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The news of KISS releasing a brand new album next month, came as a big surprise to probably each and every KISS fan out there – especially after all the years that Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons stated they weren’t interested in doing a new album. But when the 43 minute new album – produced by Paul Stanley – will be out early next month, the biggest surprise for the fans will be that this time the band in fact put their money where their mouth is: it really is the best KISS album in 30 years! Here at KISS Kollector Fanclub, we even think it might grow to be the best KISS album ever (it’s already in our personal top 3 of best ever KISS albums)…
Modern Day Delilah, the first single and the disc's opener, isn’t even the best work from the album. The Paul Stanley tune combines the best of 80ies and 70ies KISS, but the emphasis seems to be on the 80ies so the album’s opener doesn’t fully give you that classic 70ies KISS feel as promised by the band. Russian Roulette (written by Gene Simmons) also reminds more of KISS’ 80ies material than the songs from the 70ies, but Gene Simmons’ bassline does definitely bring back memories from the early days (it's so good to hear the Demon going back to his 70ies style of bass playing). And the 70ies can also be heard in the guitarparts, which seem to have been inspired by some of the material from Alive II’s studio side. Next up is Never Enough (written by Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons and Tommy Thayer, with Paul on lead vocals) which is one of our favorites on the album. This one seems to sum up what KISS is all about. And there’s something very, very familiar to this tune, but we can’t put a name to it yet.
Yes I Know (Nobody’s Perfect) is a co-write between Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, sung by Gene, and is also up there with the best KISS material. We expected it to sound like the mid 80ies demo by the (almost same) name of Nobody’s Perfect, but that’s not the case. We admit that we didn’t enjoy the next tune very much when we first heard the album a month ago, but meanwhile Stand (written by Paul Stanley with Paul and Gene sharing vocals) has grown and the bombast of this tune is getting better and better with every new spin of the disc (it starts out as a great rocker, but then there's a section somewhat similar to the harmonies on God Gave Rock ‘N’ Roll To You II but just not as excellent). It must have been written with stadiums and big crowds in their minds.
Up next is Hot And Cold (written by Gene Simmons), and all we can say is: “More cowbell, anybody?” (To us, there's never enough cowbell...) What a great track with a nostalgic 70ies feel all over it. Tommy Thayer is doing a great job on guitar, as he does on the entire album by the way. One of the album’s best – if not the best – tracks is a Gene Simmons and Tommy Thayer co-write with Eric Singer on lead vocals, All For The Glory. What an awesome song! We all knew how great a drummer and a singer Eric is, but this is his lead vocal debut on a KISS album and who could’ve thought he’d do it on a song of this magnitude? Simply amazing.
We might be the only ones, but we love the tongue-in-cheek play with words in the line in Danger Us (written by Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons) in which Paul Stanley sings: “Danger you, danger me, danger us”. The similarity with “dangerous” might be too corny for some, but we like it. Gene Simmons takes over lead vocal duties again on the next track, I’m An Animal (written by Paul Stanley), before we’re treated on yet another surprise. Tommy Thayer debuts on lead vocals on When Lightning Strikes (written by Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Tommy Thayer) and the lead guitarist turns out to have a great singing voice too. And what a great song this one is too. The only song we didn’t like from the start and are still not too much into, is the last song on the album, Say Yeah (written by Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Eric Singer). Too much 1985’s Asylum for our liking. But still, it’s not a weak song and it has the potential to turn into another anthem for the band.
The overall feel of Sonic Boom particularly reminds us of the studio side of the legendary Alive II album, and we consider those tracks to be some of the very best material the band ever came up with. There’s plenty of arena rock tunes on the album (many of which will undoubtedly become instant crowd favorites if/when played live in concert), amazing guitar and bass parts, excellent vocals and some great harmony singing and not one single disappointment as far as the songs go. Sadly, we’re not too thrilled about the album’s artwork (the cover - by Michael Doret - is okay, but the booklet and digipak - by t42 design, who've been responsible for the artwork on the last few releases by KISS and KISS compilations by Universal - could’ve been so much more) but the songs make up for everything and are the reason why we rate the album with a 10- (if the album came with amazing artwork, it would’ve been a big, bold 10).
This could easily be a 70ies KISS album (with an 80ies/90ies soundscape here and there) that never saw the light of day back then but is finally being released in 2009. It’s hard to comprehend that this amazing material has been recorded by the band 35 years after they first started out. Who could have ever thought that so many years after their first mind blowing albums, a band would still be capable of delivering some of their very best songs so far? KISS’ first ever studio album in 11 years is without a doubt the best comeback album a band could ever dream of. No KISS fan (old, new or returning to the KISS Army) will be disappointed by this album