James At 15 is the singer, record breaker and fire breathing frontman for the punk/metal hybrid band KNOWLEDGE IS FOR FOOLS (aka: KIFF). James has previously shared some of his thoughts on KISS. If you missed Part One then you can recap by checking it out at the link below. https://scumfeastzineblog.blogspot.com/2018/01/into-fire-with-james-at-15_24.html With that said here is Part Two:
#9 KISS - Rock N Roll Over 1976 KISS is now the biggest band in the world. The follow up to Destroyer, Rock N Roll over was recorded quickly. KISS stayed on the road at this point. What can I say? Another great album. Mandatory KISS ! One of their absolute best. One of their hardest rocking albums. Every song is a classic. Perhaps My favorite KISS studio album ever ! The original album came with some cool stickers. The only pop song on the album was Peter Criss's Hard Luck Woman. It sounded a lot like what Rod Stewart was doing at the time. Legend is that Gene Simmons was riding in a limo. When Hard Luck Woman was on the radio. The driver told Him. You guys should do more stuff like this Rod Stewart song. One of My favorite songs on the album is the deep cut Love Em Leave Em by Gene. Ladies Room is another fave. Paul songs like Making Love, Take Me, Mr Speed all rule hard. Every Rocker should own a copy of this album. 5 Stars !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
#10 KISS - Love Gun 1977 KISS continues to dominate record sales and concert stages worldwide. Love Gun is released. Perhaps one of the greatest KISS album covers ever. Maybe one of the coolest album covers ever by any band. Only KISS could pull a album cover like that off. Insane! Musically its a cross between Destroyer & Rock & Roll Over. Some strange moments like the cover of Then She Kissed Me. But still some hard rocking KISS classics like I Stole Your Love , Christine Sixteen & the title track Love Gun. Love Gun has remained in their set for al;most the entire history of KISS. And for good reason. Its just a great song all around. Its what KISS was then. And pretty much since. Good solid hard hitting hard rock anthems. Its always what they were best at. And no matter what they do. No matter what experimental detours they have made over the years. It always comes back to this. The re-issued CD of this album. features a great bonus CD. Great live & demo tracks. Some weird cuts that did not make the album. Love Gun is considered by many. To be the last of the perfect golden era KISS albums. I can sort of agree. 5 Stars !!!!!!!!!!!!!
#11 KISS - Alive 2 KISS Alive 2 !!!! KISS cashes in on their legend. At this point the world was KISS crazy ! All their albums were selling like mad. The masses wanted more! Endless touring. KISS dolls, Model kits, Comic books, TV appearances & Alive 2 ! Perhaps ultimately the peak of KISS madness. Especially in the USA. I saw this album. And the picture of Gene Simmons on the cover. My 12 year old self thought. Wow this must be the coolest guy in the world. I actually love this album more then any other KISS album. Like the first KISS Alive album. Raw supercharged live versions of KISS classics from the previous three albums. Skullbusting versions of Calling Dr Love, Ladies Room & many others. To make this album even more classic. Side 4 is all new studio greatness. All American Man, Larger The Life & Rocket Ride ! Some of the absolute best stuff they ever did. The original release included a tour program. Stickers etc. KISS was truely Alive at this point ! It was never better ! To this day. Probably the KISS album I love the most. Maybe the album I love the most. By ANY band any time period. 5 Stars !!!!!!!
#12. KISS - Double Platinum The first KISS best of album. Released to keep interest in the band. As the took a break from insane touring and recording. Infighting and all the other madess that came from late 70s KISS insanity ! Yeah pretty much a great collection of KISS classics from the first 6 KISS studio albums. Almost reads like a set list from the 1996 re-union of the classic original KISS lineup tour. Never been a huge fan of best of albums. I'm always the nerd that sez yes but they forgot about ....... But yeah this is a good overall look at the greatness of KISS. I once knew a guy. Who had the double 8 track of this in his truck. And thats pretty much all He had. Needed or wanted. And He played it for years. Loudly ! Manditory Party album to say the least ! 5 Stars !!!
James At 15 is the singer, record breaker and fire breathing frontman for the punk/metal hybrid band KNOWLEDGE IS FOR FOOLS (aka: KIFF). This time around he's gonna talk eveything KISS aka: These Guys.....
Did I mention James is a HUGE KISS fan? So here he goes. My ranking of the KISS & related albums.
1. The original KISS & Wicked Lester LP / demos Not clear on if this album was actually officially released. Or just a demo. There were 2 different recording sessions. The first one shows the band pretty much doing a hard rock / prog rock. Even folk, Beatles influenced stuff. The second set of recordings shows the guys rocking much harder and a lot of the songs off the first KISS album We all love. Some of this stuff eventually officially appeared on the KISS box set from the 90s. I was given a bootleg CDR of it in the mid 90s by a friend. I remember it was really high on the list of so many tape/CDR traders back then. Gene & Paul really didn't want this stuff heard for many years. They don't have a lot to be ashamed of. Its not horrible at all. Mostly cool for novelty value. A treat for KISS super-fans. I'll give it 3 stars or Maybe 2&1/2. 2. Ace Frehley -pre KISS band Molemo
Just as bad as Peter Criss's first band. Ace Shines through slightly on a solo or two. Mostly slow boring early 70s hippie rock crapola. I guess Ace himself forgot this even existed. Or was trying to anyway. Was never pressed into a real record or officially released. I heard this tape sold for thousands. 1 star. 3. Peter Criss pre KISS band Chelsea LP
Awful for the most part. Early 70s slow soft prog, folk hippie rock crap. A few moments of hard rock. But mostly boring boring crap. Only a true KISS completest Peter Criss super-fan would search this out. Of course this album is very rare and worth loads of money these days. But through the gift of YouTube We can listen here. File it away never to be heard again ha ha ha. 1 star.
4. KISS - Self Titled first album! What can I say? Perfect album. The hard rocking classic all KISS fans love. Classic song after classic song. At least half of em. Still regularly make it into KISS's live sets these days. Strutter, Deuce, Firehouse, Cold Gin, Black Diamond, Nothing To Lose and plenty of others. KISS topped them all when this came out. The blueprint for heavy metal/glam rock/hard rock/shock rock. They took what Alice Cooper, Slade, NY Dolls & Zepplin were already doing. Turned up the amps. Turned up the fire ! and Americanized it all into short catchy loud raw ruthless rock n roll. Interesting album cover. Peter's make up had yet to be perfected. I first had this album as a kid in the 70s. Still love it. Still gets regular plays at My house. My favorite of the first 3 KISS records. 5 Stars !
5. KISS- Hotter Then Hell The second Klassic from KISS. Wild album cover front & back. Look up the crazy stories on that photo shoot. I heard it said this album influenced a lot of 90s grunge rockers. Kinda ironic. Considering years later grunge rock itself influenced KISS on their Carnival Of Souls album in the mid 90s. But yeah I can sort of see it. Again like the first album. Full of great songs like Got To Choose, Hotter Then Hell, Going Blind & others. Overall slower but heavier then the first album. Often the favorite KISS album by diehard metalheads. Like all the early KISS records. I consider it a classic. I'll give it 5 stars.
6. KISS - Dressed To Kill Again another really cool album cover. KISS's third album has em getting back to a more traditional hard rocking style. Loud fast raw & catchy. Room Service opens. I never understood Why this & Ladies In Waiting never got much play live. KISS was really playing live a lot. Touring constantly at this point. Playing anywhere USA all the time. Its a wonder they found the time to write and record this. Just another amazing thing about KISS. This album got a ton of play (loud as fuck) In My first car. On 8 track! 5 Stars !
7. KISS - Alive 1 And here We are. 1975. The year and album that made KISS one of the biggest rock bands in history. A deluxe double lp. Pictures etc. If You could not get to a KISS concert. You could crank this up and start to finish. Visualize quite clearly what it was like. You don't just play this album. You live it! Hear the great early KISS songs played faster louder rougher mixed with the fire & bombs. You could almost smell the smoke & sweat rolling off the stage. As well as other stuff going on in the audiance. This was not the first double live album by a major band. But its the one that caused record labels to put out a ton more of them over the next ten years. To many KISS fans. This it the album. The peak of KISS. I would not say that. But its certainly a high point. A moment in KISSstory that continues to blow minds. KISS is a live band. Always has been. A great place to start. If You want to understand why they are such a loved band by so many. Even people that don't consider themselves much of a fan of KISS. Usually will admit this is one of the greatest live LPs ever. From where I'm standing. Its only equal is KISS Alive 2. And together they are My absolute favorite albums of all time by anybody. 5 stars ! !!!
8. KISS - Destroyer & Destroyer resurrected OK not much difference between these two. Pretty much either version of Destroyer is a great 5 star classic album. Minor differences in a couple solos on a couple songs. Remastered. Destroyer was KISS getting harder louder & softer poppier at the same time. Originally it pissed some fans off slightly. They saw it as KISS losing their raw edge. Going commercial. Selling out. Loaded with classic songs. Many are still played live today. Big rocking KISS anthems as well as the pop ballad Beth. A few dark sleazy stuff like Sweet Pain. The first time I heard it. I was annoyed by some of the pop stuff. But over the years I've come to love every second of this album. Another perfect album by KISS ! 5 Stars !!! EDITOR'S NOTE: This is just the first of a few columns JAMES AT 15 will doing on KISS. So remember you wanted the best and you got it from JAMES AT 15.
EDITOR'S NOTE PART TWO: My favorite KISS moment is here watching this on TV way back when, enjoy.
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Extreme Metal or Music is generally a form which is accepted by 1% of all of the music loving public. It is elitist in every way and that's important to those of us who call ourselves fans. The 99% of people who will not like it are Not Supposed To. The music wasn't made for them, "the masses". It's music that's for those who take things to that "other" level. There is nothing hip or fad about it. In fact I treat those two notions very harshly.
