352 of 1001 Albums: Kiss' Destroyer

Kiss' fourth album, Destroyer, is considered a different venture than their previous ones. The guys made an album that is overly long, but does try to vary as far as sound. Some critics were right though when they noted the lack of real performance. There isn't really anything that stick out highly about the album, and it doesn't contain some of their bigger hits. This album does appear on very list in recognition of metal though.

The album kicks off with "Detroit Rock City" it tries to give it some personality by adding in a little intro, and build up toward the song itself. Then the song gets to rolling, but with the hype that surrounded the band it isn't necessarily what is expected. The guys include plenty of guitar, and drums but sometimes they need more of their moment.


Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons contribute to vocals, which makes sense considering many of the times the vocals sound like a chorus. Peter Criss also contributes to vocals with the drums along with Ace Frehley doing backig vocals and guitar. So the guys had lots of various voices and instruments being used to keep the music flowing.

The most unique song on the album is "Beth". It changes over into being a more piano ballad than a rock song. To be honest you can hear sometimes throughout the album what sounded like a little bit of a Queen sound fused into their music. With this one though they sound more serious than the other songs on the album in content.

Kiss may be a fun listen, and showcase their creativeness hear and there, but ultimately it's hard to pinpoint anything that spectacular about the listen. They get serious, and then other times they just rock. Mostly they just seem like they want people to have a good time listening to them. There is a ton of different instruments featured though to bring the album to life, and it's probably proves to be their most inventive of the releases up till 1976 for the band.

Rating 4 of 10
Recommended Listen: Beth