Classic Rock Bottom

ALBUM OF THE WEEK # 6 KISS - DESTROYER (1976) KEY KISS ALBUMS PART 1


1. Detroit Rock City
2. King Of The Night Time World
3. God Of Thunder
4. Great Expectations
5. Flaming Youth
6. Sweet Pain
7. Shout It Out Loud
8. Beth
9. Do You Love Me

This week's album of the week feature is a little behind.  Sorry it took so long, but I'd like to look at Kiss' 1976 release called Destroyer.
 Actually, this will be the first of a 4
part series featuring what I consider pivotal Kiss studio albums.
 Destroyer was the first studio album following Kiss Alive!, which is
the album that really put Kiss on the map.  Needless to say, the
expectations were quite high.  A lackluster album here
could have saved the world from ever having a chance to buy a Kiss
Kasket.  But, Kiss, along with Bob Ezrin, knocked it out of the park.  

Although the album went gold pretty quickly, none of the singles shook the
earth.  Shout It Out Loud, Flaming Youth and Detroit Rock City were all
very disappointing for the Kiss camp.  The album fell off the charts
pretty quickly until radio stations started playing the B-side to
Detroit Rock City, which was Beth.  It was pretty much included as
filler, and turned out to be the band's biggest hit.  The song reached
#7 on Billboard's chart and I specifically remember that it was the 1976
#1 song in Augusta, Georgia on the local radio station WBBQ.  So, the
throwaway song eventually pushed sales over 1 million units in the U.S.
and made Destroyer Kiss' first platinum LP. 

The first 3 songs are dynamite.  I really love the newscast and all of the special
effects on Detroit Rock City, but you have to admit, it's a damn good
song.  It transitions straight in to King Of The Night Time World.  Next
up is the Paul Stanley penned song, God Of Thunder.  Strangely enough,
the vocals were performed by Gene Simmons and it became his signature
song.  Side one closes with Great Expectations.  This is a symphonic
type song that isn't bad, but runs neck and neck with Beth as my least
favorite from this album.

Side two busts out of the gate with Flaming Youth, followed by Sweet Pain.  Some Kiss fans say the latter is
filler, but I don't think so.  Shout It Out Loud is up next.  This is a
great song and has become an all time Kiss Klassic.  I love the vocal
trade off by Gene and Paul.  Beth follows, and although the band's
biggest hit, it's a song that I find myself skipping most of the time. 
Do You Love Me closes the album out.  This is one of my
favorite Kiss tunes, and I especially love the powerful drum intro by
Peter.  The difference between this drum intro and the one for Rock And
Roll All Nite is night and day, with the latter being quite wimpy. 
There is a very strange hidden track that comes after Do You Love Me,
sort of a montage of Paul Stanley stage raps and the song Great
Expectations.  I think this was added simply to extend the album's
running time.

Well, there you have it.  This album really continued the momentum Kiss had gained from the Alive! album and really
helped keep Casablanca Records afloat.  And just think, without
Casablanca, not only would we have possibly never had Kiss, we may have
never witnessed the greatness that was Donna Summer and The Village
People.  If you don't already own it, then money should definitely not
be a factor in your not purchasing this album because Amazon has it for
10 bucks new and two and a half dollars
used.  And, if you don't like Kiss just because that's a cool thing to
do, then you should be ashamed of yourself, because this is good music. 


P.S.  I almost forgot, the album art is stellar.  The cover was painted by Ken Kelly and as a child of 11 (I bought this around 1977 as
my second album ever purchased, with Van Halen II being the first), the
cover mesmerized me.  


Singles


Shout It Out Loud

Flaming Youth

Detroit Rock City

Beth


Best Album Cuts


King Of The Night Time World

God Of Thunder

Sweet Pain

Do You Love Me


Hidden Gems


King Of The Night Time World

Do You Love Me

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Here's the player:

Did you buy this in 77 or 79?
I never really thought about that, but I must have bought it in '79. I know I bought VH II first, so I guess I didn't start listening to Kiss until I was about 13 years old. Thanks for pointing out my crappy memory Jon.
Crap, I thought you had a wayback machine and wanted to borrow it. To do good stuff, of course.
This was my first album ever. I got it for my 12'th birthday in april 1977. I had been a KISS-fan for 4 month or so, with a lot of poster's on my wall, without having a record.

Together with "Hotter Than Hell", it's my favorite KISS-album.

Was'nt Van Halen II released in may 1979 ??
Yep, see reply to Jon's comment above. I'm old, I have a terrible memory.
The album cover is still top 3 best ever, at least for me. First time I heard KISS was with a few friends and one of them brought over a copy of the "The Originals" (anyone remember that?) It was a packaging of the first 3 KISS albums. We play Hotter Than Hell and I wasnt really sure what to think, I was only in 5th grade... But when I seen and heard Destroyer I was hooked.
I definitely remember The Originals. That album cover was fantastic as well (with the atomic explosion layered with the cover of the debut album:


I remember at one point picking that album up in the local KMart, looking at it and wanting it so bad, but not having any money and I was never able to get it. I have picked it up off of Ebay in the last year or two.

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