the worst one off each album as well. Kiss has 24 studio albums to go through so sit back, grab a drink and take it all in. Now, let’s preface this with the fact that these are my choices and not necessarily yours as we can have different opinions. My worst song could be your favorite and this is okay. We all like different things or this would be a very dull world. I hope you enjoy the list!! And we will go chronological if you were wondering.

‘KISS’ (1974)

THE BEST SONG – “BLACK DIAMOND”: On an album with so many ‘classic’ Kiss tunes, it was hard to pick. The album ends with one of the band’s best songs, “Black Diamond”.  The song was written by Paul and he does sing on it, but is mostly sung by Peter.  The songs starts off with a 12-string acoustic guitar and Paul sings the opening line and when he screams “Hit It!”, the song turns in to a blistering rock song with Peter taking over vocals. The song was written about New York and those ladies working on the street that they would fantasize about.  Peter’s gravelly vocals gave the song such a powerful edge and he put so much heart and soul in to those vocals.  Towards the end of the song, there is a brief musical interlude with Ace tearing it up on guitar and Peter laying down some fills all accompanied by that nasty bass riff from Gene before Peter lays down a final barrage of drum fills and then the song slowly, distortedly comes winding down to an end.  It is dark and foreboding and so metal.

THE WORST SONG – “KISSIN’ TIME”: The worst is a cover of the Bobby Rydell Song “Kissin’ Time” which was written by Kal Mann and Bernie Lowe.  It was recorded two months after the release and added a couple months after that to the album.  The band was not happy about this at all, but they were pressured into recording it.  Paul, Gene and Peter all sang on the song and it is just a shit song.  It has that whole 50’s, early 60’s style and is not a wrong song.  It is easy to hear that they didn’t want to be there singing this crap and that is why I want the original version so I don’t have to hear that song anymore.

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Kiss – The 8-Track Collection

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There is No New Release Post today as new releases dry up this time of the year. We will be back after the first of the year. In the meantime, enjoy…

If you follow this site, you know I’m a Kiss fan. I’m not too fanatical, but I do have a decent Vinyl collection starting up. I have all but maybe a few albums on vinyl, however, I haven’t started down the slippery slope of buying every version of an LP. That is a special kind of fan. If you follow this site, you also know that we are in a great blogging universe with a great set of fellow bloggers that we call “Community”. And that word is crucial for this post.

It all started a few years back when Mr. Books, Aaron at KeepsMeAlive, gifted a bunch of 8 Tracks to another friend Geoff at 1001AlbumsIn10Years. Geoff recently reached out to me and asked if I would like them. What Geoff knew was that I was big Kiss fan. What Geoff didn’t know that over the last year, every time I go in to an Antique Mall or a Record Store and they have 8 Tracks, I have been scouring them looking for Kiss 8-Tracks. To date, I have found ZERO!!!! Thanks to Geoff, I now have 6! And the official collecting of Kiss 8 Tracks has now begun!! In fact, I think I am going to go down a rabbit hole. I am going to try and collect all the 8 Tracks I can, all the cassettes and all the CDs. Why not have one of every format. I don’t think I am going to do to the reel-to-reel as that is uber expensive. When I post a picture of a Kiss album, I want that album to have each format in the picture. I think that would be a lot of fun! Let the hunting begin.

But first, let’s go through the 8-Tracks that Geoff sent. First up is “Hotter Than Hell”. Now, these are old and a little rough around the edges, but no ever though people would be collecting these things. When you look at the track listing you see the biggest problem with 8-Tracks. Look at the track listing for Program 1 and 2. The last song on 1 says “Watchin’ You” (Begin) and the first song on 2 is “Watchin’ You” (Cont.). This means the song faded out in Program 1 and then you hear a click and the song fades back in Program 2. It is AWFUL!! My brother made the comment to me that when he listens to Dynasty now, he expects certain songs to fade in and out and they don’t anymore.

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Kiss – The Albums Ranked Worst to First

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We are finally to the end of the Kiss Review Series. And like I like to do at the end of each series is Rank the Studio Albums from Worst to First and we aren’t going to do it any differently here. There are 24 Studio albums and since there are so many, I am keeping the summaries brief and no videos as I usually like to post a video with each album, but just way too many to do this time around.

Kiss began in 1973 and are still around today, but the last studio album was in 2012. It started with the original four – Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Peter Criss and Ace Frehley. Then came Eric Carr who replaced Peter Criss; then Vinnie Vincent who replaced Ace Frehley; then Mark St. John to replace Vinnie and then Bruce Kulick replaced Mark; and it continues with Eric Singer replacing Eric Carr after his death and then Peter & Ace came back in and out after the reunion and then finally Tommy Thayer replaced Ace for good. Lots of changes, but Gene and Paul are always the consistent formula that has kept Kiss “Alive” all these years. For the diehard fan, remember, this is my opinion and your favorites are probably going to be different, but it is okay as we both love Kiss. For the newbie, this is a good guideline on where to focus.

Now, if the band ever decides to do another Studio album, I will gladly come back and update this, but it doesn’t look like that will ever happen. If you want to check out the review of each album in detail, there are links at the bottom to all the reviews in the series and there were only 72 of them!! It took me almost 14 months to get through them all and it is still the most fun I have had on the site.

Thanks for spending all this time with me going through the Kiss catalog and my Kiss collection. I hope you enjoyed it. Enough chit chat as there is a lot to get through so sit back, grab a coffee or a beer and enjoy!!

WORST – ‘PETER CRISS’ (1978):

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Kiss – ‘Jigoku-Retsuden’ (2008) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)

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We are now 10 years past the last studio album, ‘Psycho Circus’, and Kiss has still yet to do another studio album. Instead, we basically get yet another greatest hits package. This one is different of course because it was actually a re-recording of Kiss Klassics, but this time the players are not just Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, but we now have those old hits recorded by Eric Singer on drums and Tommy Thayer on guitar. My first question is…WHY?? Do we really need to have studio versions of these great, amazing Kiss songs done by the new members. (rhetorical question)

I guess the people of Japan did because that is the only place this album was released. The title of the album is Jigoku-Retsuden which means something like “Legends from Hell” or “Hell’s Legends” in Japanese. Okay, that is pretty cool, but that is the only thing cool about this release. Okay, maybe the OBI strip is pretty cool as well. But that is it, I promise…alright, the cover is a little cool too…no more…stop!!

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Kiss – ‘The Originals’ (1976) – Bonus Edition (The Kiss Review Series)

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In the last two weeks, I have talked about special Kiss albums or singles in my Big Box of Vinyl and that continues one more time.  This time in my big box of vinyl there was one more special Kiss album.  Now I bring you ‘The Originals’.  This was released on July 21st, 1976 which actually turns out to be 44 years ago just two days ago!  Why didn’t I schedule this for Tuesday…who knows.  Sometimes I am stupid.

‘The Originals’, as noted on the album cover, are “the albums that touched off a Rock & Roll explosion.”  It was a special edition re-release of the albums ‘Kiss’, ‘Hotter Than Hell’ and “Dressed to Kill” in one package.  With the overwhelming success of the live album ‘Kiss Alive!’ and ‘Destroyer’, Casablanca Records wanted to take advantage of that success and re-release the albums in one glorious package.

The album comes with a 16-page history booklet, a color Kiss Army sticker, and a sheet of six trading cards.  It looks something like this…

lp_-06b-originals

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Kiss – ‘Hotter Than Hell’ (1974) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)

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After the poor sales of the debut Kiss album and the fact that Casablanca was bleeding money on the tour, Neil Bogart wanted the band to get back in to the studio to record their next album.  While on Los Angeles for a show in August of 1974, Kiss started recording their follow-up.  The band’s line-up was unchanged and the producers were unchanged as Kenny Kerner and Richie Wise were behind the boards again.  And yes, they are to blame for the awful sonics on this record, especially the dull drum sound.

Let me tell you, the band was not thrilled with doing this album in L.A.  These guys are New York guys and this whole new environment was foreign to them and not home.  Put that along side the fact they have had zero time to write new songs, they weren’t being setup to succeed.  They plowed through and by October 22, 1974, the album was released and actually performed worse than the debut album which is no easy feat as that one did poorly.

Before we go in to the music, can we talk about that cover?  Of course we can, it’s my blog.  I remember seeing this cover as kid of maybe 7 or 8 and thinking how cool this was with all the Japanese writing (now not sure I really knew it was Japanese, but it was still cool).  The album concept was done to mimic the look of Japanese comics and if you notice that little character at the bottom…

IMG_2045

That character stands for the word “Chikara” and if you know that then you know that is the name of a greatest hits package by the band that was only released in Japan in 1988.  It is on my grail list to get a copy.  If you are interested, “Chikara” means power. And there were other Japanese lettering on the album cover. The lettering in the top right corner of the album actually means “the shout of hell” which isn’t the same as “hotter than hell”, but not sure if that was the intent or not. Continue reading “Kiss – ‘Hotter Than Hell’ (1974) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)” →