KISS — Destroyer (review)

KISS — Destroyer album cover Album · 1976 · Hard Rock Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
martindavey87
This is the album that changed my life.

I remember back in 1999, at the age of 12, I was watching a World Championship Wrestling show, when they had Kiss perform live. At the time I had never heard of Kiss, or listened to any rock music for that matter, but what I heard that night changed me forever.

Random fact: This was WCW's lowest-rated segment ever. I guess wrestling fans in 1999 just weren't into Kiss.

After falling in love with the song ‘God of Thunder’, I set out to buy my first Kiss album. I remember after I bought it seeing my parents shock at what I’d purchased, and them ‘warning me’ about it. "Oh, I don’t think you’ll like that, that’s rock music, very heavy stuff". Feeling slightly embarrassed I shrugged it off, claiming how much I loved Kiss, even though I only knew one of their songs. I was feeling sillier and sillier with each moment.

Thankfully my parent’s concerns were wasted, as I instantly fell in love with the album; ‘Destroyer’.

Before hearing this record the only music I was exposed to was whatever mainstream pop was on the radio. ‘Destroyer’ opened me up to the heavier side of music, and eventually led me to finding some of my favorite bands such as Dream Theater, Symphony X and Savatage. I sometimes wonder what I could be listening to right now if I had never come across this little gem. Or if I'd even be as passionate about music as I am.

As for the music itself, well, it’s a Kiss album. What do you expect? It's radio-friendly(ish) rock music covering all the cliché topics: partying, women, sex, partying, drugs and partying. It's all there. And if you're new to Kiss, you may as well start off with one of their best albums, with tracks such as ‘God of Thunder’, ‘Shout It Out Loud’ and ‘Beth’ being firm crowd pleasers. And then there is also possibly the greatest Kiss song of them all, ‘Detroit Rock City’.

Overall these songs are all great rockers from "back in the day", but since my musical taste has moved on greatly since the time I was first exposed to this band, it is mostly nostalgia that prevents these songs from dropping off my musical radar. I give this album a good four stars, but the fact that this was such a life-changer for me may have something to do with it.

And hey, we all have our guilty pleasures, right?

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Bosh66 wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Had a few Kiss albums once upon a time but this is the only one I still have. It's a great hard rock album. Great opener too. The album has a swagger about it that borders on arrogance. Which is pretty much what you should expect from a Kiss album ;-)
siLLy puPPy wrote:
more than 2 years ago
I always thought the Kiss Live album blows away all the studio ones. Not a huge Kiss fan but this is one of the better ones :)

Unitron wrote:
more than 2 years ago
I love 'Detroit Rock City', but I've never been able to get into any other Kiss songs.
aglasshouse wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Everybody is privy to their guilty pleasures. I'll be honest, I always liked the album that succeeded it a bit more.

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