#toby wright

I remember an old interview from around 1994 in which Gene Simmons chatted a little about his songwriting for the then untitled but frequently announced new studio album Carnival of Souls (1997), describing his brutalo contribution Hate as a kind of next door neighbour tune to the then fan favorite Unholy from Revenge (1992).

I can also vividly remember how that fired my imagination at the time and certainly didn't make the wait any easier. But to stick with Hate and Unholy and their relation, I would like to explore Gene's comparison a little today.

Hate begins somewhat unusually with the chorus directly after the main riff (1), which initially drives you through the meat grinder, but doesn't have much in common with Unholy. Though once you get to the verses and look at the guitar part, you immediately know what Gene must have meant in that interview.

By which I mean that part that sounds a little like Unholy's signature main riff, but only somewhat simplified, and delivered with such an intense punch that it makes the former sound like baroque pleasing strumming, slamming into the pit of your stomach like a fist and drilling through your guts like a saw... if I may say so, my dear fellow enthusiasts.

And that was only the half of it, because furthermore I hear not one but two variations of the rhythm part of Unholy's monstrous intermezzo aka the Frankenstein Walk (2), and which evoke in me lively impressions of a certain aggressive primitivism that I see in slow motion before my mind's eye in the form of an angry, chest-thumping giant gorilla, both in threatening gestures before and victorious after a physical conflict, which of course triggers a further association of heightened brutality in me. Gene's vocal outburst of rage naturally does the rest.

In general, everything comes across a lot more distorted, slower and a whole lot more primal in the Hate definition, with Unholy as the starting point should say a lot. Raw power in a simple but cohesive framework, and even if the brilliance of the latter is missing, the song is called Hate, if I'm not mistaken. And that kinda suits.

*Original theme song of the Aussie soap opera Neighbors (1985) begins to play in the background.

Side Note:

(1) This frankly busy opening and main riff that came about through the collaboration with Guitar-Tasmanian Devil Scott Van Zen and wasn't written before 1995, according to Van Zen. So let's indulge in its background some other time.

(2) The one which doesn't really try to hide its roots to Led Zeppelin's Misty Mountain Hop (1971).

Feel free to click on the highlighted links… or otherwise the gorilla will come out to play:

Hate (1997)

Unholy (1) (1992)

Unholy (2) (1992)

There being a lockdown in London banning indoor gatherings, back in December 2020

The Tories hosting a Christmas Party anyway while people couldn’t visit their loved ones

The Mirror breaking this news a year later

Keir Starmer bringing it up in PMQs

The Tories denying that it happened

ITV News leaking video footage of Downing Street aides talking about it while quizzing the then press secretary Allegra Stratton

Them laughing about having wine and cheese and exchanging Secret Santa gifts

Ian Blackford of the SNP saying Boris Johnson should resign

Boris Johnson continuing to deny the party happened when it very clearly did

ITV News going mad at the Tories for their party and all their other lies and scandals over the last few weeks