IN SEARCH OF CD BOX SETS - VOLUME V

If you've spent a reasonable amount of time here at the bottom, you are probably aware of my love for Kiss. It's strictly a love for the music and bombast (at least the original bombast, no so much any more). The operation and beliefs of the band members is not something that I care to keep up with these days. But the music, oh, the music. I do love that, though I'm not the kind of diehard that thinks they do no wrong. There are more than a few crappy songs in the discography, a few of them being represented in their 2001 box set, which is the subject of volume five of this series.

As usual, I'll start with the packaging. The box that the set comes in is black and it has what feels almost like a metal plate on the front that displays the famous Kiss Logo. The box itself is cardboard but it has a finish somewhat like a book. It is about as thick as a two by four. It houses five cd jewel cases, all inside a molded piece of red velvet covered plastic. The cd's contain the band's music in chronological order, while they have an era accurate picture of the band on the cover, with a picture of a specific band member in the tray inlay as well as on the back cover. There are five discs, so the band's first five members (Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley, Peter Criss and Eric Carr) are represented.

There is a cardboard insert that contains the track listing. I believe this was originally on the back of the box, but I removed it and it now resides inside the book that comes with the set. That book is nice. It is over 120 pages, with 13 pages being dedicated to a band biography, while the rest of the book, to me, is what makes it so great. Every song and demo represented here is commented on by band members. In addition, all of the participants in the recording of the track are listed. It's just a great part of this set.

As far as the music contents go, for the most part the track listing is impeccable. Disc One covers into 1975 and includes tracks from Wicked Lester, Bell Sound Studio demos, a couple of other demos, a previously unreleased live version of Acrobat (the song that became Love Theme From Kiss on the debut) and studio tracks from the first three releases. Disc One is stellar. Disc Two covers from 1975 into 1977 and features more demos, tracks from Kiss Alive! through Love Gun and other previously unreleased stuff. The gems here are the demo of God Of Thunder with Paul on vocals, the demo of Love Gun (Ace's killer lead playing is not present, which helps you get the picture of what that playing means to the song) and a soundcheck recording of I Want You. Again, this stuff is stellar.

Disc Three would be next level (down). It's still good, but only a couple of previously unreleased demos and live tracks are present. It dips back into 1976 and covers from then until 1982, including studio tracks from Destroyer through Creatures of the Night as well as one track from each solo album and a track from the German import Killers. Disc Four is where it starts to really fall. Again, I like the studio music that is represented here, but there are only two demos. One of those is Time Traveller, which in my opinion would have been a great song to include on Crazy Nights. The other is of interest to some fans, a demo of Ain't That Peculiar, featuring Eric Carr on vocals.

Finally, Disc Five has very little material of interest to me. The unreleased stuff would be a demo of Domino, a version of Childhood's End that has an unreleased coda added to it and a previously unreleased track from the Psycho Circus era called It's My Life.

Overall, this is an excellent set. The unreleased stuff on the first two discs is Holy Grail type material for Kiss fans. Personally, I wish Paul and Gene would give the complete Wicked Lester album a proper release. I don't remember how much I paid for this (I think I may have bought it from Best Buy, but I'm not positive), but it appears to be out of print and running about sixty dollars on Amazon. I don't think it's necessary for folks that are just looking to check the band out, the Kiss Gold release would do very well for that purpose. But if you are more than a mild Kiss fan, this is a must. You must go out and get it now.