John Liberty | M Live

The band turns 40 in January and announced in late August the release of a massive — not to mention massively expensive — book to commemorate four decades of rocking and rolling all night. The 3-foot-by-2.5-foot book priced at $4,250 features rare photographs and is signed by the band. There are only 1,000 copies of the book, which suitably will be called, “Monster,” the same name as the band’s forthcoming new album due out Oct. 16.

The 12-track album, the 20th of the band’s career, is said to be all original material.

We weren’t interested in making just a great KISS album, but a great rock album that lived up to the bands we loved growing up,” Paul Stanley said in a press release. “The ones who got us to play music in the first place.”

Kiss will headline the 160th Allegan County Fair when it performs with Motley Crue at 7 p.m. Sept. 11. Although they may be long in the tooth, or tongue as it were, the group still says it brings the heat.

“All I know is we’re having the time of our lives getting up on stage and living up to our motto – ‘You wanted the best. You got the best.’ This is the hottest band in the world,” founding member Gene Simmons said at the book release announcement at The Viper Room in West Hollywood.

Members of the band — Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer — were not made available for an interview, but here are a few facts and tidbits.

Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley left their band Wicked Lester and joined with drummer Peter Criss and guitarist Ace Frehley to form Kiss in January, 1973.

• The band has 28 gold albums

• Kiss has 100 million albums sold worldwide, including 40 million in the U.S.

• “Monster” will be the band’s first album since 2009’s “Sonic Boom”

• Paul Stanley and Greg Collins produced the new album

• Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer have been with the band for more than 20 years each

• “Monster” track titles are: “Hell or Hallelujah”; “Freak”; “Back to the Stone Age”; “The Devil Is Me”; “Take Me Down Below”; “Love Gun”; “Lick It Up”; “Outta This World” and “All for the Love of Rock & Roll”

• The book “Monster” was printed on the same binder used by The Vatican, according to Billboard.com

• Gene Simmons on their contact with Criss and Frehley: “You’ve had girlfriends before, right? You’re happy that you had the girlfriends and now you’re happy that you don’t have those girlfriends. That’s our life too. They were fantastic for the formative years but not everybody is designed in their DNA to run marathons.”