Product Description

Before DESTROYER, Kiss' studio albums were only moderate sellers. But the band's concerts were selling out regularly, and 1975's ALIVE! album had gone gold, putting Kiss on the pop map. DESTROYER, on which they teamed with Alice Cooper producer Bob Ezrin, was the breakthrough that finally got Kiss'grandiose rock ideas down on record.
DESTROYER is a chancy, ambitious album. It opens with a radio announcer reporting a teen's death in a car crash, followed by a snippet of "Rock And Roll All Nite" (which had appeared on 1975's DRESSED TO KILL); then the band launches into "Detroit Rock City",an homage to the first city to make them stars. "Great Expectations" features ornate orchestration, a heavenly chorus and a guitar tone that exposes the band's glam-rock ambitions. DESTROYER also includes a ready-made rock anthems ("Shout It Out Loud"), a swipe at manipulative groupies ("Do You Love Me", which is punched up with tubular bells) and a foreboding song about "the lord of the wasteland" that became Gene Simmons' signature tune ("God Of Thunder").
And then there is "Beth", an uncharacteristic ballad, sung and co-writtenby drummer Peter Criss. The lush strings and delicate pianogave Kiss a Top-10 hit and a greater fan base. Soon would come a TV Movie ("Kiss Meets The Phantom Of The Park") and a comic book.

Track Listing

1. Detroit Rock City
2. King Of The Night Time World
3. God Of Thunder
4. Great Expectations
5. Flaming Youth
6. Sweet Pain
7. Shout It Out Loud
8. Beth
9. Do You Love Me
10. Rock And Roll Party

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7347 in Music
• Released on: 1997-09-22
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Running time: 34 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
With their 1976 album Destroyer, the band's fifth release in two years, Kiss began to expand their fan base by shedding a bit of their edge and taking on a more melodic, less menacing image. The Peter Criss ballad "Beth", written for the drummer's wife, is the most sentimental love ballad the group ever recorded, and songs like "Detroit Rock City" and "Shout It Out Loud" had the kind of arena-rock punch that kept subscriptions to the Kiss Army at an all-time high. Despite, or perhaps because of, the blatantly commercial direction the band seemed to be heading in, 1976 was the most creatively rewarding period in its lengthy career. In addition to releasing Destroyer, the band pumped out the equally touted album Rock and Roll Over, which included the pounding "Take Me" and the groovin' "Calling Dr Love". The only finer year was 1978, when the band starred in the classic B-grade flick Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park. --Jon Wiederhorn

Customer Reviews

not so bad
Destroyer by kiss is their fourth studio album and was released in 1976 and was the album that launched them omwards although many argue that it was the previous years release of their live album called alive that did that and no matter what they were onto a winner regardless of what this sounded like,fortunately this is a good album with some strong songs but let down with some obvious enough filler and a muddy production that while not constant is most hurtful in the great track 'God of thunder'.
The album isnt as glammy as they would get and isnt as heavy as they could be but has a good time feel about it,although as per usual the lousy lyrics that appear at times can make or break how you feel about kiss so you have to see how that makes you feel.
Kiss here dont feel as much a novelty act as i thought they would,they have great songs here such as 'detroit rock city','great expectations' which is very close to sounding like the late 60s work of the kinks but they do it very well and 'beth' which is a fine ballad that could have graced any of the beatles albums no problems.'shout it out loud' is anthemic while 'sweet pain' is annoying at first then starts to work its way into something i can sing along too.
The remaining tracks arent that great but have their moments but this is harmless rock n roll,and kiss at this stage where as good as anyone at doing that.

overblown pretensious masterpiece!!!
This is undoubtedly the high point in KISS's very long and successful musical career. The songs are all killers - Detroit R.C. is their all time best song - one of the most original intros from a band not renown for original! and some stunning dual guitar soloing.
Shout it out loud, Flaming youth and Do you love me are great driving/party anthems - in fact every song is except the gentler Beth and Great expectations which are brilliant none the less. I think beth could have benifited from some acoustic or slide guitar work but is still very listenable.

If you only get one KISS album get this - the production and song writing both have far more kick and clarity than their earlier material (live or studio) and the later albums conatin filler which Destroyer certainly doesn't.

Shouting loud
I had a friend in the late 1970s who latched on to Kiss and quickly collected their albums. At the time, I thought he must be the only person in Britain who liked them. I found most of their music, especially their 'Alive' albums, tiresome. Clearly, they supplemented their act with gimmicks. Even so, I felt that 'Detroit Rock City' was a good song, so recently I decided to take a chance on 'Destroyer.'
They're at their best when they rock hard. On this album, the lame tracks are the ones on which they attempt some subtlety. 'Great Expectations,' simply by being mid-paced, is bland. 'Beth' is an ordinary piano ballad, though obviously singles buyers in the US didn't think so when it was released. 'Do You Love Me,' despite its provocative lyric, is a bit damp too. In contrast, the rest of the album is good, crunching hard rock. The songs aren't especially great, but Kiss overcome that with some thunderous chording and rabble-rousing. The first three tracks and 'Flaming Youth' are probably the best. I suspect the earlier studio albums are more exciting in terms of style, but this is a good effort. Ninety seconds of sound effects at the start is a bit too much though.