489 – Kiss – Destroyer

Not really one I was looking forward to – I never really got Kiss and can’t really separate them from the affront to music (albeit a quite catchy affront) that was ‘Crazy Nights’  but – here goes.

I somehow own this on vinyl – I have no recollection of buying it but I quite like the look of the cover in front of the record player, sorry for the indulgence (if the blog isn’t  indulgent enough in itself : ))

For those of you who haven’t read ‘Hell Bent for Leather: Confessions of a Heavy Metal Addict’ by Seb Hunter, you should read it whilst listening to Kiss. He talks about heavy metal with the fondness and humour of a music lover whilst acknowledging and poking fun at the excesses and ultimately why it was blown away by the arrival of Nirvana.

I think Kiss are one of these excesses – it just doesn’t do it for me at all (and I also have a fondness for rock) – the first listen through has me really not looking forward to the next two.

Having finished the first listen what can I say. The production is ok, if a little OTT on the vocal processing sometimes  and with a fondness for chimes, and it seems like they can probably play but I just can’t get into it.

For me, if you drew a line between Meat Loaf/Jim Steinman at one end and someone like AC/DC at the other end and took the least successful bits of both (and I have to front up here – I don’t like Bat Out of Hell) this seems to me to be what the result would be.

Ready for the final detailed listen and unless I have a eureka moment this one wont be on my future playlist.

‘Detroit Rock City’ is one of the the least bad ones, apart from the overblown guitar solo.

‘King of the Night Time World’ sounds like something by The Who from Tommy (but on a really bad day).

‘God of Thunder’ is is every heavy rock cliché in one song. maybe they are really doing it for fun! This one also makes me feel a bit nauseous towards the end with the swirling sounds. Apart from the ‘God of Thunder’ first bit of the chorus which is actually quite catchy for the 5 seconds it lasts.

The chorus of ‘Great Expectations’ is like an awful version of  ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’…….. played backwards.

I am now really happy that I have it on vinyl as at least I can pause in the middle….

Currently contemplating a random visit to the dentist for unnecessary root canal work, or perhaps I should just shut up and listen!

Side 2 – here goes.

Every time I think I like a little bit of it, something else manages to get pulled out of the ‘hat of unnecessaryness..’  . ‘Flaming Youth’ is a case to point here, the main bit of the song not too bad then bang!

‘Sweet Pain’, is just awful.

‘Shout out Loud’, might actually be the best one on the album, I can almost bear it.

‘Beth’ is forgettable for me sounds like they are trying to do an ‘Angie’ or something similar.

‘Do you love me’ –  no!

Rolling Stone said this was ‘a ridiculously over the top party anthem that just improves with age’ – we must not have been at the same parties and I don’t feel I missed out! I also can’t imagine what it must have been like ‘pre-improvement’.

I am sure that I am somehow missing the point but …

For me the album is 4/10.