ALBUM OF THE WEEK #7 KISS - CREATURES OF THE NIGHT (1982) KEY KISS ALBUMS PART 2

[RJhog (Admin)]

1. Creatures Of The Night
2. Saint And Sinner
3. Keep Me Comin'
4. Rock And Roll Hell
5. Danger
6. I Love It Loud
7. I Still Love You
8. Killer
9. War Machine

This week's album is a continuation of the Key Kiss Studio Albums series.  To me, Creatures Of The Night, from 1982, once again started to turn
around a sinking ship known as Kiss.  That ship was sailing very
smoothly unitl Dynasty (1979), Unmasked (1980) and Music From The Elder
(1981) were released.  Kiss explored disco, pop and the concept album
format with those three releases, and although I personally love all 3
of those albums, many Kiss fans said "no thank you".  To top that off,
Kiss had lost founding member Peter Criss.  He was replaced by Eric Carr
starting with the Music From The Elder album, but Eric would
eventually be very well loved by Kiss fans.  And, Ace Frehley, another
founding member, was essentially out of the band at this point as well
(he would appear on the original cover and in the video for I Love It
Loud).  Kiss was in dire need of a kick-ass record. 

Along comes Vinnie Vincent, who co-wrote 3 of the tunes, and would eventually find
himself in the band.  This album also features two songs co-written by
Bryan Adams (Rock And Roll Hell, War Machine).  Another key to this
album was the stellar drum sound of Eric Carr.  You can't talk about
this album with a Kiss fan without that fan mentioning the great, heavy
drumming. 

The albums opener is really classic.  It's the title track, and that previously mentioned drum sound just busts into your
head with the intro.  It became an opener for many Kiss shows and it's
truly a very good song.  Saint And Sinner is next, and this would be
a hidden gem for me.  While I don't think Keep Me Comin' is a great
track, I do love the Zeppelin"ish" sound of the riff and drums.  Rock
And Roll Hell is another track I like a lot, followed by the very cool
Danger. 

Side two opens with one of the most fan-loved Kiss songs of the 80's, I Love It Loud.  For myself, it is one of my least
favorite Kiss tunes and one that I usually will skip.  It does have the
heavy drum intro, but I just don't like it.  Next is the album's ballad,
I Still Love You.  To me, the studio version of this song is one of the
most underrated in the Kiss catalog.  It's that soft song/heavy song
type, and I think it's great.  The live version is a different story
(Paul's voice acrobatics just make it an aggravating live tune).  Killer
is a really strong song by Gene and is followed by the album's closer,
War Machine.  The final track is really, really heavy and features
an awesome guitar riff. 

And that's it.  I dig the album art with the four faces and the glowing eyes.  This album was re-issued in
1985 with an alternate album art featuring Bruce Kulick, who didn't join
the band until around the release of Asylum (1985).  The track listing
was also changed, with tracks 2 and 8 changing places.  I like the
original best, but here's a shot of the re-issued artwork:

The remastered CD is available on Amazon for 10 dollars new and 5 dollars used and if you don't have it, that's too bad because it's a fantastic
album.

Singles

I Love It Loud
Creatures Of The Night

Best Album Cuts

Saint And Sinner
Rock And Roll Hell
Danger
I Still Love You
Killer
War Machine

Hidden Gems

Creatures Of The Night (hidden even though it was a single, only Kiss fans know it)
Saint And Sinner
I Still Love You
Killer
War Machine

[RJhog (Admin)]

Here's the player:

[Scott]

Nice post. I love creatures of the night and prefer the original artwork. Over time it has improved as the tracks are still relevant. I think I Still Love You is my least favorite though. War machine stills rocks.

[Niels (Mod)]

I don't really agree with you about Dynasty. I think that it's a very strong KISS-album, and the last "real" KISS-album imo. I know that Peter Criss probebly only plays (and sings) on "Dirty living" but he's there and Ace is definnetly there as well. Some of Ace's best work is on that album, and he has more songs on the album than Gene, so it's not a "Paul and Gene-album" like every other album since (exept Unmasked, but now THAT was were the ship was sinking). I know you said, that you love Dynasty, but that tour and those costumes was the last time, that KISS topped themselves, and they were more populare than ever in Europe.

I think, that "Creatures" is a good album, but I surely miss some Ace-songs and solo's, on that album.

[Scott]

Im taking Neils position on this one. Very well said. I also am a Dynasty fan.

[RJhog (Admin)]

Well, I totally agree. All I meant was that the popular opinion was that Dynasty was a disco album. I don't agree with that popular opinion, I really don't even think I Was Made For Loving You sounds very disco. To me, it rocks. But, most folks who are somewhat familiar with Kiss would say "how about that disco album"? Then Unmasked, which I have to admit has a lot of pop sounds for the time. Remember, Kiss made Unmasked when Black Sabbath was releasing Heaven And Hell and AC/DC was releasing Back In Black, two very hard rock albums. But again, I love Unmasked, but many fans just said, first disco, now pop, where did my rock band go?

Anyway, just wanted to make sure everybody knows that I love those 3 albums (including Music From The Elder) but I still think Kiss peaked in '78 and although Dynasty was great, it was just the start of a decline.