Also Check This Out........
This is an extra album from the same year that I've chosen, that either just missed the final cut, I think could be of interest, or even from a different genre that could be of interest or influence on the hard rock/heavy metal genre.
Kiss Dynasty 1979 (Casablanca)
Hard Rock-Disco Rock
Despite its harsh criticism from some quarters, I’ve always seen Kiss’
Dynasty as an interesting mix of pop inspired tunes and an album that marked the biggest change yet from the band’s early roots, as its polish was now a million miles away from those early hard rock albums right back in 1974 and 1975! To undergo this transition the band had producer and songwriter Vini Poncia on board, who had previously worked with Ringo Starr and had written some highly commercial sounding material for other artists. He was known to Kiss of course after having previously produced Peter Criss’ solo album (not exactly a great advert) and talking of Peter Criss, this would also be the last album with the original line-up of the band fully intact, as after a recent car accident Peter Criss missed large chunks of the album and session drummer Anton Fig was brought in for Peter Criss and he would stay with the band until Peter Criss officially left Kiss in 1980.
Dynasty was a much maligned album for the band due to its elements of disco and pop rock, as longtime fans saw the album as a drastic change from the sound that they were used to and I guess on hearing Paul Stanley’s disco-inspired “I Was Made for Lovin You” was probably just too much for some of them, despite the fact that it’s one of the best songs on the album. Talking of Paul Stanley his other two tracks “Sure Know Something” and “Magic Touch” were amongst the strongest as well, as was Peter Criss’ very J.Geils Band sounding “Dirty Livin’”. Yet again the Ace Frehley penned tracks “Hard Times” “Save Your Love” and a cover of the Rolling Stones “2,000 Man” are as good as expected. The worst track is surely the embarrassing Gene Simmons’ “Charisma” but luckily he makes up for it with “X-Ray Eyes”. Commercially the album was huge, which inspired the band to embark on their biggest and most expensive tour to date which despite it’s initial success, finally saw audiences falling away by the bucketload most notably in the USA, which of course was the band’s biggest and most lucarative market.