People Magazine Online Psycho Circus Review

Like Coca-Cola classic, some things are just better in their original form. It's in that spirit that the founding members of Kiss (Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss) have recorded an album together for the first time in 20 years. Part cartoon characters, part heavy metal überlords, Kiss has long reigned as a rock deity for puberty-challenged boys and grown men who insist on calling each other dude. And as one might expect, Psycho Circus doesn't tinker much with the band's often duplicated brand of thundering rock excess. Sure, there are a few nods to newer fans, as on the menacing "Within," which evokes the grimy, gothic sound of Seattle bands like Alice in Chains and Soundgarden. But lovers of any hip new brand of music, beware. Psycho Circus is classic, don't-take-no-for-an-answer Kiss, complete with raging guitar solos and hopelessly adolescent anthems testifying to the redemptive power of rock and roll and living on the edge. Older than your dad and twice as mean, Kiss is back, loud and proud.

Bottom Line: There ain't nothing like the real thing, even two decades later -- AMY LINDEN

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