Customer Reviews

The Kiss Album Focus, Vol. 1: Kings of the Night Time World, 1972-82

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I read a lot of the passages in the KISS Album Focus when it was an online feature of the old KISS Asylum site. I loved the stuff then, I love it now. In terms of sheer volume of information, this is probably the most comprehensive KISS book on the market. The truths behind some well-known KISS myths are explored (debunking many in the process). Julian Gill, who put this together, is obviously a knowledgable and dedicated KISS fan. The amount of effort involved in compiling this must have been staggering.

It's just too bad that what is otherwise a very handy KISS reference is marred by awful (perhaps non-existant) copyediting. The spelling and grammatical errors, while numerous, can be overlooked. But what really hurts this book is the lack of organization and editing/trimming. For a book of more than 500 pages to have NO index is a crime. While having the chapters arranged in chronological order helps, it is still extremely difficult to quickly find information.

And as for the length - although this book seems impressive at 500 pages, it doesn't need to be that long. While the KISS Album Focus is definitely comprehensive, it can also be repetitive. A lot of information is repeated, sometimes in the course of a single page. This book, despite the title, could really have used more focus.

That being said, I still highly recommend this book to any true KISS fan who wants to dig deeper into the group's history than the usual Gene Simmons/Paul Stanley PR puffery. You find out who played on what songs; you get the stories behind all the albums from the original makeup era; you get a nice, detailed look at all the stuff the members did before KISS. In short, this book (along with KISS & Sell, Black Diamond, Behind the Mask, and KISS Alive Forever) is essential for any KISS Army recruit.

Even if you've read all the other Kiss books, you still need this one. I'd say along with Gene Simmons' Kiss and Make Up autobiography, this is my favorite Kiss book ever. DETAILS about the recording and times of the original line up in this book are OUTSTANDING. Album by album, song by song, member by member, this book has the stuff a total KISS freak like me could only dream of.

Almost too much info. Some parts were like reading legal briefs. But since I love KISS I cannot complain about the over-detailing. I learned a lot from this book.

I'm sure Jullian Gill is a nice guy and all, but he writes like a six-year-old. To wit:

"For Peter, the resulting product could easily turn pointless and troublesome. Worse, the music could be seen as being without value. Unorganized sessions could quickly render those sessions pointless."

Huh? That's just one example of many, folks. There are also typos by the truckload, "unnecessary" "quotes" "galore", and tons of exclamation marks!!!

unbelievable....