KISS ProfileConsidering Gene Simmons proclaimed to gaggles of journalists at the Download Festival several years back that, “The record industry is dead,” it's somewhat surprising rockers Kiss returned via 2009's Sonic Boom. Perhaps the blood-spitting four-stringer saw numerous marketing tie-ins associated with another record.
Which brings us to Monster, sporting one of the tackier-looking album covers in eons. If Sonic Boom signalled Kiss having a fling with analogue, opener Hell Or Hallelujah's boisterous riff indicates a full-blown, lipstick-coated romance. Simmons has been trotting out the “mix between Destroyer and Revenge” line for so long it's become empty rhetoric. Monster has elements of the former, certainly, but for all the trumpeting (to the extent of calculation) of its predecessor being a “classic '70s-sounding record”, this is more successful in that regard, warmly channelling the spirit of their first few records. No ballads, keyboards or orchestras, but more cheap innuendos than you can thrust a studded codpiece at. While Simmons sometimes phones it in, Paul Stanley (whose voice is understandably thinning after four decades) seems enamoured of rediscovering early sources of inspiration. Channelling The Who (Freak), Stones-like swagger (Eat Your Heart Out) or Simmons' childhood obsession with The Beatles (Wall Of Sound) shows Kiss were once a hungry band and not merely a bloated brand. Axeman Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer also expectedly, if capably, lend lead vocals to a track each among the customary filler.
There isn't a Kiss Klassic here, but a reasonable number of solid, albeit workmanlike songs. After nearly 40 years, Kiss still make big, dumb arena anthems about as deep as a puddle, but should satisfy their dedicated army.
