I'd argue any of the way over the top wankers like Michael Angelo Batio, Paul Gilbert (with his drill) or Steve Vai killed it. Just shredding to the point it's not even melodic but more pure acrobatics and musical masturbation. I'm sure others would point at Eddie Van Halen, perhaps. I can say that I saw Vinnie with KISS in 1983 and he was fine. I don't recall him playing anything really bad or sounding completely atonal. That said, any picture you see of him on stage (especially circa Creatures) his fingers are very high up on the fretboard and it looks like he's about to assault everyone with a complete blitzkrieg of notes. Vinnie might be a great guitarist but his idea of restraint on stage was virtually nonexistent. Vinnie Vincent Invasion definitely proves that out.
War Machine I agree with many of @GodShifter 's comments on this. OK song, BNETBI. VV's work is, I guess, not that inspiring. I'd take a Warren DeMartini over this anytime. This is another song that doesn't really take me anywhere. No, it just doesn't make me want to replay it (vs. King of the Nighttime World or something). I realize that I just don't relate to heaviness or much metal - so my POV is colored by my POV . But it's not bad. I guess I realize I have to let go of "it's not like the Klassic KISS" and "but they didn't write it" - just strike these out of further commentary and look at it for what it is. I wonder how much of Bryan Adam's writing ideas are infused with percussion? Many of his songs have quite heavy drums (IMO). Did he write something like this for hire or because he wanted another creative outlet? Do we know?
Interesting as Adams' longtime drummer was Micky Curry who was a hard hitting guy who had played with a lot of different acts and genres. As far as Adams' writing style, my guess was he'd take an idea he had and then tune it up (or down) for whoever he was submitting the song for. If it was KISS: heavy it up. If it was for Loverboy: bring it down a notch and add some schmaltz. Just a guess.
WAR MACHINE Another one of my favorite Kiss songs of all time. Love the heaviness of...well...everything! I do like the repetitiveness as it gives the feel of a marching into war (or something like that). As I said before I don't really care who wrote what as long as the material is of this caliber, Bryan Adams and Vallance can write all of Kiss' songs for all I care! I have to say for the ultimate Demon anthem I bounce back and forth between this and God of Thunder depending on my mood they interchange for me. I am glad they play this live often and change it out for GOT and vice versa. What a great album Creatures is! They would come close with Revenge in terms of quality but this is just neck and neck with Destroyer for me. It's an A grade across the board here. CREATURES RANKINGS Creatures of the Night War Machine I Still Love You Saint and Sinner Rock And Roll Hell I Love It Loud Danger Keep Me Comin' Killer
War Machine: Oh my God, what a badass song! Such a killer riff, excellent vocals from Gene, Eric and Vinnie play their asses off on this song, it is the best song on here and on a scale of one to ten, I give it becoming king without all the responsibilities, BAM!
Rankings: War Machine Creatures Of the Night Saint and Sinner I Love It Loud Rock and Roll Hell I Still Love You Keep Me Comin Killer Danger
My rankings would be: Creatures of the Night 4/5 Saint and Sinner 3.5/5 Keep Me Comin' 3/5 Rock and Roll Hell 3/5 Danger 2.5/5 I Love It Loud 2.5/5 I Still Love You 2.5/5 Killer 2/5 War Machine 3.5/5
A lot of people agree with you on Breathless, but I think it has some amazing moments. Not as consistent as the first Beyond, but I listen to it as much if not more than the first.
I love "War Machine". My favorite cut on the album. Gets me pumped up. Makes me want to wave a knife around and make threats!
WAR MACHINE A brutal face punch of a song...certainly one of the most memorable album closers. And Vinnie...holy crap is that lead unreal. I love that little stutter he does at 2:20, then the bends before the main riff returns with the feedback? And the outro lead is just fantastic with the hammer-on's and the feedback as the song ends. Add to it Eric Carr just pounding the crap out of those drums!
Creatures of the Night 10/10 Saint and Sinner 9/10 Keep Me Comin' 5/10 Rock and Roll Hell 7/10 Danger 10/10 I Love It Loud 5/10 I Still Love You 6/10 Killer 1/10 War Machine 9/10
Call me Dumb! Call me Naive even Stoopid, but I thought it was a bad joke! That fool actually tried to trademark the horns? Forget Dio did it first, that gesture goes back thousands of years! Every F N Penny you can get huh Demon? Geeezus
WAR MACHINE What a great closing song! Overall, I think "Creatures" is a very good KISS album minus a couple. I often thought "what If, Lick It UP" had the production of "Creatures" because IMO, the songwriting is a bit stronger.
Actually a band called Coven did the horns before Dio or Gene. Yes the trademark was insanely idiotic, but it should noted that Dio popularized it in metal, he wasn't the first to use that gesture. Oh, and just to get in the obligatory Beatles reference, John does it on the cover of Yellow Submarine, although probably a mistake by the artist.
Wow I forgot about Coven, that's going back almost 50 years OK 46. And now I gotta go check out my YS cover too. I wonder if I still have my Coven lp..... Lol thanks brother. I'm still blown away though, he tried to trademark it! Pax
Back in the early 90s my friends/bandmates and I used to go to this particular bar, and two of the bouncers at this place were brothers. I think maybe twins, but I don't remember. Anyway both of these guys were major KISS freaks. I think they had even done some security work for them or something. This place was actually a sports bar but they had a rock night and our band at the time played there a few times. So one night we did Strutter and forever after these dudes loved us. It was really funny. They gave us a big bag of KISS stuff from their huge collection, and then they even organized a viewing of KMTP at the bar, and treated us like we were the honored guests, making sure we were there before they'd start the movie. Anyway, the reason I bring all this up is because one of these dudes would yell...literally yell...at the jukebox when STP's 'Sex Type Thing' came on, which given the time period it did a lot. The similarity in the riff just enraged him....and of course he was the type of guy that hated 90s rock in the first place. So he would just get so mad. I have this picture in my mind of him shaking his fist and yelling 'Lawsuit!" I'm not sure if he meant he was personally going to sue them somehow, or he was willing KISS to do it or what. Anyway there's really not much more to the story than that. Just remembering a nutty KISS freak I vaguely knew along time ago. _____ So, War Machine - cool riff and Gene sounds good in the verses but the chorus doesn't really do it for me and...eh, I'm trying to come up with positive things to say, and honestly I just don't like the song too much, don't think it's very good. And holy cow is that guitar solo terrible. I mean it's just...appalling. Seriously I've been trying to keep a lid on the negativity, but that solo...oof.
I get that the music industry has changed a lot but I do not believe that KISS would lose money by making a record. Sure they wouldn't get some million dollar advance but they would make money. And in the case of KISS, what kind of money are they making on the road? Not literally, none of us knows that, but I suggest they're making enough profit to 'afford' to make a smaller amount of money on an album. It bothers me when Gene gets on about this because I feel like no matter how much he may have valid points, it still comes off as a slap in the face to real fans who pay $120 for a concert ticket, $1000 for a meet and greet, $5000 bucks for a KISS Kruise. Those people would pay the $12 dollars for a cd quite obviously. But you're not going to make a record for them because you can't make enough money off of it? I say 'enough money' because again I don't believe they would lose money. "So thanks for the $6120 dollars but I'm not going to make a record because it's not worth it to me". "But hey, here's a $1500 bass, let me sign that for you and take your $10,000!" And if nobody buys records anymore, why would you waste your time and talent writing two songs with Ace? There's zero money to be made from it, right? If nobody is buying KISS albums then surely even less are buying Ace Frehley albums.
Here's Bryan Adams doing an impromptu run-through of 'War Machine' with comedian Russell Peters a few months back. Instagram post by Russell Peters • Apr 2, 2017 at 12:07am UTC
Good crunchy riff, and yes, I also hear an Iommi influence. Another song where the NWOBHM influence is also present. Viinnie's solos are good, but so far not one of them has really bowled me over yet. Drums sound good, Gene's vocals work. if it were more substantial, I'd rate it highly but for what it is, I certainly like it. 7.6 out of 10.
My feeling is that if you are still touring you should still be producing. Rob Halford recently said something similar about still being a creative touring band. KISS seems more interested in cashing in off nostalgia then being a creative force. They aren't eager to play new material nor even pull out a rare track. I don't buy for an instant that there aren't enough die-hards in a typical audience who wouldn't go crazy for an Almost Human.
I was never the hugest Ratt fan, but I agree. Warren played things that were more interesting to me than what I've heard from Vinny so far. (but I have only listened to half of Creatures so far)
