Kissening Post: Kiss - Monster

 

Kiss - Monster - 2012

I can't believe I never returned to review this record. 

Keeping Tommy Thayer in the band (although I think he started off as a house painter for Gene. Or Paul. Lemme check. 

Yep. even though he had been in Black N Blue and other projects, he was a hired handy guy for Gene and Paul in the 90s. The best thing they did was put him in the spaceman makeup and let him riff. Because this some of the heaviest Kiss has ever sounded.

And at this point they really are just a nostalgia band but they still need to pretend that they are vital and not just an aforementioned nostalgia act. 

It's doubtless to me that the Kiss haters would come out against this perfectly serviceable heavy rock album. Was anyone doing this kind of music during the Indie Rock era of the 00s? There was Emo. And Nü-Metal. And Rap Metal. But this is straight up guitar rock. And sometimes it's as stoopid as you can get, like Eric Singer's "Back to the Stone Age". And, you know what? With explosions and lights, in front of 15,000 screaming head bangers? Why not. 

Kiss was, what if The New York Dolls actually understood how to merge the Beatles and the Stones, keep the best parts and toss away the chaff. That they leaned hard into the Hair Metal only makes sense. Gene and paul always followed the money.

I loved Kiss. Because they understood Rock better than any other, IMO. What are songs on the radio than commercials for either the singles or the albums or CDs? Punctuated by commercials. That's all radio is. Or was. Kiss understood that. It's Show BUSINESS not Show ART. The songs themselves are essentially advertising for the thing you can buy. A single advertises the album. The album advertises the tour. The tour sells tickets, merchandise and mythology. Everything points back toward the brand.

KISS understood this almost from the beginning.

That's why the album cover mattered.
That's why the makeup mattered.
That's why the stage mattered.
That's why the names mattered.
That's why the merchandise mattered.
That's why the characters mattered.

And crucially, they understood that the audience wasn't stupid for wanting spectacle.

There's a certain rock-critical hierarchy that says:

ART = serious
SHOW BUSINESS = commercial
COMMERCIAL = lesser

KISS basically said, Fuck that distinction.

Entertainment is the product. KISS is Entertainment. 

Grade: A (I'm just as surprised as you)

ASide: Hell or Hallelujah, Wall of Sound, Long Way Down

BlindSide: Freak, Back to the Stone Age, Show Mercy, Eat Your Heart Out, All for the Love of Rock and Roll