From: Mr. G

Well it's been a week since the official release so here's my two cents on the Psycho Circus CD.

The Good:

The sound and the production values, nice of them to spend some $$ in this area for a change sounds like a cross between Creatures (minus cannon drums)/Revenge/Destroyer. Well done. The songs Psycho Circus/Within/We are One/Journey all sound fresh and different for the band. No ZZ Top or AC/DC recycling problems with these tracks. The packaging is decent but the 3-D idea is not new see the Ozzfest disc.

The bad:

Lyrics - five minutes thought max - Gene even manages to plagiarize himself on Within (a good COS track) and Journey. I'm very disapointed with PS on this one he's recycled every 80's cliche imaginable. I just hope we don't see him hoisting a can of Pepsi or Coke in a commercial featuring Raise Your...After the progress they made on COS they went backwards and are writing down to the fans, these songs for the most part are pure bubblegum without the humor or double entendres of the 70's material. Judas Priest did this post Screaming for ...and they suffered for it. Kiss won't but that's another issue.

The questionable:

Who's playing on this thing - I can only say for sure that Ace/Peter are on Into the Void other than that who knows. Ace's solo style is very distinct and he hasn't changed much over the years. So who's soloing on Within (is it Bruce?), it almost sounds like a group of decent musicians imitating KISS by playing as simple as possible so that the tunes can be reproduced live by the real band. Even Fairbairn admitted that the songs were given a boost by outside agencies, question is how much. I don't mind being part of a Great R&R swindle but for once could they at least come clean and let us in on it.

The Ugly:

Peter's track - I Finally found a Celine Dion song on a Kiss record - this has to be the worst ballad they ever committed to tape/disk. You Wanted - please do not attempt this live - this has major train wreck possibilities - terrible song made even worst by copying the Crue (the lowest of the low - resorting to porn for publicity), awful chorus by the way. Dreamin - stealing a Cooper riff are we - like Paul said steal a diamond (which is hard to find) rather than a rock - don't be so obvious.

The laughable: $300 Cdn equivalent for a merchandise catalog KisstoryII - they obtained the majority of the material from fans for $0.00 and they are re-selling this to us so that the die-hards can try and track down more stuff and spend more $$$. Those coins are also a huge rip-off - what a profit margin!!! I'm definately in the wrong business.

Track by track rating: Psycho 5/5, Within 4/5, Pledge 3/5, Into the void 3/5, We are One (4/5), You want (0/5), I finally (0/5) unlistenable, Raise 2/5 should have been on Crazy Nights, Dreamin 2/5 sounds like a demo, Journey 3.5/5 Overall: 3 *** barely - weaker than the following in my opinion/ Kiss-Hotter-Destroyer-R&R-Love Gun-Creatures-Lick it-Revenge-COS-Unplugged

MR. G

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