![]() So nice the whole band was involved…sarcasm.įinally we get the whole band in a song. This one is mostly a Paul solo effort as he plays rhythm, handles the solo and the bass. It is a fun song, nothing special, but I enjoy it enough to not skip it. The song was written by Paul, Curt and Holly Knight (she helped write “Hide Your Heart” for Kiss back in the 80’s). “I Pledge Allegiance to the State of Rock & Roll” is Paul’s next song. There is a demo of the song on Disc 2 of ‘The Vault if you were curious. It is a standout track for me and one of Gene’s best. ![]() ![]() It has a great bass riff that gets even heavier during Bruce’s guitar solo. Gene’s vocals are a soft, dark and brooding delivery and then he explodes forth on the chorus and goes back and forth between each style. There is a backwards guitar intro handled by Bruce Kulick and the guitar riff right after is so gritty and dirty that it comes across as pure evil. The song is “Within” and it was written by Gene. ![]() The next track is a Gene track that blew me out of the water. Cool that it has 2 Kiss members not in the band at that time. On drums is the great Kevin Valentine, the lead guitarists is some guy named Tommy Thayer, bass is Bruce Kulick and then you have Paul. It is a beast of a song and musically has some stellar musicians. There is a break near the end where Paul speaks sing some of the lyrics in a very menacing style that sounds cool. It has a dark quality to it that really makes it stand out. It is hard and heavy and kicks some major ass. It might be one of my all time favorite Paul songs he has ever done. It worked so well it has been used as a great opening track for the live shows. The band was missing the BIG song to open the album and Paul delivered. The song was written specifically with the Psycho Circus theme and as the opening track. The rest of the song was written by Paul Stanley and Curt Cuomo (who will show up in another review down the road). If you are interested, the demo for the song is on Gene Simmons ‘The Vault’. The song opens with a carnival tune which was actually written for the album ‘Carnival of Souls’ but never used. The first track is the title track, “Psycho Circus”. I guess if we are dissecting it, that probably means it is already dead so a bad analogy there. Okay, enough with the chit-chat, it is time to dissect the album, pull out its guts and examine every song under the microscope until we can scientifically deduce a conclusion as to if the album is alive or dead. It is a very colorful and striking cover and I think one of their better ones. Outside of that, I am not sure there was anything else special about. It is a really cool cover and one that will catch your eye. It could be a closed curtain with the band members faces or a scary ass clown with its tongue hanging out. The album itself was issued with what is a called a ‘Lenticular’ cover which means as you hold the album in your hands and move the cover up and down, side to side, you get a different picture. But is it the Kiss we remember, a new Kiss that is fresh sounding and alive or is it all production magic with no life whatsoever? All great questions, we might explore. Kiss, in make-up, was back! The production of the album does sound crisp and clean and very modern. The album was produced by legendary producer Bruce Fairbairn and would go to #3 in the US Billboard Charts as well as #1 in Australia and the UK. The album was recorded from January to April of 1998 and finally was released on September 22, 1998. To be fair, the reason behind Ace and Peter not getting to play much as they were trying to renegotiate their contracts with Kiss and I don’t think that sit real well with Gene and Paul. The only song that features all four members is the Ace sung song “Into the Void” which we will discuss later. Ace does appear on the Japanese only track so on that release he is on 3 of the 11 tracks. Gene and Paul still rule the roost and do things the way they want to do them. ![]() Nothing seems to have changed as ‘Dynasty’ was also an album Ace and Peter slightly appeared on as well. Ace appears on only 2 of the 10 songs and Peter sings on 2 and only plays drums on 1. Their pictures are on the front, they each sing song, but it was far from only being the original four guys. Yes, it was a new album that did feature all four original members. Now imagine my surprise when it wasn’t even close to the build up. Man, I am getting goosebumps just thinking about it. I would get to hear Ace rip solos and cool riffs on every song and Peter would bang those drums until the cows came home. Let me tell you, I was super excited to get a new album with only the original 4 guys. The last one they did together was 1979’s ‘Dynasty’. After the very successful Reunion Tour from 1996-1997, it was time for the original band members to put other their first album in 20 years with the Gene, Paul, Ace and Peter. ![]()
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