Kiss
Music From "The Elder"
[Mercury Remasters Series]
Rating: 0.0
If this album wasn't the inspiration for Spinal Tap's "Stonehenge," I
don't know what was. Grasping at straws, Kiss rehired Destroyer
producer Bob Ezrin and wanted him to help crank out the hits. Ah, but
the band was living in the age of early '80s metal, and the man at the
soundboard was not only the same man who produced the most "far out" of the
Kiss albums, but whose last project was Pink Floyd's The Wall. Ezrin
made the boneheaded suggestion of ditching their new rock tunes
and instead recording a concept album about a young hero's quest to slay
an elf, or something to that effect.
Of course, the end product is the
absolute nadir of Kiss' existance. I know, you all think albums like
Anamalyze or Hot In The Shade qualify, but no. Those
records were Kiss going with the flow of crap music. With The Elder,
they pushed crap in a new and scary direction. Oddly enough, three of
the songs were co-written by Lou Reed and they still sound as anonymous as
the others. What a horrible, horrible, horrible album.
-Jason Josephes