Long gone are also the days when a new KISS album was filled with music that the band wanted to record,
now it just feels like the band is trying to stay relevant while really just
pleasing the fans that they already have and not really gaining any more. With
the release of their most recent studio album Monster (released in October of 2012), the band has succeeded in
making a modernized classic rock styled album, but not one that has any true
relevance in the rock world. Much like their previous effort, 2009’s Sonic Boom (which was at the time their
first new album in 11 years), the band just seems to be recording music to
prove a point that they can, rather than showing that they want to. It should
be noted however that Monster IS in
fact an improvement from its predecessor.
Before getting to the album itself, to clarify the career of
the band a little more I’ll put it in a nutshell. As many know, they came on to
the music scene in 1973, make-up and all, releasing hard rock music to a
calibre that hadn’t really been heard of, eventually lucking out with the
anthem that we all know, Rock and Roll
All Night. After remaining a successful act throughout the 70’s, the 80’s
saw a shift in the form of replacing Ace
Frehley and Peter Criss, as well
as a shift in sound. With the 80’s came 80’s music, and Kiss took advantage of the era by putting their own spin on the
matter, eventually taking off their make-up for the public to see. This
remained until 1997, when all four original members re-grouped, put the make-up
back on and started playing almost exclusively the songs they recorded together
in the 70’s that fans know, maybe throwing in a surprise track like Forever or I Love It Loud. They released Psycho
Circus in ’98.
Eventually, one after the other Ace and Peter left again, and
have since been replaced by roadie Tommy
Thayer and Eric Singer who
drummed for them in the early 90’s. In turn, rather than taking off their
make-up or at least giving the two members their own identities, KISS main men Paul Stanley and Gene
Simmons opted to let the two members wear the same make-up and same personas
as the members they replaced, further proving the band to be a novelty act. Now
it should not be said that Tommy and Eric are not tremendous musicians, but
they are now limited to playing as though they are Ace and Peter rather than
themselves.
Now moving on to Monster,
the album starts off with its first single; the Paul Stanley sung Hell or Hallelujah, which is a nice a
fierce track with a lot of high energy; its relatively fast pace and hard
rocking sound make it a really great album opener. The unfortunate fact is that
there is only one other song off of this album with similarly high energy, and
that is the albums second last track, Take
Me Down Below. This track is sung by both Paul and Gene, something that the
band has done many times before. The pace is not as fast, but it has a similar
amount of energy, and a very well sung chorus.
Songs such as Wall of
Sound, Back to the Stone Age and
Shout Mercy have a good heavy
bashing beat to them, and are nice heavy tracks, but lack hooks, and are louder
than they are musical. Not much else can be said about these tracks. Eat Your Heart Out is a bit less heavy,
and sounds more like something that a “hair metal” band would have released in
the 80’s. The song has a good feel to it, but musically it is just as
uninspiring, as well as the singing.
Freak, while
also having a slower pace, seems to be the main song that the band thought
about when writing. What I mean by this is that it is probably the only song on
the album that, for the most part, all the way though sounds like the band paid
attention to detail and made sure that it was filled with hooks. Like many
songs on the album, it has a singable chorus that isn’t hard to memorize. It
also sounds like something that could have been off of their 90’s albums such
as Psycho Circus or Revenge. The albums second single, Long Way Down, also has its appealing
hooks, but what could lose its listeners is its somewhat boring chorus.
The Devil
Is Me is a good heavy song. For the listener looking for a hard
rock song that is more aggressive than anything, this is their song. It’s slow
pace but it’s easy to find yourself head banging to. It is definitely the best
of the Gene Simmons sung songs on the album, but it is not quite enough to save
the album.
One thing the band has only done three times previously to
this album is have all four members of the band sing at least one song on the
album. This was done on 1979’s Dynasty and
Psycho Circus (though not all four
members appeared on every song for these albums, as studio musicians filled in
for much of the drums and guitars), as well as on Sonic Boom, which did have all four members appear on every track.
This trend was continued on this album, though it is merely for bragging rights
rather than something to be proud of.
The Tommy Thayer sung track Outta This World really just sees Tommy trying to find a way to
sing about his “Spaceman” persona that he adopted from replacing Ace. It is
highly uninspiring and I’m positive he could have done much better had he
written a song which lyrically was more true to himself than to the “spaceman”.
The Eric Singer sung song on the album is the Paul Stanley penned All For The Love of Rock & Roll,
which as you can tell by the song title, is lyrically lame. Musically, the song
is not much better, with a guitar riff that is very recycled (sounding awfully
similar to the 1976 KISS track Mr. Speed
at points). This track just feels like Paul either just tried too hard to write
a song for Eric to sing, or he just didn’t like the song much so he thought he’d
throw Eric on vocals to throw the track away, either way there is really
nothing special to the song. It should be noted that Tommy and Eric both have
very listenable voices, and their voices have absolutely nothing to do with
both songs lack of punch.
The last song on the album Last Chance, has a good amount of energy to it; it would fall third
on the album in terms of energy and pace. This makes the song more listenable
than most other songs on the album. It features some hooks as well, but just is
not enough to save the album.
The result of this album is, as mentioned before, just the
band showing that they still can record music. Rather than recording an album
of music that they wanted to make, they recorded an album of music they figured
the fans wanted. To be fair, with 20 studio albums under the bands belt, they
are sure not to please everyone. Especially with a band that has had as much
style changes as KISS throughout their 40 year career.
I would recommend this to any KISS fan that already has all,
or almost all of their albums. It is a good collector’s item and for fans (such
as myself) that already have a dedication to the band, you’re sure to see the
light in the album. For first time, or unfamiliar listeners to the band, I
would do myself a favour and try a different album to listen to. Maybe their
debut album, or Destroyer, or if you’re
a fan of the 80’s, try Creatures of the Night or Crazy Nights. Revenge is
also a must for fans of hard rock/metal.
ALBUM HIGHLIGHT
“Hell or Hallelujah” Being the fiercest
song on the album, this is the main song that will do this best job at pumping
up its listener. It lacks a good hook, but when a song is set at the right
pace, the adrenaline of the song IS the hook. It’s not incredibly fast or
anything. If Metallica were to make a song of this pace it would be considered
a mid-range pace for them. The song also doesn’t try to be anything more than just
a simple hard rock song that could have fit well in any era that the band has
made music in.
FINAL RATING
6 (Out of 10)
Track List:
Lead Singer
1.
|
"Hell or Hallelujah"
|
Stanley
|
4:07
|
2.
|
"Wall of Sound"
|
Simmons
|
2:55
|
3.
|
"Freak"
|
Stanley
|
3:35
|
4.
|
"Back to the Stone Age"
|
Simmons
|
3:01
|
5.
|
"Shout Mercy"
|
Stanley
|
4:04
|
6.
|
"Long Way Down"
|
Stanley
|
3:51
|
7.
|
"Eat Your Heart Out"
|
Simmons
|
4:06
|
8.
|
"The Devil Is Me"
|
Simmons
|
3:40
|
9.
|
"Outta This World"
|
Thayer
|
4:29
|
10.
|
"All for the Love of Rock & Roll"
|
Singer
|
3:21
|
11.
|
"Take Me Down Below"
|
Simmons, Stanley
|
3:24
|
12.
|
"Last Chance"
|
Stanley
|
3:05
|
No comments:
Post a Comment