Music from "The Elder" (CD - 1981)

Additional personnel: Robert Christie, Anthony Parr, Christopher Makepeace, The American Symphony Orchestra, St. Robert's Choir.

Engineers include: Brian Christian, Rick Hart, Robert "Ringo" Hryeyna.

Includes liner notes by Robert V. Conte.

Composer: Kiss.

Personnel: Ace Frehley, Paul Stanley (vocals, guitar); Eric Carr (vocals, drums); Gene Simmons (vocals).

Audio Remasterer: Joseph M. Palmaccio.

Liner Note Author: Yasuhito Kitai.

Recording information: A&R Studios, New York, NY; Ace In The Hole Studios; Ezrin Farms, King, Ontario, Canada With Record Plant St; Record Plant Studios, New York, NY; Sounds Interchange Ltd., Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Ensemble: American Symphony Orchestra.

Photographer: David Spindel.

Unknown Contributor Roles: Antony Parr; Kuni Takeuchi; Robert Christie.

By the end of 1980, Kiss knew that their next album had to be a strong one -- a glorious return to hard rock à la their classic Destroyer. New drummer Eric Carr had refueled the band's desire to rock, and the quartet began working on a straight-ahead rock album in early 1981. Midway through, the band felt that they were rewriting past songs, and the sessions were aborted. Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley then came up with the idea of recording a concept album, based on a mythical original story by Simmons. Destroyer producer Bob Ezrin was back and encouraged the band's concept-album idea (against both Ace Frehley's and Carr's wishes). Simmons and Stanley had high hopes for Music from "The Elder" (such as a movie, an elaborate tour, a follow-up record, etc.), but it completely bombed upon release. The reason? The music is totally uncharacteristic of Kiss -- it resembles heavy prog rock for the most part. Some of the songs could have been classics if the pompous and/or hard-to-decipher lyrics were replaced, such as "The Oath," "Only You," "I," and "Just a Boy." Only two tracks resemble the Kiss of old (Frehley's "Dark Light" and the instrumental "Escape from the Island"), while the rest is downright embarrassing ("Odyssey," "A World Without Heroes," "Under the Rose"). Music from "The Elder" was the final straw for Frehley, who would leave the band in 1982. ~ Greg Prato

On Music from the Elder, the first album the band recorded with Eric Carr, Kiss reworked their trashy metal aesthetic into a more ambitious and pretentious variation on hard rock. Recorded with an orchestra and a choir, the record sounded like nothing else in the band's catalog. While Kiss' desire to change musical directions was admirable, the stilted results aren't successful -- in fact, they're frequently embarrassing. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Taking a dip in sales with their previous effort UNMASKED, Kiss decided to deliver a more hard-driving rock album and enlisted the aid of Bob Ezrin, the man who produced DESTROYER (their most successful studio album). Upon his hiring, Ezrin discarded the heavy rock demos Kiss had recorded and suggested the band experiment with a concept album, a Kissified version of THE WALL.

Disgruntled at the band's new direction, Ace Frehley only contributed one track, "Dark Light" (featuring a blistering solo), and aside from basic tracks, the rest of the record was completed without him. THE ELDER is a creative left turn for the band. Kiss brought in co-writers Tony Powers ("Odyssey", "The Oath") and Lou Reed ("Dark Light", "A World Without Heroes", "Mr. Blackwell") to contribute to this epic fantasy, and the result is some magnificent music. The American Symphony Orchestra is heard throughout the album, adding to the grand scale. The finale, "I" is a powerful ode to self-esteem, sung convincingly by Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley. THE ELDER is a highly underrated Kiss album that showed the band's depth and ability to branch out in different musical directions. minimize