#wes beech

Wendy O Williams got her first solo album in 1984. She went full Metal/Hard Rock on this one. Also considered as an unofficial KISS album. Produced by Gene Simmons, who played bass on all tracks, guest starring Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley, Eric Carr and featuring some writing (Kiss leftovers.) by Gene, Paul, Eric and Vinnie Vincent. Enjoy!

I love Sonic Boom (2009). Oddly enough, probably for the same reasons that many fellow veteran fans seem to feel compelled to fervently reject Kiss's late work. But such kind of principles and opinions generally tend to cast a large black shadow over the overall picture and obstruct a clear view of it anyway, don't they?

For my own part, I prefer, even with joy, viewing Sonic Boom as a small but all the more successful work of art, which basically does little more than assemble a considerable number of song-pieces from Kiss' past days, both glorious and less glorious, and let it all flow into a rich, functioning and homogeneous whole. Let's see someone else do that first. That's neo-klassik Kiss. So, I'm quite comfortable with that perspective.

But basically, this is not a particularly new principle in Kiss' art of songwriting, as such methods are evident throughout their entire catalog, especially on an album like Asylum (1985) (1) for example. An album that I appreciate very much and consider to be as much successful, and which I also love to refer to as a pastiche of Rock and Roll Over (1976), Creatures of the Night (1982) and Unmasked (1980) at every opportunity (you know me).

But what I'm trying to say is that the difference between Sonic Boom and Asylum isn't really that big (3), it's just that one generally receives a considerable amount of love, while the other is at risk of suffering from a lack thereof. Fans just sometimes move in mysterious ways.

Anyway, enough of the preamble, because with Asylum we are already exactly where we want to be for today's topic, and after all, all I intended to do is to briefly remind all readers of the two hasty, gate-crashing and pretty much in-your-face intros of Sonic Boom's Russian Roulette and Asylum's Love's a Deadly Weapon.

And yes, exactly, both sound pretty much like an overly zealous but clumsy delivery guy who has something earth-shatteringly important to deliver to the front door in the stairwell, but for whom the long staircase he rushes down is a little longer than estimated and who tumbles down it as spectacularly as he does routinely. Although in Russian Roulette things seem to be a tiny bit more relaxed, but instead there are two shorter staircases to tackle.

And that's exactly what I meant earlier with glorious… and less glorious. But as I said, I still don't see any major differences, and that I love this album.

Through thick and thin.

Side Note:

(1) An album that hardcores seem to have far fewer problems with, apart from the cover artwork and the colorful stage outfits, of course. After all, there's always something.

(2) Rock and Roll Over's classic 70s vibe combined with the much more modern Metal heaviness of the 80s from Creatures of the Night and the clean, smooth pop appeal of Unmasked. Of course, there are a few other references to be found, such as a ton of Led Zep (they've been in their DNA from the start anyway) and some contemporary stuff or Paul's solo album, but that about sums it up.

(3) I would even go so far as to call Sonic Boom the Asylum of the Modern Kiss Age, if I may say so.

Russian Roulette (2009)

Love's a Deadly Weapon (1985)

Love's a Deadly Weapon is one of Gene's inferior creations that somehow always manages to get back to the surface, no matter how many times you push it under water and then hope it will remain submerged forever in the eternal depths of the dark abyss of instant songwriting.

But since it's floating so beautifully on the surface right now, you can just as well pull it mercifully to shore, at least with a stick, that much respect should be a matter of course, and take a quick look at it. But not for too long, otherwise it could suddenly grab hold and pull you under the water with it, only to disappear again for an indefinite period of time. I think a few hardcore 80s Gene supporters can guess what I mean by that.

If you poke it a bit with a stick, unpleasant smelling air hisses out, but don't worry, those are just Gene's lyrics. And what else would we have?

The song intro is stolen from Exciter's outro, but we already talked about that. The verses are sto… taken from Wendy O. Williams' Party, which was written and recorded back in '84 in the Plasmatics circle, and conveniently wasn't released until '86 on Kommander of Kaos. Amazingly enough they even got credited.

Gene also somehow managed to include the riff from Motörhead's Ace of Spades there, which comes across like a second pair of six-packs on this monstrosity of a song. I'd like to see someone beat that. And, oh yes, of course, I almost forgot, Paul's demo from 1980/81, Deadly Weapon (1), somehow forms the chorus, but unfortunately its pretty melody and Paul's song-bearing feeling are completely lost.

What should you expect when you try to revive dead matter?

But it wasn't actually that bad for that, was it? Apart from the nasty gases, and these come from Gene alone.

Side Note:

(1) Someone needs to explain to me in detail why this song didn't make it onto Killers (1982). Not that I'm the biggest Killers enthusiast, but that's exactly where Deadly Weapons would have fit like a glove. I'll save the fact that its riff was probably more or less recycled on Creatures of the Night (1982) for another time, and that its rhythm section was inspired in places by a certain song from the debut album.

Love' s a Deadly Weapon (1985)

Deadly Weapon (1980/81)

Party (1986)