Lynx33 The album Killers was released in June, 1982. Since then it has become an album that most people see as a useless compilation album by a band that wants to balance the commercial disappointments by their previous albums, trying to bring glory days back. However, I don't see it like that. This album is very special to me, always has been and will always be. I remember those days in the late eighties when I listened to it all the time, I fell asleep to it, I woke up to it, listening to it before and after school. I especially recall those days when I was very sick lying at home reading Alan Dean Foster's adapted book Aliens, listening to Killers meanwhile all the time on cassette, having it taken out and put back if one side was over, playing it again and again non-stop. Very sadly, I have lost the cassette copy I had since then, but the memories the album gave me can never be forgotten. I especially liked the new songs with the unique guitar sound provided by Bob Kulick, brother of the band's future guitarist Bruce Kulick, and the guitarist on Paul Stanley's club tour along with Eric Singer. I liked the old songs too, Love Gun, Cold Gin, Sure Know Something for instance, although I have always much preferred Stanley-Simmons-Carr-Kulick Kiss, I was a big fan of this line up Kiss back in the eighties and nineties. I have never understood why the band didn't release an official live album in the eighties, because they were so good live, as you can see and hear on the lot of bootleg videos and concerts. Eric Carr and Bruce Kulick (though, Bruce is not on this album), in my opinion, were much better musicians than the ones in the classic line up, though in the last fifteen years, it has been so popular to say the old line up is the bestest because they're the originals. The band was very much lucky that they were able to find a superb drummer, Eric Singer, to replace Eric Carr. The album Killers itself in structure and atmosphere has a lot in common with the band's other compilation called Smashes, Thrashes and Hits, which I also had on cassette back in those days liking it too. My favourite song on Killers is I'm Legend Tonight, into which I remember I deleted a two second break accidentally having pushed the record button once. Everytime I hear the album ever since I know where the break was in the song on my old cassette. It's so strange. The other fantastic song is Sure Know Something, of course. So, not to make it too long, this album to me is not a useless compilation at all, but something very special, deserving to be given four stars.

Warthur A rush-released compilation intended to try and scrape back some commercial success after Music From the Elder bombed, Killers is notable for including four songs recorded especially to it - but alas, none of them are particularly diverting. I'm a Legend Tonight is a decent idea weighed down by dated production and a lack of spark, as well as the band's inability to pull off the really over the top Meat Loaf operatic rendition the album really demanded. Down On Your Knees is yet another juvenile Kiss song about sex, Nowhere to Run is an utterly pedestrian "my woman done me wrong" rock lament, and Partners In Crime threatens to break out into the sort of disco beat that marred Dynasty. As for the old classics, as always they're better heard in the context of the Alive! albums. In short, Killers is utterly needless.

Warthur After Unmasked flopped, Kiss needed to pull out something special. Initially planning to create a heavy rock album harking back to their glory days, the group soon hit upon a more ambitious idea: a prog rock concept album - no, make that a TRILOGY of prog rock concept albums, if Bob Ezrin's recollections are correct - associated with an epic fantasy movie based on their narrative.

Of course, the movie never manifested and nor did the two sequel albums. Gene Simmons has described the resulting album as a bad Kiss album, but would give it two stars as a "bad Genesis record". The description is rather apt; the album sounds absolutely nothing like Kiss, and it doesn't really sound much like prog rock or art rock either. It seems that whilst the band liked the idea of producing an arty concept album, they didn't really have much idea of what such a thing might sound like and didn't feel particularly inclined to do much research; the album sounds like someone's attempt to recreate a classic concept album by the likes of Genesis, Gentle Giant or Pink Floyd based on a fuzzy and not particularly detailed written summary of what the music sort-of kind-of sounds like.

So, what you have is the odd medieval flourish, some slower-tempo songs than Kiss usually make, a ballad or two... and one really confusing concept. The story is about some kid who is recruited by a secret society to do... something. We don't know what the purpose of this secret society is, or the role the villainous Mr Blackwell plays in anything, or what the hell Escape from the Island is about (said song being an instrumental, and said island and the escape attempt from it not being mentioned in any of the other songs), and we have no idea where the story was going to go because, of course, the album only represents the first act of a three-act story. Boiled down to its essentials, the story goes like this: Morpheus, the Order of the Rose's recruiter, asks the hero if he wants to join up. The boy says "yes." The Order leaders ask him to swear an oath. He does so. Everyone is glad he is a member of the club. The end.

Following the plot is even harder on some editions because in some releases the running order was meddled with; you can tell if you have one of these editions because The Oath, the lead single from the album, is at the start rather than its proper place in the running order. Actually, the best song on here is A World Without Heroes, which approaches interesting; the band dispense with pretensions towards art rock and provide a melancholy, low-key number about how miserable the world would get if nobody stepped up to the plate and did some heroing. But to clutch to it as an example of a really great song of the album is to clutch at straws; the fact is, this album consists of Kiss trying their hardest not to be Kiss, at a point in time when they were neither particularly good at being Kiss nor good at whatever the hell it was they were trying to be.

Warthur With Peter Criss a band member in name only by this point - and Anton Fig, his secret in-studio replacement, on the verge of being replaced by official replacement Eric Carr - Unmasked is an album recorded by a band in turmoil. (No, despite the title this wasn't the point where Kiss got rid of their makeup - that would come three years later with Lick It Up.) Boasting a rawer hard rock sound than the preceding Dynasty as a bid to win back those fans put off by that album's disco flirtations, the album doesn't really present any ideas which weren't executed better on previous Kiss albums - right down to the standard Kiss ballad (this time it's called Shandi, on Destroyer it was called Beth...). Tedious, cliched, and not really worth it when there are plenty of livelier and more energetic hard rock bands from the same era you could be listening to - or, indeed, when there are livelier and more energetic Kiss albums from earlier in their career to enjoy.

Warthur OK, you know there's a problem with the album when the best track on it is a sleazy disco cash-in that's a full three minutes longer than it really needs to be, and the hardest rocking track is a cover of one of the Rolling Stones' least distinguished or interesting songs. With Peter Criss' drumming sufficiently failing to come up to par, the anonymous and undistinguished Anton Fig took up the drummer's stool for most of the album but does absolutely nothing special with it, though the official members of Kiss don't exactly cover themselves with glory this time around. Not quite a total disaster - most of the songs are inoffensive and forgettable as opposed to outright bad - but very, very close to disaster.

Kingcrimsonprog Kiss’s Symphony: Alive IV DVD was recorded back in 2003 in Melbourne, Australia, with David Campbell conducting the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. The band consists of stalwart members Gene Simmons and Paul Stanely as well as origional drummer Peter Criss and ‘new’ guitarist Tommy Thayer in place of Ace Frehly, all back in make up and costumes.

The concert is split into three sections, one with just the band playing up tempo rock songs, one with the band and a string section playing ballads and another with the band as well as the complete symphony orchestra playing hits and rock songs. There are all sorts of explosions, pyro, band members flying on wires, fake blood, special lighting and big screens making the whole thing as interesting to watch as you’d expect from Kiss and this is in addition to the whole orchestra made-up in Kiss style make up.

As a concert; this is a great success, vastly entertaining, visually stunning, well performed and great sounding. The DVD is let down largely however by a crazy and over enthusiastic editing job that flits hyper-actively around, concentrating on all the right things and rarely settling long enough for you to get into anything. I can understand how the makers wanted to convey the excitement and scale of this special concert, and wanted to keep your attention but in my opinion things have been taken too far. After all, as a home viewer most people will want to watch the band play live, not the audience members dancing or jiggling their chests.

If you can get over this larger problem as well as any personal problems you may have with track listing or general cheesiness (people have complained on various levels including Paul Stanley’s dialogue, the more syrupy songs like ‘Shandi,’ or with the orchestra being painted up etc) then you will find a fantastic DVD that is a lot of fun to watch.

In addition to the concert, there is a fairly substantial, but not astounding, making-of documentary covering the origins, practices and build up to the concert.

Newcomers or people who actively dislike mixtures of rock and orchestras may be better suited checking out the fantastic Rock The Nation or Kissology Vol. 1 DVDs; however overall, Kiss Symphony: Alive IV is a very good product, hampered by odd editing choices, but ultimately worth the time and money of most Kiss fans.

Kingcrimsonprog Kiss have a lot of DVDs on the market, all of varying quality and taken from all different eras of the band’s career. 2005′s Rock The Nation DVD is taken from their successful 2004 Rock The Nation Tour which sees the band, now with Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer in the line up (as on their following ‘Sonic Boom,’ and ‘Monster,’ studio albums) replacing Peter Criss and Ace Frehly on drums and guitar after a classic-line-up reunion.

The band absolutely deliver in terms of performance, the songs are delivered in an absolutely professional and yet energetic fashion, with a set list that concentrates primarily on rock songs from the 70s as opposed to focusing more on ballads and later material. If you like Kiss mostly for their rock songs from the 70s, then pick up a copy of this DVD right away, but if you only like their 80s output then their are other Kiss DVDs out their which will serve you better.

As a DVD, Rock The Nation is excellent; with fantastic sound and mixing, as well as great camera work and editing (as opposed to the over-edited Symphony DVD) and it is really one of, if not the best looking and sounding DVDs Kiss have released.

Classics like ‘Deuce,’ ‘Shout It Out Loud,’ ‘Love Gun,’ and ‘Detroit Rock City,’ are all in evidence, as well as a few choices you wouldn’t expect like ‘Unholy,’ and ‘War Machine,’ both of which are fantastic additions. Of course you get all the pyro, smoke bombs, make up, fake blood, big screens and flying band members that make Kiss so entertaining live and Paul Stanley is very communicative with the crowd, helping the band to come across like they really appreciate being up there on stage.

In terms of extras; There is a multi-angle feature called Kiss Power Vision, where you can choose which band member you want to see, which can interrupt the screen with picture in picture scenarios, but it can be turned off. Also there is a behind the scenes documentary and set of interviews, but rather than be accessible as a complete feature separately, it is inter-cut with the main concert every few songs or so.

If these two special features potentially interrupting a complete concert don’t sound like they’d annoy you, if you like Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer in the band and if you like the track listing (They can’t play every song you like on every DVD) then get yourself a copy of Rock The Nation, otherwise content yourself with one of the many other Kiss DVDs on the market, such as Kissology Volume 1.