Will It Be Their Last Album?

On Oct. 9, 2012, Kiss launched Monster, an LP which may go down as their ultimate studio album.

After spending years avoiding a studio return, Kiss had supplied a convincing account of themselves with 2009’s Sonic Boom. Their nineteenth report adopted 1998’s Pyscho Circus, and with guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer now comfy of their positions alongside Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, Sonic Boom made a satisfyingly loud noise on its arrival.

Stanley had taken the producer’s chair, and dominated out the choice of working with exterior writers. Instead he had the members sit in a circle as they laid down new tracks. His purpose was to keep away from being too nostalgic whereas additionally presenting the unique ethic of the band’s writing; and end result was a report that reached No. 2 within the Billboard 200 chart.

There had already been mutterings about that being their ultimate report – Stanley had famous “I thought it would be a shame to let Psycho Circus be our final statement” – however regardless of that, and fired up by Sonic Boom’s reception, Kiss started work on their twentieth album in 2012. Monster was launched on Oct. 9 after a delay over securing a brand new cope with Universal.

“It’s by far the best thing that we’ve done in I don’t know how long,” Stanley enthused in a video shot simply as work was being accomplished. “Have I said that before? Yeah. Was I right? Yeah. I’m right this time again… the album kicks major ass and we’re very, very proud of it.” He additionally justified the title Monster by saying the LP sounded “powerful, heavy, melodic and epic.”

“I wanted to do an album that sounds like we never did,” Stanley famous to Metal Rules across the time lead single “Hell or Hallelujah” arrived. “I would be lying if I say I don’t want it to be successful. But I don’t expect success. I succeeded because of the album I wanted to make. Would I like the other people to like it? Sure. Everybody wants validation. But if you try to second guess people – ‘What kind of album do they want?’ – and then you fail, you kick yourself and say ‘I should have done it my way.’ I did it my way and whatever is going to happen is going to happen; but I stand behind the album.”

Watch Kiss’ Video for ’Hell or Hallelujah’

Simmons echoed the sentiments of his bandmate.

“This is what we all decided to do… let’s do an uncompromising record. Let’s be who we are,” the bassist declared to Music Radar, including that the band’s focus was to make an easy rock album. “When you get in the studio it’s like being on a diet inside of a bakery. You’ve got all this technology and all the time in the world. You can bring in symphony orchestras and saxophones and glockenspiels, because you’re not in front of people. We would never dare bring a guy with a saxophone out on stage. It’s not who we are. The hardest thing to do was to go in the studio and say, ‘Fuck all of that fancy French cooking, let’s just have meat and two veg.’”

Despite their avowed satisfaction in what they’d achieved, and an admirable No. 3 inserting within the Billboard 200, Monster seemingly didn’t give Kiss the type of afterglow they’d been hoping for. Of course, the music business had modified and LP gross sales had been dying within the gentle of singles supplied by streaming providers; and Sonic Boom had been a welcome return for a rock weapon that appeared to have fallen silent. In these circumstances, one thing akin to a second quantity of Sonic Boom was by no means going to have the identical explosive impact. Five songs from Monster had been carried out reside on tour, however 4 of them had dropped out by the next yr, with “Hell or Hallelujah” making its ultimate on stage look in 2018.

Listen to Kiss’ ‘Long Way Down’

In August 2022, Stanley as soon as once more asserted that, whereas the expertise of Monster had not been a “crushing disappointment,” he’d concluded that “when you put your heart and soul into doing something and it kind of gets a polite nod, there’s other things I’d rather do.” For that cause, and with the top of their farewell tour looming ever nearer, evidently their twentieth album was their final.

“We did two albums in the last, I think probably 10 years, and there are songs on those that are every bit as good as anything I’ve ever written, but they’re new,” Stanley defined. “I came to the conclusion that [new music] can never compete with the past. Not because it’s not as good, but it hasn’t the connection to important times in your life.

“It doesn’t have that patina to it of, ‘Gee, I remember I heard this song when I was 18,’ or, ‘I heard this song when I was on my first date,’ or whatever. You can’t compete with that. It’s more than a song; it’s a snapshot of your life at a certain point.”

If Monster is certainly the final Kiss album, then no less than it’s a strong, respectable piece of basic rock – and positively higher than in the event that they’d bowed out with Psycho Circus. But bear in mind the band haven’t revealed what, if something, will observe their ultimate present – and followers have waited longer for a brand new report than the ten-year hole that’s simply run up.

Listen to Kiss’ ‘Wall of Sound’