When it was released in 1992, Revenge was touted as the album that was a return to the classic Destroyer era in that the guitars growled and the band was "tough" again. Hell, they even brought in Bob Ezrin, who produced 1976's Destroyer album for KISS, in to produce Revenge.

Well, it's certainly a return to the sound of the band's past, but sounds more in line with 1982's Creatures of the Night than Destroyer. Prior to the release of both albums, Gene Simmons said he paid more attention to acting than music (Western Civilization will be truly glad, indeed, when Gene Simmons makes a believable promise to never attempt acting again). The band also bemoaned messing around with a poppy, commercial sound prior to the release of both Creatures of the Night and Revenge. Even Vinny Vincent, who co-wrote some songs on Creatures of the Night and provided most of the lead guitar for that album, helped write some songs on this thing. And, like Creatures of the Night, Revenge was a lot better than the "pop" and "experimental" albums that came before it.

KISS, evidently, has to rediscover something every now and then that seems obvious to me -- this is a heavy metal band, and bad things happen to it when the members of KISS forget that simple truth.

Having said that, Revenge is one of the best post-makeup albums recorded by KISS. The corny lyrics about sex, macho boasting, growling guitars, booming drums and swaggering attitude are present in spades on Revenge. The whole thing sounds just heavy and great, and no KISS fan needs to be without this disc.

The band, indeed, sounds more playful than it had for years. This fact is best demonstrated with a few lines from Gene Simmons' "Domino," in which Simmons growls over the top of a thumping bass line and high-energy, groove-heavy guitars:

Every damn time I walk through that door
It's the same damn thing
That b**** bends over
And I forget my name ... Ow!

Is all that a bit silly and a tad degrading to women? Maybe so, but it's also a bit amusing and <ahem> reminds me of a woman or two I'd dated that I should probably ran from as fast as a scared rabbit. Also, it's more evidence that this album is a swaggering, boasting affair that's a heck of a lot of fun.

In addition to all the playfully-menacing vocals, the music on hear is a fine example of text book heavy metal stuff. The distorted, crunchy guitars and growling, rebellious vocals just add to the appeal of the album and was a kick in the pants for a genre that was seriously sagging and a bit dated in 1992.

Now, this album isn't perfect, and the band sounds horrible on two songs which sound as if they were written strictly for commercial purposes. "Everytime I Look at You" is an awful ballad packed with phony emotion, and "God Gave Rock and Roll To You II" is another bad number from KISS in which the group tries to wax poetic about the beauty and power of rock n' roll. That song, in addition to being a stinker, showed up in a little dud of a movie known as "Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey," by the way. Both of those songs are pretty bad, but they're unoffensive enough to be singles. My advice is to program that CD player to skip right over these.

Another notable tune is "Carr Jam." No, that's not the song with a similar title that's own the Clash's Combat Rock album. See, Eric Carr, was the band's drummer and he died around the time Revenge was recorded. "Carr Jam" is merely an instrumental track that was recorded in 1981 and features the man's drum work. It might not be the best song on the disc, but it's a nice tribute to a man who had been in KISS for about a decade.

So, for those who hated KISS when it put out stinky ballads and pop songs, Revenge is an absolute treat. It's loud, snarling, cocky and fun.



Recommended: Yes