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In August of 1995, when KISS appeared on stage together with the original line up during the taping of their MTV Unplugged show, fans everywhere went crazy with delight.  Seven months later when the original KISS appeared at The Grammy Awards in full 1977/78 KISS make-up and regalia, the KISS fans again went wild.  It seemed like it was now official, and only a month a half later the band did make it official during the press conference they held aboard the Intrepid in NYC.  June of 1996, KISS began their record-breaking tour with Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss across the globe for two years.  In early 1998, the band had gotten together to record an album of new songs that would feature the original line-up.  Sadly for the fans, the usual drug-fueled antics of lead guitarist Ace Frehley and drummer Peter Criss would lead to a walk out on their recording obligations due to a failure to renegotiate their salaries with the only official KISS members Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons.  Ace and Peter had sold their share in the KISS empire just a few years ago, and are now deemed paid employees.  Rightfully, Paul and Gene had stood firm that Ace and Peter would not be able to renegotiate their contracted wages especially after the bellyaching they both had done on tour.  So in the usual fashion, Ace and Peter would not show up to recording sessions.  Ace especially was getting very frustrated with the plethora of songs he brought in for new album contributions getting denied access by record producer Bruce Fairbairn.  Ace and Peter didn't care that the fans were waiting and wanting, they only knew that they wanted more money despite the small fact that they were now once again millionaires instead of broke.    

Ace remained suspicious and didn't buy the idea that Paul & Gene left it up to Fairbairn as the last word on which songs make it to the album.  Gene defends this by claiming that many of his own songs didn't make it either.  Yet, the bottom line is that Ace and Peter were just fine with the idea to let session musicians handle the duties of drums and lead guitar.  So for just one out of the ten songs we end up with Peter performing on drums, Ace's Into the Void.  Ace plays lead guitar on two of the songs, the aforementioned Into the Void and the iconically named You Wanted the Best.   Filling in for Peter is session musician Kevin Valentine, a drummer that has recorded with KISS before on their 1991's Revenge album.  Filling in for Ace's duties was future Ace - Tommy Thayer, a veteran guitarist who has donned the Space Man make-up since 2002 upon Ace Frehley's departure.  Thayer was once the lead guitarist for Cold Gin, a KISS tribute band, and he is well versed in copying Ace Frehley, and he makes an ideal choice filling in as the real Ace while recording Psycho Circus. If you need further proof of this, check out KISS' most recent studio album Sonic Boom.       

Even without Ace and Peter contributing as much as they should have, KISS comes through with their best album since Lick It Up (1983).  Overall, song after song the band delivers as they hadn't in fifteen years and it is still to the delight of many KISS fans who can get past the fact that they were shim shammed by Paul and Gene purporting that this was a real KISS album with the original members of the band.  The opening track is the title track, Psycho Circus.  The song's origins began like a very few had in KISStory where there was first the great idea for a song title, and then Gene and Paul would both write songs with the same name behind each other's backs, and the best one wins.  For Black Diamond, Paul's version won, for Christine Sixteen Gene's song was sleazier and obviously better. Psycho Circus begins with some creepy Mr. Bungle type of circus/fairground sounds which then builds into an explosion of KISS bombast, complete with drums building, cymbals crashing, guitar strings scratched slowly by a pic and Stanley's effective Roger Daltrey style screaming proclamation ♫"Yeeaaahhh"♫.   The song is as strong an opening song as Detroit Rock City or I Stole Your Love, and it actually has the feel of the 70s fashion of hard rock that KISS had made famous way back when, yet updated with a passable 90s style.  Thayer's guitar work sounds very much like Ace's style of playing, so much so that it's scary.

Gene takes a slightly older demo, Within, and offers it as one of his best contributions in a long time.  His output of songs for KISS has been utterly miserable since 1984's Animalize, and I almost forgot what a great Gene Simmons track sounds like.  Bruce Kulick's backward guitar leads can still be heard on the demo, although I think that it is Paul Stanley handling the lead guitar work during the break.  In the 1970s and some of the 80s, Gene sang with a growling demonic voice that suited his make-up persona.  In the late nineties when this was released it may have seemed a bit kitschy for Gene to sing in this style despite that KISS had once again reapplied the make-up.  Gene manages to be just as effective as he delivers a vocal that is still demonic even though he lost the growl. 

Paul Stanley proudly sings the silly title I Pledge Allegiance to the State of Rock and Roll despite its utter corniness.  However, the song is another showstopper.  Paul's fist pumping delivery rings true as he sings the chorus - ♫"I gave my blood and I gave my soul / I stood my ground and I took control /  The legend's growin' as the story's told /  I know that heaven's gotta wait / I pledge allegiance to the state of rock and roll" ♫.  Ace Frehley takes on the lead vocals on his track Into the Void.  This is the only track that has all four members playing the respective instruments, and in my opinion it has the best drums on the album.  Peter's drumming always had a lot of heart and personality, here on Ace's track his accents help make the track stand out as one of the best.  Frehley's solo on the other hand sounds too sloppy and disjointed.  Simmons has stated that this song was also in danger of being denied access to the final record, but he insisted that there be one Ace track.  He claims to have rewritten the chorus and Paul added a bridge and it became Fairbairn-acceptable.  Ace of course denies this. 

Gene's We Are One is another fine track written solely by himself.  It is perhaps the most melodic track from the demon since his amazing solo record from 1978.  It helps that there is a prominent acoustic guitar during the verses, and the chorus backing vocals sound great although I don't think I hear Paul Stanley or the other KISS members singing.  Is it all Gene, is it Thayer?  It's hard to decipher who is singing but ultimately it doesn't matter.  You Wanted the Best is a song that Gene had written originally in 1977, but back then it was called Just Give Me Love.  It's awesome to have a song from their utmost heyday reworked for their "reunion" album.  The title is iconic within KISS, as the phrase has started off every KISS concert since the very beginning, and more notably on their Alive! and Alive II albums.  Valentine does a great impression of Peter's drumming here, and in case you missed it - Gene's growl is back.  All four members take a turn in singing lead a line at a time.  They haven't done such a thing ever with all four members (on record) but the closest they came is off of their debut album when Paul, Gene and Peter each took turns singing lead on Kissin' Time.  Ace plays lead guitar, and although it's a bit better than the lead on Into the Void, it makes me yen for Thayer to take control again. 

Gene's Journey of 1,000 Years sounds like a cross between Ozzy Osbourne and something that would come off of their Unmasked album.  Gene Simmons seems to be the hero as far as song contributions to Psycho Circus,  Journey is an excellent track to close the album.  It is in many ways the total opposite of the opening track Psycho Circus, where Journey has a symphony swelling behind Gene's haunting vocals and Kevin Valentine's marching drums.  As there had to be an Ace song on the album, there is also a Peter song.  Paul along with Bob Ezrin of all people wrote I Finally Found My Way for Peter to sing lead.  Much like Peter's big 1976 hit Beth; the piano is a prominent instrument on I Finally Found My Way as well as the symphony accenting the background.  Paul momentarily takes over the lead vocals along with Peter during the bridge.  Peter's throaty vocals sound older and weaker, but just as valuable.  Paul's Dreamin' is the only bad apple on the whole album.  It makes no attempt to cohere itself to the myth that this is a united KISS performing these songs.  Instead, this sounds like something off of his Live To Win solo record.  Paul's vocal sounds whiny and annoying, and the song leaves the listener bored and basically offended. 

KISS had come through with a quality album that should please the fans.  The fact that Ace and Peter didn't want to record with KISS because they needed even more money is, in my opinion just semantics at this point.  Admittedly, I would have preferred to hear Peter Criss drumming on all of the songs, Valentine and Thayer have done a good job, and as far as Tommy Thayer is concerned, he is much better than Ace Frehley anyway.  Psycho Circus was the highest charting album for KISS in their career up until that point, (Sonic Boom fared slightly better) and it was probably due to the hype around the reunion angle.  Yet, having said that, it is filled with quality songs, la crème de la crème.  I recommend this for any KISS fan who for some reason still doesn't own this, and also to rock music fans in general.  KISS once again lives up to their anthemic style of arena rock and turns the power up to eleven.  Four and a half stars. 


KISS
Psycho Circus
Length: 44:30
Released: 09/22/1998
Rating: 4½ stars
the Songs: 
1. Psycho Circus
2. Within
3. I Pledge Allegiance To the State of Rock and Roll
4. Into the Void
5. We Are One
6. You Wanted the Best
7. Raise Your Glasses
8. I Finally Found My Way
9. Dreamin'
10. Journey of 1,000 Years

Recommended: Yes