191. KISS / Creatures Of The Night. 1982. 3/5.

Driving into the 1980’s after the humongous success that the band had enjoyed during the 1970’s, the changing face (literally) of the band and its music had been noticed by its fan base, and was beginning to become significant. The turn away from the popularised music that the band had built its success upon, and the infusion of other forms of music on the “Dynasty” album had leaked through to the “Asylum” album, and with the follow up then being the “Music from The Elder” soundtrack-not-soundtrack, there was a fracture within the fan base, and the band itself. Peter Criss had already left the band, and now it was the turn of Ace Frehley to be moved on. It is perhaps ironic that Frehley had been complaining that the band had gone too far in other directions and should be directing themselves back towards the hard rock music that had made them famous, and then on the album that actually began that rephase of their career, he was not in the picture. While he was said to be disillusioned with the direction the band was taking, his problems with alcohol and prescription medications meant that he was basically unable to be involved with the writing and recording, and not long after this was completed he was officially replaced by Vinnie Vincent who had been heavily involved in the album in lieu of Ace.
And so it was that a fractured band came together at an important point of the band’s history. It may not have spelled the end for Kiss if they had gone in a similar direction musically as their recent releases, but one suspects it could well have hastened a decision in that regard, given Gene’s growing absenteeism along the way. In essence, by this stage it probably wasn’t enough for the band to rely on all the credits they had gained over their popular years. What they needed to do was show that they were still relevant in a music market that was undergoing changes of its own.

One of the things that never ceases to amaze me about this era of Kiss is how songs over several albums have parts recorded on them by musicians who are not actually members of the band. And mostly this is about people coming in and playing bass on songs because Gene is missing, because he’s off doing something else at the time, or, as in the case of this album, where he apparently refused to play on some songs because he had just broken up in his relationship with Diana Ross. That meant that Jimmy Haslip played bass on "Danger" and Mike Porcaro played bass on the title track "Creatures of the Night".
The big change on this album was, as intimated earlier, Ace Frehley initially refusing to record the album, and then eventually quitting the band. Not that this changed the cover of the album which still has Ace front and centre. His absence in the studio though meant that other players had to be involved in the guitar process. This left guys like Robben Ford playing lead guitar on "I Still Love You" and even all guitars on "Rock and Roll Hell", and Steve Farris playing lead guitar on "Creatures of the Night". The main addition in this respect however was Vinnie Vincent who had initially come on board to help in the writing process, who not only played lead guitar on "Keep Me Comin'", "Danger" and "War Machine", he played all guitars on "Saint and Sinner", "I Love It Loud" and "Killer". Vincent was eventually announced as Ace’s replacement in Kiss, a gig that was to be short-lived, but what he brought to the table on this album was a timely infusion of the kind of energy the band had been looking for.
As somewhat promised (not to the extent of Paul Stanley at the time proclaiming this is a heavy metal album), this is a return to hard rock form for the band. The opening track “Creatures of the Night” is a Paul Stanley classic, immediately picking up the desire to create a heavier album than recent efforts, with a great riff and spitting Stanley lyrics that set the tone perfectly. “I Love it Loud” is a typical Gene heavy stomping track exacerbated by Eric Carr’s thumping drums. Indeed, this is also prevalent in the token Kiss power ballad here, “I Still Love You”, which refrains but being a true one in this respect thanks to the hard core drumming throughout and Robben Ford’s great lead guitar.
Looking back now, it’s amazing that two songs here are co-written by Gene, along with renown hit writer Jim Vallance and his long term writing partner Bryan Adams. Yes, that Bryan Adams. The first, “Rock and Roll Hell”, does come across a little stereotypical, but it is a change in the kind of song that Gene usually sings, where he actually has to adapt his voice a little more than he usually does. But then check out the closing track, one of the best Kiss songs from the 1980’s decade, “War Machine”, written by the same three, and a great heavy track that Gene just chews the scenery on. It’s a beauty.
So is this recovery led by the band? Or by the addition of Vinnie Vincent? It is a question still worth asking all these years later. Did his writing and playing contributions outweigh what Ace may have provided? That’s a tough question to answer. But “Creatures of the Night” did inject some hard rock back to the band that had perhaps been lacking in recent releases.

“Creatures of the Night” was an album where I heard and knew a few songs of as I cultivated my musical tastes through my high school years, without actually knowing the album very well, or probably even hearing it all the way through until many years later. Kiss for me was very much a “Crazy Nights” and “Hot in the Shade” kinda band, along with a greatest hits album thrown in there, until much later in my music appreciation life. And when I first heard Paul Stanley call it a heavy metal album, I initially laughed. And when I heard that Bryan Adams and Jim vallance had co-written songs on it, I just laughed. Or cringed. But when I finally got around to listening to the album, those things began to make sense. This is a heavier album in some respects to those other albums around this period of the band’s existence, but it is completely out there. If you were to re-record it now, and perhaps tune the guitars down half a peg and add a bit of grunt, it could certainly start to be considered that. And despite the Vallance/Adams jokes, how can you argue with a song like “War Machine”? It’s one of the greats, and they had their fingers on its creation.
“Creatures of the Night” does get a bit of blowback when it comes to the band’s history, and to me that has always been misplaced. Not matter how volatile he may be, you can’t argue with Vinnie Vincent’s contributions to the band, and especially on this album. Eric Carr’s drumming and drum sound is superb on the album. I really notice its impact on the songs collected here. Paul and Gene’s vocals are as terrific as ever, and the other collected musicians who managed to be a part of this recording all played their part. As I’m sure I’ve said before, the 1980’s album of Kiss are much maligned by much of the fan base, and that is something I don’t really understand. I love almost all of them unreservedly, and this one rates high on the list of that decade’s releases.