Unknown Soldier

Album
When producer Vini Poncia came on board for 1979’s Dynasty album, Kiss underwent a major change in their approach to the type of music that they were putting out. Because for that album they had drafed in some heavy pop and disco elements, which was a move that had alienated much of their hardcore fanbase. Internal strife was also high in the band, which eventually led to the permanent departure of drummer Peter Criss, who would firstly be replaced by Anton Fig before Eric Carr took over on the drum stool. Despite the mixed fortunes of Dynasty (see 1979 review) the band continued in much the same vein for 1980’s Unmasked, which despite having some great cuts like “Naked City” and “What Makes the World Go ‘Round” was still hardly the stuff that was going to appeal to the pure heavy metallers and hard rockers out there. It was also the album that finally saw the firing of Peter Criss from the band and despite quite liking this album, I still didn’t deem it strong enough for the 1980 year listings! But in 1981 the band would hit their all time low with the ill-advised concept album Music from “The Elder” and Bob Ezrin’s timely return on production for the album, hardly evoked another Destroyer style album for the band. Kiss had largely been criticised over their last few albums for not playing hard enough and it was thought that with Eric Carr coming in on drums, that he would push the band back into their more traditional hard rock direction. In fact the band had started out in this vein before scrapping things against Ace Frehley’s wishes, to instead churn out the heavy prog nonsense that would become Music from “The Elder”. So by the time of 1982’s Creatures of the Night, the pressure was really on the band to produce something palatable for the listener, so how did Creatures of the Night impress the Kiss doubters out there? Well there could be no doubt about one thing and that was the heavy drum feel provided by Eric Carr across the whole album (the star turn on the album) starting from the opening and title track “Creatures of the Night” and progressing this inspired feel throughout the rest of the album. This powerful offering on the drums, also refuelled both Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons to dish out some great Kiss staples like “Rock and Roll Hell” the stellar “War Machine” and the album’s best known track “I Love it Loud” which must’ve inspired the whole glam rock movement tenfold, along with the power ballad “I Still Love You”. The album is highly notable for its sheer consistency, making it’s easily their best since 1977’s Love Gun. Creatures of the Night is also one of the heaviest in the whole Kiss discography and certainly must’ve come as a shock, after the pop/prog orientated meanderings of their last three studio albums. Creatures of the Night would also be notable as an album for two other reasons as well. Firstly and crucially it saw the departure of Ace Frehley from the band (despite the fact that he didn’t play on the album) as a number of talented sessions musicans ranging from the likes of Steve Farris, Mike Pocaro and Vinnie Vincent etc played on the album instead and it would be one Vinnie Vincent who would end up being Ace Frehley’s permanent replacement as well, despite the fact that there had been a move to bring the high profile Eddie Van Halen into the band (he’d been having problems with David Lee Roth) Secondly it was also the last album of the period, before the band took off their trademark facepaint. This would be a big step for the band and in many ways it was hardly a surprising move, as previous Kiss tours had shown that the band’s look had gone somewhat stale as far as the general public were concerned.

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