CURRENTLY RECOMMENDED METAL

Reviews by Dr. Metal

KISS – THE DEFINITIVE COLLECTION

(Box Set) Standard Edition

2001 Mercury Records

Now, on to the music. There are five CDs jam-packed with music, each in its' own jewel case with different designs. There are 94 songs total. Not bad! All of the songs included are either: (A) demo versions, (B) live versions, (C) unreleased tracks or (D) overlooked album tracks. If you own the entire KISS discography like I do, then you already have most of this collection. But it's still worth owning.

Overview of each disc:

Disc One has several Wicked Lester songs, and a lot of demo tracks from the first two albums, KISS and HOTTER THAN HELL. It's interesting to hear the first versions of "Strutter", "Deuce" and "Let Me Know." There are a couple of interesting rarities on the disc, a Paul song named "Stop, Look To Listen," and a Gene song called "Leeta," both done with bands they were in before KISS. Also, there is the first incarnation of "Love Theme From Kiss" called "Acrobat." The last 9 songs are regular album songs from the first three albums.

Disc Two picks up with live versions (from ALIVE!) and demo versions of some songs from DESTROYER, ROCK AND ROLL OVER and LOVE GUN. I really like the demo version of "God Of Thunder," which is faster and has Paul singing. Very cool! There are a couple of other good unreleased songs featuring Gene; the upbeat "Doncha Hesitate," "Love Is Blind" and the precursor to "Calling Dr. Love", a song called "Bad, Bad Lovin."

Disc Three goes from DESTROYER through after the solo albums. Not too much rare stuff on this disc, but there are a few demo and live songs. There is the demo of Gene's "Radioactive" which is cool. Also, two great songs from THE ELDER, the best choice being "The Oath." Some of the more obscure album tracks from 1978-82 round out the disc.

Disc Four has songs from the post-makeup glam days. A lot of good songs here that didn't get the respect they deserve. There's a cool demo track here called "Time Traveler" that is sung by Paul and has a cool chorus and is worth a listen. And a few songs from the underrated CRAZY NIGHTS album.

Disc Five takes us from the REVENGE days to ALIVE IV. Why did Mercury release this box set but not yet ALIVE IV? Don't know at this point. There are several songs from the UNPLUGGED album, and several from the much-maligned (but good) PSYCHO CIRCUS album. The song "It's My Life" is a nice surprise, with lead vocals by Gene. Surprisingly, nothing from the band's strongest live album, ALIVE III. Odd choice to leave out those classics. The only song from ALIVE IV here is "Rock and Roll All Nite," a song I can go years without hearing again. They should have picked another song, since the studio version is already included on Disc One.

Complaints: I wish KISS had thought up a cool name for this box set, like "Black Diamonds" or "Diamonds In The Rough" or something like that. Simply calling it the 'box set' is un-Kisslike, as they are innovators. Also, I was hoping for some remixes or something. Some of these songs, while classics, could benefit from an update in the sound, i.e. sharpening the drums and making the guitars and vocals crisper and louder. In particular, that could have been done to the regular album versions of songs that they put in here. That would really make things interesting. They released the remastered albums on CD recently, so maybe they should have stuck a few of those versions in here. That would spice things up a little. But.... these are minor complaints, because this is a really well-done box set.

Bottom line–– this box set provides a blueprint to why KISS rules. It chronicles in stringent detail how they wrote these songs and rose to rock stardom. For over 30 years, they've been doing it. I'm not going to defend my loyalty to KISS, (either you get them or you don't) and you've probably already planned to buy this or just pick up a few remaster CDs....