Customer Reviews

Destroyer

5 star:		(105)
4 star:		(36)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

THE BAND: Gene Simmons (Gene Klein), Paul Stanley (Stanley Eisen), Ace Frehley (Paul Frehley), Peter Criss (Peter Crisscoula).

THE DISC: Released 3/15/76. Recorded at The Record Plant, NYC. 9 songs clocking in at approximately 34 minutes. A classic album cover painted by Ken Kelly. Originally released on Casablanca Records in 1975; this remastered edition was released in 1997 on Mercury's label. Much improved sound in my book (deeper bass guitars and crisper highs). Liner notes are slim - a 3 page fold out with song titles, writing credits, song times, lyrics to one song ("Detroit Rock City"), and a KISS Army logo. Underneath the disc on the inside cover, there's an informative 5 paragraph history of what the band was going through at the time.

COMMENTS: A classic studio album from KISS, and easily one of their best efforts. Decades later, it still rocks like no other KISS album. How to keep the momentum going...? New songs, new costumes, new feel, new producer... enter Bob Ezrin. A KISS album with a choir, orchestra and lots of sound effects. This was Ezrin's doing. Along with Paul and Gene each co-writing 4 songs, and Peter with 1, Ezrin helped co-write 7 with the band. Ezrin gave the album depth and a very theatrical and polished feel. I truly believe 7 of the 9 songs here are some of the best the band has ever written... the exceptions being "Great Expectations" and "God Of Thunder" (always a better song in concert). Not many KISS albums (outside of "Alive!) can claim that. "Flaming Youth", "Sweet Pain", "Detroit Rock City", "King of the Night Time World" and "Do You Love Me" are all hard rock classics. The unexpected ballad "Beth" is Peter's best song (earning KISS a People's Choice Award in 1977). "Shout it out loud" was a tune created in the same vein as "Rock & Roll All Nite".... one of those anthems written for the youth. "Destroyer" is filled with great songs - a KISS studio classic.

From the get go the big difference is the production. Thanks to the added magic of a proper producer in Bob Ezrin KISS finally evolved into a mythical beast rather than the raw beast they were up to this point. Money in the pocket I guess frees up artistic licence. Despite the foray into uncharted waters they swam back to shore quickly after this (despite the success) and cranked up again for subsequent releases. Shame really cause they really do have more to say musically than often they end up saying (apart from a few rare exceptions). Other than the orchestrations and effects, the major change is the lyrical content, being more around the trappings of fame and their kabuki characters being explored rather than sexual gratification. The evolution of KISS can really be heard in the cinematic "Detroit Rock City" and co headliner "King of The Night time World", "God of Thunder" in its eeriness and backwards masking and the gloriously vain "Do You Love Me" complete with chiming tubular bells and trash can drums. Nine tracks in all. All classics in KISS terms.

After `Alive' broke them commercially with the smash hit anthem, `Rock and Roll All Nite', expectations would, I imagine, have been extremely high. So what better idea than to team up with the stratospherically successful producer of another theatrical rock act for their next studio album? It was clearly a master stroke. Bob Ezrin was behind the ongoing success of Alice Cooper (`School's Out', `Billion Dollar Babies', `Welcome To My Nightmare') and he delivered wholesale with `Destroyer', both wiping the band's earlier albums off the map and setting a creative benchmark that they would never ever reach again.

`Destroyer' is an epic - darker, more energetic, more theatrical, beautifully crafted, cleverly written and grand at every turn - a soaring hard rock musical vision that befitted and delivered on the physical image and stage show the band had created for themselves. Though it sports radio play introductions, strings and choirs on various tracks, these features are never allowed to overwhelm the group, ensuring that the end product is whole-heartedly hard rock. It has the feel of a concept album, but it isn't.

Beginning with a news report about a youth killed in a head-on collision against what sounds like the crash scene, complete with Kiss playing on the car radio, `Detroit Rock City' is the dramatic opener which literally crashes into `King of the Night Time World' followed by the cacophonous `God of Thunder'. Elsewhere a children's choir embellishes Gene Simmons on `Great Expectations' and a string section backs Peter Criss on the band's first and best ballad, `Beth'.

One of the album's great strengths is the creative involvement of the entire band. Again Paul Stanley's fingerprints are all over it, writing or co-writing 6 of the 9 songs. Gene Simmons even sings Stanley's `God of Thunder' completely making it his own, and writes or co-writes 4 of the other songs. `Flaming Youth' sounds like Ace Frehley had a heavy hand in it as co-writer and Bob Ezrin's compositional involvement in 7 of the 9 tracks clearly elevates the material. Though Kiss would resort unsuccessfully to trying to emulate the success of `Rock and Roll All Nite' throughout their career, the anthemic `Flaming Youth' and `Shout It Out Loud' never feel like poor cousins to that hit, nor are they remotely corny (the trap of later attempts). In fact there is not a weak moment on this album. It is quite literally a masterpiece. And the 1997 remaster sounds fantastic.

I remember sitting next to the stereo at 6 years old with the volume turned down listening to this LP because my Grandmother was convinced that Kiss were devil worshipers. This album has forever remained my favorite all-time rock & roll album. It represents everything cool about the late 70's...rebellion and just REAL rock. Gene Simmons seemed to have more vocals on this LP than the others, and perhaps even though he scared the hell out of me, I like him the most. Great Expectations will always remain my favorite Kiss song, as the lyrics are haunting. If you haven't had the chance to hear this in completion - you must!!

This is the 1st KISS album I ever bought, and yes I had it on vinyl in 1976. I was all of 10 years old at the time. Up until that point I was raised on AM radio to the likes of Barry Manilow, The Carpenters, Neil Diamond and what seemed like an overkill of mediocre soft rock/easy listening music. Destroyer changed my life and my musical interests completely! I had never heard anything like this before and I was enthralled. Not knowing what a concept album was, I reveled in the journey Destroyer took me on. Once I got turned on to KISS, I was never the same. I played this album over and over until the grooves wore out. The opening track Detroit Rock City is a hard driving, heart pounding release of aggression. What a great cruisin' tune! God Of Thunder with Gene's demonic vocals and Ace's doomsday guitar riffs stands in a class by itself. On Flaming Youth and Shout It Out loud, Paul is singing exactly what I was feeling as a pre-teen. Then I heard the ballad Beth by Peter which at first didn't seem like it fit but is a gentle cry for love and tolerance amid the wild Rock God lifestyle. The album closes with a kick in the teeth - Do You Love Me is the perfect ending to what I consider one of, if not the best KISS album (CD) ever made. If you want a taste (or a mouthful) of what Kiss is all about you must get this, you won't be disappointed.

KISS had something to prove after the runaway success of "ALIVE!" and they pulled out all the stops for "Destroyer." First off, they hired Bob Ezrin, who was responsible for forging the chaos of Alice Cooper into a multi-platinum band. They also had never made any bones about the fact that they didn't just want to be stars, they wanted to be MEGA-STARS, so there aren't too many risks involved. (With the exception of recording the strings on "Beth," perhaps.) They were - thanks to "Alive!" - crowned one of the hardest, greatest working live bands in the world, now they wanted to make it clear they could lay it down on record as well.

So into the studio they went, and out popped a semi-conceptual album about each member of the band. There's Paul the Love God ("Do You Love Me?"), Gene the Demon King ("Sweet Pain," and "God Of Thunder"), Ace the rocker ("Detroit Rock City") and Peter as the sentimental love cat ("Beth"). Ezrin's touch is obvious in the opener "Detroit Rock City's" car/radio/crash sound effects, and of course the squealing kids that pop up in "God Of Thunder." Layering the production with keyboards and overdubs also brought out the best in the band's compostional skills.

Between Ezrin and KISS, "Destroyer" finally shows off the band's musical muscle. Criss' playing in "D.R.C." is standout, and the band gets crunchy on "Do You Love Me?" On the other hand, things gets a little too obvious with "Flaming Youth," which sounds cribbed from Alice Cooper's Department of the same territory, and "Shout It Out Loud," tries way too hard to be "Rock And Roll All Night Pt 2." Save those minor missteps and you have one fine rocking album. "Destroyer" was polished enough to give us long suffering fans the dose of KISS we'd always known they were capable of, gave the band some of the critical respect that was due them, and perpetuated the KISS course to rock domination that they had worked so hard to attain.

A glossy collaboration with producer Bob Ezrin, Kiss came into the prime of their popularity with "Destroyer." A stylishly produced collection of 70's hard rock, the album is often praised by critics and fans alike. In truth, while the production value is one of the highest of the band's career, about half of the songs on the album are really of special distinction. The album opener, "Detroit Rock City", is one of the finest songs written by Paul Stanley featuring a fairly complex arrangement and a "cinematic" intro filled with the sounds of a driver taking the road. The song's climax includes the sound effects of a massive auto collision before segueing into the less interesting "King of The Nighttime World." Another Stanley composition, "God of Thunder" is performed by Gene Simmons and has actually become a Simmons staple in live shows. The studio track, with it's slow serpentine rythym and the filtered voices of children at play, evokes images of Disney's "Night on Bald Mountain." On "Great Expectations", Simmons' vocal doesn't really fit the blandness of the music and the inclusion of a boys choir just seems silly and odd. "Flaming Youth", on the other hand - a rare collaboration between Simmons, Stanley and guitarist Ace Frehley - is a great 70's rock song and deserved to be featured prominently in live performance but, to my knowledge, never has been. Simmons' "Sweet Pain", an homage to sadism, is pretty uninteresting. "Shout it out Loud", however, with it's call-and-response vocals and fist-in-the-air chorus, probably sounds a lot better than it has a right to. The mega-hit from "Destroyer", Peter Criss' tender "Beth" is just beautiful. The song is a classic ballad and there's just no getting around the potency of it's union of words and melody. Stanley's "Do You Love Me" probably best represents the overall tone of the album - It's very simple, probably over-produced, but there's enough there to keep you interested. No Kiss fan would be without "Destroyer" in his or her collection, as the album represents an important turning point in the band's direction. But based on the strength of the music alone, "Destroyer" gets a good, solid C-plus.

This album is generally acknowledged by most Kiss fans as their best and most consistent effort containing new tunes and I'll agree with them. Kiss albums in the main are usually infused with a couple of good rocking tunes but also contain a lot of filler,cheesiness and cringe inducing moments. The songs you need to avoid on this album unless you like overblown 70's rock opera orchestration are "Great Expectations" and "Sweet Pain" but we will allow them the obligatory power ballad and top 10 hit "Beth".I personally have always hated "God of Thunder" but a lot of people believe this is one of their signature tunes and Gene Simmons using it in the past for his bass solo and blood spitting at live gigs may be part of the reason - listen to this track and make up your own mind.On the other songs the band stick to their own brand of 70's glam metal party tunes and the best of these I believe are "Detroit Rock City" and "Shout It Out Loud" but the others have their moments too.
In my opinion if you want a Kiss "Best Of" or an introduction to the band take it from someone who religiously bought every Kiss album as it came out up until the disaster of "The Elder" I would purchase Kiss Alive 1 and download your favourite tracks from this album and "Rock and Roll Over" and you should be rewarded. Avoid anything after 1980(some of "Creatures Of The Night" and "Unplugged" may be an exception) at all costs unless you are a fan of 80's type excessive hair metal,turgid love ballads and laughable lyrics.They have done themselves a bit of a disservice by continuing on so long past their use by date although the Reunion and Farewell Tour were great from a purely nostalgic point of view but it should have ended there and only have themselves to blame about being viewed as a novelty act by some but don't let this dissuade you from this very good album when they were at their peak.

This disc was nothing less from the classic cover to it's awesome melodies one of metals finest moments. That's good melodic metal though, thrash rarely has melody.
This one was kiss at their peak and they could be both menacing and fun enough to appeal to everyone. As they decade progressed they went more pop metal then pop in 1980 but this one until alive 2 was the band doing everything right. Song's like 'flaming youth' the hit ballad 'beth' , 'shout it loud' 'do you love me' , 'sweet pain' and others really were solid written and should be regarded as among the best of any metal fans collection. This one was widely accepted even by non metal fans as that term was rarely used then anyways as being a kick butt disc and right so. It still is every bit as fun as the day it came out in 1976. Kiss was the worlds number one band for years to come and they are still near the top even today. but this was their masterpiece disc , the one that will be regarded as their finest moment for many fans and non fans alike.

This was probably one of the first hard rock records I ever bought, I was a few years younger than the rest of my neighborhood friends and they all had all the early KISS records and always talked about them whether it be playing wiffleball in the street or shooting baskets it was all about how great the band KISS was. Somehow I got to purchase this one, and it quickly became my introduction to hard rock.

I have so many favorites here from start to finish, not much to complain about other than perhaps the out of place "Beth" and perhaps "Great Expectations" which along with "God Of Thunder" to me are also perhaps there to balance out the record.

"Detroit Rock City", and "King Of The Nightime World" are a great one-two punch to start off the Disc. Very upbeat hard rock with plenty of guitars and bombast to rock out to for sure. And the energy keeps coming with other favs in "Flaming Youth", "Sweet Pain", and my personal fav song on here and maybe of all time by Kiss in "Shout It Out Loud".

Just a great moment for the band, this is the only studio album I have of them...all the rest I have are the Live sets I II and III, and sometimes, many times I think that's all I need.