I heard a couple of japanese pressings they are quite good. I'm sure the others have more experience with different pressings.
I Walk Alone I think this is a pretty good song, it may be the 'poppiest' song on the album. Kulick's vocals recall a lot of Ace-isms but lacking his charm and personality. The 'backwards' passage doesn't really work for me, it's a bit distracting. My favorite part of the song is where Gene and Paul join in on vocals effectively bringing the song to a climax. A good closing track. Overall not a bad album. It's certainly an interesting one and it's pretty darn close to Revenge in consistency and it's better than all of the 80's albums we've covered since LIU. A somewhat difficult album to digest it surpasses Elder as the least KISS sounding album in their catalogue and I would definitely revisit this again and give it another shot.** **But not anytime soon because I'm just discovering Doom metal because of @GodShifter 's thread and I'm addicted.
If you can play high resolution files, the hd tracks files are great. I personally thought the 2014 lp reissues were really good for the most part. I suggest taking a punt on the s/t and see what you think. Overall, they got pretty high marks on this forum. There is another giant thread around here if you're looking for feedback on each reissue.
This is probably one reason why it worked so well in 1996. If it was 1992 Nirvana and grunge bands were clearing the decks. It was better to come after that because all of those grunge bands, who now were wondering about their future, got to indulge in their past with a Kiss reunion.
I don't feel they thought about using Peter & Ace's makeup on new people until they were faced with it. Back in '79/'80 they felt the same way we all do; we can't put someone else in Peter's makeup. I think it wasn't until the reunion started to fall apart that they considered that option. You're completely right; no one would've cared for new characters. On that point they actually made the best decision but it was also a hard decision because they still get crap for it. But as time goes by people care less and less about it. Aside from Peter being there for 2003-2004, it's been the way it is for 15 years. I'm used to it by now. I can still talk about it and what I think but I'm used to it. It's accepted just not liked as much. Plus would you want Peter & Ace in there all this time if they're playing brought the band down? What is more important to each fan; the original lineup or a band that sound really good? Why can't it be both? I'm sure it could on certain nights but not overall and we all know this. Someone above said they saw Peter as the weak link and we all know that is accurate. Once a fan decides what's really important to them with a band that has gone through changes and remains together, it's much easier to be a fan of that band as they are.
KISS Psycho Circus (Mercury/Polygram 1998) With KISS riding high from their hugely successful reunion tour of 1996/97 the band went into the studio to record an album that was mean to sustain the energy and enthusiasm of the long and grueling tour yet, as usual in the KISS camp, things were not well between the band members..... If 1997 gave us a “carnival of souls” then 1998 gave a psycho circus”. Billed as the first studio album withe original members on the heels of the successful reunion tour of 1996-97, Psycho Circus was meant to capitalize on the success of said tour. As the official 18th studio album for the band KISS, the band hired producer, Bruce Fairbairn, who had worked with the band previously on Crazy Nights, and set to work to record the album. The primarily location for the recording of Psycho Circus was A&M Studios in Hollywood, California, however, some recording was also done at One on One Studios in New York City. The album was recorded from January through April of 1998 and was released on September 22, 1998. The album was certified gold by the RIAA in October of the same year and voted “Album of the Year” by Metal Edge Readers’ Choice Awards. Though the album was, indeed, billed as a return of the original line up of KISS, later interviews with the band members revealed that much of the album was, in fact, not the original members at all. Much like other studio albums such as 1979’s Dynasty and 1980’s Unmasked, a cast of characters was brought in to work on the album whether it be songwriting or the actual musicians of the album. In fact, session drummer (Donnie Iris etc) Kevin Valentine, who had played on several KISS albums including Revenge and Hot In The Shade, ghosted for drummer, Peter Criss, on all tracks but one (that one being “Into the Void”) while guitarist, Ace Frehley, only appeared on three tracks total himself. The rest of the lead guitar work was done by now guitarist, Tommy Thayer, who had established a long time working relationship doing various jobs with the band dating back to 1994. (Thayer and Valentine were instructed to play as closely to that of Criss and Frehley respectively, but how successful they were in their endeavors is up for debate). Multiple repeat songwriters would also have a hand in the recording of the album including former Spiders keyboardist, Holly Knight, long time co-writer Curt Cuomo, as well as former guitarist, Bruce Kulick and noted producer, Bob Ezrin who had worked with the band on three previous other occasions. Paul Stanley has stated that while the reformed band’s intentions were good for Psycho Circus, the product that came out was not something that he was proud of. The long tour for the reunion had brought up old conflicts between the band members causing a lot of infighting due to money and ego, plus along with that, producer Bruce Fairbairn had decided that much of Frehley and Criss’s work was not suitable for the record which caused even more problems. For Criss’s part, that meant almost all of his drumming, and some vocal work, was either redone or replaced while with Frehley it meant the majority of his guitar playing and much of his songwriting contributions were rejected. The ultimate result was an album that was wildly uneven in terms of strength of material and not cohesive or representative of the band's past legacy to a large degree. Despite all the issues Psycho Circus debuted at #3 on the the Billboard 200 and three singles were released from the album. The lead off track “Psycho Circus”, written by Paul Stanley and Curt Cuomo, charted the highest; actually reaching #1 on the US Mainstream Rock Tracks. With that brief introduction to the 1998’s Psycho Circus, let’s look at the afore mentioned track of the same name “Psycho Circus” which leads off the album. PSYCHO CIRCUS 1998 (Stanley, Cuomo) 5:37 Working off a concept that was developed by manager, Doc McGhee (who also managed Mötley Crüe and Metallica among other bands), the lead track from “Psycho Circus” was written by Paul Stanley and Curt Cuomo.Though Stanley and Cuomo are credited with the songwriting for the tune, both Bob Ezrin and Bruce Kulick were involved in helping contribute to the song in the demo stages. With management worrying about a lead off track to start the album, Stanley introduced everyone involved to what everyone agreed was the perfect track to launch the album of the same name. Though much of Psycho Circus is confusion in terms of who did what in terms of musicianship (like many KISS albums, really) it is generally believed that Paul Stanley handles the lead guitar work for the track while Bruce Kulick plays bass guitar, however, it also possible the lead work could be Tommy Thayer. Stanley, reportedly, wanted to come up with a big anthem like tune akin to “King of the Nighttime Word from Destroyer. With some weird circus like music and transitioning into a gloomy gong sound, the song gets started with some string hesitation and moves into the huge power chords that drive the song. The guitars sound aggressive and definitely not something that we’d expect from vintage KISS but we have to remember this is 1998 not 1977. Paul is back to his old form vocally, soaring and in his old, more well known register. Kevin Valentine is doing his best to sound like vintage Peter Criss, but it’s not really like “The Catman” that much, but, never the less, a noble effort. I like the slashing guitars and the overall vibe of this song, but I have to say the mix is not great on this song as the vocal seem a bit buried under the rest of the instruments particularly that of the guitars and the drums. The bass is much harder to hear and has a bit of a sloppy tone to it (at least in the copy I have). A decent Ace tendition for the solo by Paul (or Tommy), but it’s even hard to hear in the mix. I like the build up at 4:01 and thought it was Gene speaking at first, but it’s actually Paul talking through some effects. The song builds again and we’re back to the chorus which leads us to the end. Not a bad song despite my minor criticisms of it. I just wish the mix was evened out a bit. Otherwise, a good solid rocker to start out the album, but it's certainly not in the spirit of something like "King of the Nighttime World" or any other very popular KISS anthem. "Psycho Circus" was released as the first single for the album and was the band's first #1 single even though it was on Mainstream Rock Charts. The song got some decent radio play, but, unfortunately for KISS, the popularity of the single still didn't translate to great sales for the album.
So, once again, I'm traveling for a few days so bear with me as I'm going to be fairly busy, but I still intend to keep the pace of the song a day for the thread. Sorry if my write up for Psycho Circus was a bit brief, but I'm kind up against it for time today. Still, welcome to the show !!
Psycho Circus: A decent song. Decent, not great, but decent. But seriously, this is something to put in the set list year in, year out? This is the You Got Me Rocking of KISS songs: A respectable late period song that the band keeps trying to push as this modern classic. Stop trying to make Psycho Circus happen!
Psycho Circus Pretty good song. On the link in the first post the vocals are buried. In the link to the video, the vocals are way more up front in the mix. Can't remember what the album sounds like. The video mix is way better. Video is horrendous, of course. Solid opener - I like the melody both in the verses and the chorus. And I would give it an extra gold star for having a pretty good chorus melodically - instead of the chanty, monotone thing that KISS sometimes falls back on. I pretty much blew this album off on release - I still have it but really never ever listen to it. So this will be new for me, essentially. I will keep an open mind but, just so you all know - I've always viewed post-reunion KISS to be tribute band to themselves more than a BAND band. Whatever rocks anyone may throw at the pre-reunion KISS, you can't say they were a nostalgia act. But, I promise I'll keep an open mind. So far, so good with this song.
PSYCHO CIRCUS I remember downloading a low-bitrate version of the song before release date and bursting out laughing at the ridiculous lyrics. Then I knew a store here in NY that broke street dates so I got the album about a week before the official release on CD. After awhile...I grew to love this song. Yeah, there is a cheese factor but the over-all intention is great. Paul gives a really good vocal, even if some of the melody is clunky. His lead is serviceable, but it's the lack of personality in the drums that gets me.
Psycho Circus. Hmmm. This entire album feels like a missed opportunity to me. Here we had the original members in the band and they couldn't get it together to make a 'real' KISS sounding record. Having a sub drummer for Peter is understandable as his skills were gone by this time, but I'm not feeling the original chemistry. I'm probably naive in thinking they could ever get some of it back. The Psycho Circus concept is also a bit weak to me. Mostly because it, in broad strokes, turned them into pseudo clowns. The 'evil clown' motif is so tired. (Although Stephen King got it right). I just think it seems phony, phoned in and they could have done better. I don't hate the album and I actually bought the lp for this discussion (the lenticular cover is a nice touch). My overall feeling is one of being underwhelmed, especially after all the work and build up of putting the original four back together.
PSYCHO CIRCUS The strongest tune on the album. Great opening song for a concert. Let’s assume the reunion either fizzled or never came to fruition. How long do you think Paul and Gene keep going with non make up KISS? Certainly by CoS the band, despite the album being decent, seemed to be running on fumes creatively and in terms of popularity. What would be their next move ? IMO, they should have stayed in the direction of "Revenge" and they would have been fine. Once you let go band members or ballplayers, you can never go back....well you can, but it's not the same. To many years go by, you change, they change...let it go.
I Walk Alone... did a write up yesterday, posted it but promptly deleted it because I wasn't as articulate as I wanted to be. That window closed and now I can't remember all that I wrote. Suffice to say, I like the song. Top 5 on album. CoS my fave non-makeup LP.
In The Mirror / I Walk Alone Filler / filler. The backwards stuff in IWA is awesome though, wouldn't be out of place on a JHE album! (I jest; it's rubbish, ) I've really, really tried with CoS...played each song at least 3x. But I can't remember anything good about it, apart from the chorus of Childhood's End, which I still suspect was stolen! Not much of it is what I'd call grunge, and very little is particularly reminiscent of (or anywhere near as good as) AIC. It's just a melange of various styles which were alien and unsuited to KISS, and the band should've had their collective spotty botties severely smitten for attempting to deviate this widely from their traditional milieu. Really not sure what they were trying to achieve here, but whatever it was, I'd say they failed. I can say with total confidence that I will never actively seek to hear any of these songs again, and CoS as a whole ties with CN as the worst KISS album of all, so far...
Psycho Circus With that scream we're in familiar territory and also into the modern KISS age. Even though I did enjoy most of Carnival of Souls, it's great to hear Paul fully engaged again. He's the leader of the band and he needs to be out front. Paul's voice is in good form here, even if you can hear the age in his voice since his last "pure" vocal back in Revenge. I agree about the mix being slightly off. I really want to hear the original version with both Ace and Peter. I hate that it was supposed to be a "reunion" album and we didn't get it and as usual those guys got shafted. The middle harmony bit definitely recalls Detroit Rock City. I mean, if we're having the original guys come back, why not throw it back to DRC as well. As for the guitar solo, you can definitely tell it's not Ace. Sure, it "sounds" like him, but it's not him. I like this song, I think it's either the best or 2nd best on the album depending on my mood. It's not amazing, but it sounds like KISS and I think that's what they needed to put out at this time. As good as parts of COS were, after reuniting with Ace and Peter the band needed to sound like an updated version of their classic self. I think they pulled it off, but that's solely because of Paul. I didn't buy this when it came out solely because of the artwork, which looks bad IMO. The artwork is more about the clown, or the 3D image, rather than the band. It needed to be a classic piece of art like their best albums are and it really missed the mark on that. I've only owned the album for a few years so I'm not very familiar with most of the songs. By the time I got around to getting it, I already knew that Ace and Peter were barely on here and that lessened my enthusiasm for the album even further. Still, I'll give all these songs an honest shot and we'll see how it goes. The video: OMG that's horrible. The effects look so dated, esp. with the guys in front of the green screen. This is just laughable. You can tell Peter's not really even playing on this. This might be the worst video they've ever made. So cheesy. The constant looking up to the camera got old really fast.
I agree about the artwork. And they don't even have their names beneath their own images- only their persona names. On their first reunion album with makeup! When they reconstructed the singles box, they had a consultant (fan) that worked really hard finding original artwork/versions for each release. I wonder if the band has/needs a team of 'legacy consultants'- people who have the pulse of the KISS Army and knows what fans really want? Once P and G retire, they should hire a few of you guys!
Jeez, I have not heard of this at all. The cover art kinda disturbs me a little bit, but I'm not sure why!
Re: the Psycho Circus video. This did not make the MTV rotation as they "didn't play 3D videos" although a non-3D version was made. Supposedly you were supposed to get automatic rotation of some sort of you had a Top 5 album but MTV used the 3D excuse not to add the song. I believe it was in a Goldmine interview this was stated as Kiss was frustrated with MTV especially since they performed at the VMA's only 2 years prior.
Dude, when has that ever stopped any of us? I'm pretty sure I read it before you deleted it, and although like you I don't exactly remember it, it seemed fine to me. I can't even begin to tell you how lame I feel some of my write-ups are, but ultimately it's just about sharing our perceptions of this music, and oftentimes not over-thinking it is better, anyway. Anyway, you're doing great and hopefully you won't feel the need to delete a post again!
It's incredibly uneven, but it's definitely worth a watch. I think the original intention was to take a look at several different KISS tribute bands, but while he was still working on the documentary, the reunion happened, and the focus of the project sorta meandered. It comes off as part tribute band documentary, part "Trekkies"-like expose of fans who go overboard in their love of something, and part "let's take some pot shots at KISS for their insincerity toward their fans". As far as the latter goes, if you selectively pick and choose the moments you want to share with an audience, you can make Mother Theresa come off as uncaring (if you have an agenda you're pushing). Some of the stuff that's in there, that obviously wants to make KISS look bad, could have simply been a misunderstanding, or an accident, or even downright deception on the part of the filmmakers.
