1161. Kiss / Revenge. 1992. 3.5/5

Coming into the new decade, after an up and down time through the 1980’s, Kiss had managed to find another top ten hit, the god-awful ballad “Forever” from the “Hot in the Shade” album, and as a fan I know I had my doubts that the next album wasn’t going to jump on that and follow its lead. As it turned out, there was a lot more other stuff going on when it came to writing and recording the follow up to that final album of the 80’s decade. Firstly, the band was asked to record a version of the hit song by Argent from the early 1970’s “God Gave Rock and Roll to You” to be a part of the movie “Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey”, the song that at the time I thought was the one that was supposed to unite the world. The third sequel proved that to be wrong. However, the success of that track, which had been produced by Bob Ezrin, whom the band had forsaken since they had worked together on “Music from The Elder”, led the band to decide to continue on with Ezrin in producing their next album. Along with this, long time drummer Eric Carr had been diagnosed with cancer, and though he had participated in the filming of the video for the “God Gave Rock and Roll To You II”, he was then told by the band to recuperate. Eric Singer was brought into the band to fill in as drummer until Carr was well enough to re-join the band, but sadly his condition deteriorated, and he died in November of 1991. Singer was then made a full time member of Kiss. Once the band returned to the studio to continue putting the album together, both Paul and Gene found themselves writing with some unusual partners. Paul wrote some material with both Dave Sabo from Skid Row and Jani Lane form Warrant, the latter as that band was putting together their biggest album “Cherry Pie”. Though the songs were completed they both missed out on inclusion on the album. One song that did make the cut was “Take it Off”, co-written with former Alice Cooper guitarist and composer Kane Roberts, and that song does have that vibe about it. Perhaps the most unusual was Gene getting together with former Kiss guitarist Vinnie Vincent. Vincent had left the band on very bad terms, but had now returned and wanted to patch up the relationship. Both Gene and Paul wrote songs with him during this time, but then as the album neared Vincent again reneged on a deal, then decided to sue, and lost. It was the final straw for Vinnie and Kiss, but as a result of the sessions Vincent gained three co-writing credits on “Revenge”.

The success of “God Gave Rock N Roll to You II” in the movie and the charts gave Kiss and “Revenge” the kind of boost they hadn’t had for quite some time. Coming in off the back of that, it just required the right attitude and sound for the album to be a success. And the band delivers on this from the outset. The Simmons/Vincent penned opener “Unholy” is a great track, and Gene’s dulcet tones actually make a great start to the album, the perfect hard rock beat along with chorus support vocals in the chorus. You can almost hear the explosion and fire being spurted on stage as you listen to Gene’s final scream. This moves into Paul and Kane Roberts “Take it Off”. Nothing outstanding about the lyrics (the only strip-club song), nothing technical in the song writing, but it is a typical straight forward Kiss hard rock track that sounds great with Paul singing and then a great lead from Bruce Kulick. And this sets the standard for the remainder of side A of the album. It won’t help you to love the songs as such if you study the lyrics and search for any meaning in the lyrics. Because that is not what Kiss is about, or has ever been about. The subject matter is... women, plain and simple, in several different...um... positions. And as we all get older, it becomes a little awkward at times, but mostly it’s just so ridiculous its funny, and mostly that is what Kiss has always been. But, do I like the songs? I do. I love Bruce’s guitar work on this album, and for the most part his solo breaks are the star of the album. And the songs are entertaining and fun... as long as you don’t think too much about what is being sung. “Tough Love”, “Spit”, “Domino”, they all have that fascination.
Not a lot changes on the second side of the album with “Heart of Chrome”, but from here we find the split in the album’s lyrical aspect at least, and for me it improves the style. Gone are the ‘let’s have sex” songs and in their place are a couple of different thoughts in the lyrical mix. Gene’s "Thou Shalt Not” changes things up nicely with an angry rant at street preachers, and it is one of my favourite songs on the album, with Gene spitting out his vocals in the fashion that he does on all of his best songs. Love it. “Every Time I Look at you” is the album’s power ballad, something that despite the band’s reputation Kiss have always done well. IF you like that kind of thing. Which, of course, I don’t. I’m sure it sells well where it is supposed to, but once it just stops the momentum of the album in its tracks. “Paralyzed” picks it up again with a more thought provoking style and great guitars from Bruce again. Clever entendres are at work in “I Just Wanna”, which is the best kind of Kiss song, with double meaning lyrics that are fun without the cringe, and hard rocking music that picks up the vibe along the way.
The album concludes with “Carr Jam 1981”, something Eric had played when he first joined the band, with Bruce playing guitar over the top. Originally neither this nor “God Gave Rock N Roll to You II” was supposed to be on the album, but were brought on once Eric had passed away as the band’s tribute to him.

The Kiss albums from the 1980’s, and more especially the ones where the make-up came off, get panned by a lot of Kiss fans, generally the older fans. But for me, I really enjoy all of them, and absolutely adore two or three of them. It helps to have grown up in that decade and had them there rather than judging them on the earlier material. I had been a bit cold however on “Hot in the Shade”, and probably wouldn’t have cottoned on to “Revenge” as quickly as I did if not for ‘Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey’ and the accompanying soundtrack. But it quickly got swallowed up by the big gun releases from that same period which took up almost all of my music listening at the time – Iron Maiden’s ‘Fear of the Dark’, W.A.S.P.s ‘The Crimson Idol’ and Black Sabbath’s ‘Dehumanizer’ - and I really never gave it much of a listen on its release. It wasn’t until a number of years later, into the new millenium in fact, that I came back to this album, along with a number of other Kiss releases, and found my love for it. And it wasn’t because I didn’t like it at the time, it just got lost. But on rediscovering it, I had as much enjoyment for it as I did for a lot of the Kiss discography.
What attracts me to this album still is that Kiss hadn’t changed their formula to find a way to fit into 1992. This album is actually a harder album than the past couple of albums had been that had moved with the 80’s flow. “Stripped back” is a phrase that doesn’t work here, but it does get back to basics in the musical department, with great drum work from Singer and especially terrific guitar licks and solos from Kulick which give it the oomph it needs to set itself apart and to individualise it. Many people would have come into “Revenge” for the Bill & Ted single, but would have stayed for the solid hard rock material that surrounded it. This reached #5 on the Australian record charts, and 6 in the US and 10 in the UK. Those numbers suggest that the enjoyment of this Kiss album was worldwide as they entered their third decade of rocking and rolling all night.