Album Review: KISS, "Sonic Boom"www.livedaily.com
Thirty-five years into their career, face-painted rockers KISS [ tickets ] know they're preaching to the converted, and what the converted want is some approximation of the albums the group created during its '70s-era heyday. In that regard, "Sonic Boom" mostly hits the mark.
The last time KISS delivered a new studio album (1998's overproduced, mostly uninspired "Psycho Circus"), that approximation was primarily limited to an album cover that featured the four original members together and in full makeup for the first time in nearly 20 years. In actuality, guitarist Ace Frehley and drummer Peter Criss were sidelined for most of the recording process in favor of uncredited session players, and group leaders Gene Simmons (vocals/bass) and Paul Stanley (vocals/guitar) brought in a number of outside songwriters.
This time around, Stanley--who self-produced "Sonic Boom"--insisted that he and his bandmates write and record all of the material. The result: KISS sounds more like its original self than it has in three decades--ironic, given that Criss and Frehley have long since been replaced by Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer, respectively, who for the past several years have been impersonating Criss and Frehley on stage.
There's no new ground broken here, but that certainly wasn't the band's intention. Quite the contrary; when Singer takes lead vocals on "All For the Glory," the similarity between his delivery and Criss' is alarming, and Thayer's Frehley-like obsession with electricity on "When the Lightning Strikes" is obviously no coincidence. Both instances make clear, however, that the band isn't asking itself, or its listeners, to evolve; it's asking them to pretend its 1976. When listened to from that perspective, "Sonic Boom" pretty much delivers.
The most noteworthy cut is the album-opening "Deliliah," an all out rocker featuring Stanley on lead vocals that qualifies as one of best tracks the group has ever recorded. Its placement at the front of the album is a double-edged sword: on the one hand, it will instantly win over longtime fans; on the other hand, it sets the bar a bit too high for the 10 tracks that follow.
Still, the stripped-down, retro sound will please veterans of the KISS army ... though there's something creepy about hearing the 60-year-old Simmons--a once-mysterious figure who in recent years has overexposed his offstage self--deliver lines such as "I've got the power for the hour/baby feel my tower of power," but he's not looking to impress you or reinvent himself; he's looking to create the illusion that you're listening to the same guy who, in his late 20s, offered up "Plaster Caster," a song about the oversexed bassist creating a plaster cast of his aforementioned "tower of power."
Assuming that "Sonic Boom" turns out to be KISS' final studio creation, it's a much higher note for the group to go out on than "Psycho Circus." It would feel far less contrived if Criss and Frehley were on board, but if you're willing to suspend disbelief--a fairly easy feat, given how closely Singer and Thayer ape their predecessors' sound and style--then "Sonic Boom" is a worthwhile tip of the cap to KISS' glory years.
