From: Matt Alexandris

Whether you love it or you absolutely hate it, you have to agree with one thing.....KISS IS BACK folks, and if you ask me the "Psycho Circus" album is a return to their halcyon days of the '70's. Only this time it doesn't only sound like a '70's KISS album, it has elements of '80's and '90's KISS as well. This to me is not a bad thing, quite the contrary actually. There are not too many bands that have the range that they do, going from a "COS" like song like "Within" to something very '80's sounding like "Raise Your Glasses" to the per usual Peter Criss ballad "I Finally Found My Way" shows musical versatility in my opinion. Now mind you I'm not a musician, just a music lover and there is nothing wrong with being able to play all different styles of music and put it on one album (Didn't Led Zeppelin do exactly that in their heyday?? Look at how revered they are for it too, not just by music fans but by their peers as well).

My personal opinion of the album is that it's an absolute GEM!!! :-) I am not one of those KISS fans that believes all the rumors I hear when I come on the 'Net and surf through the KISS Asylum pages or any other KISS- related webpage for that matter. My philosophy is that I wasn't there when they recorded the album so my gut feeling is that they ALL played on it. Yeah at first listen it's shocking that Ace can play something like "Within" or "Journey of 1,000 Years" or even "Dreaming" for that matter,but if he and Peter are indeed clean and sober like we are being led to believe then why couldn't they both learn and improve their playing?? The thing that I believe in is the quality of the music, it's a great album if you ask me and their isn't a song on it that I don't like. My personal favorites are "Psycho Circus","You Wanted the Best","I Pledge Allegiance","Into the Void",and "Raise Your Glasses". I have always liked the heavy side of the band as some people know, and this is the best KISS album since "Creatures" if you ask me (And I absolutely LOVED "Revenge"!!!). It's new ORIGINAL KISS, when was the last time someone said those words in the same sentence before "Dynasty" came out (I say "Dynasty" since we all know Peter didn't play a note on "Unmasked")?? So I say let's quit bitching and moaning about who played what on the album (And we know Bruce didn't play on it, he said so at the New England KISS Expo earlier this month....he may have co-wrote "Dreaming" with Paul but he didn't play on it, I choose to believe him since I've talked with Bruce before and he seems like an honest guy to me!!) and just enjoy the damn thing OK people?? Yeah some of it is commercial sounding, but it beats the commercialism of "Crazy Nights" and "Asylum" if you ask me. Those albums don't get played very often around here, but "Psycho Circus" on the other hand does get played a lot in my house and if I didn't like it much I wouldn't play it.

So with that I will give the album on the whole a review of 4.5 stars out of 5. And besides fellow KISS fans, once the album debuts at #1 on the Billboard Top 200 albums of the week next week (Knocking off that disgusting Alice Cooper/David Bowie wannabe Marilyn Manson out of the top spot, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!) who will really care who played what and where?? Not me that's for certain. :-)

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