Product Description

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, therest 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 Simmonsand Paul Stanley. THE ELDER is a highly underrated Kiss album that showed the band's depth and ability to branch out indifferent musical directions.

Track Listing

1. Fanfare
2. Just A Boy
3. Odyssey
4. Only You
5. Under The Rose
6. Dark Light
7. A World Without Heroes
8. The Oath
9. Mr. Blackwell
10. Escape From The Island
11. I

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #39549 in Music
• Released on: 1997-09-29
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered

Customer Reviews

KISS' Great Folley has its Moments
(Music From) the Elder has divided KISS fans for a quarter of a century. Some dispise the records as being silly, misguided or just plain awful. Others see it as KISS showing a more serious side to complement their simplistic bombast of the 1970s, while other (like myself) see a bit of both.

The album has numerous moments of brilliance. Under the Rose is perhaps their best kept secret, dark, compelling, mystical, Gene sings the song with real force. A complete departure from anything the band had ever done before, it was a magnificent song. World Without Heroes shows Gene in fine form again with a sad, mournful theme, wonderful lyrics that hit home with real resonance and a fantastic guitar solo. The other real standout of the album is the final track, simply titled 'I'. It is classic KISS, heavy, anthemic, fist pumping rock 'n' roll. Only the outro of the song, with its referrences to the concept of the album tie it in with the rest of the songs. Bizarrely, it is ignored by the band live, despite being not only in the same vein as their classic 1970s output but also much betetr than a lot of it. Then we come to the low points on the album. Most of them centre around Paul Stanley who took to the concept like a fish out of water, usually a fish singing falsetto. Just a Boy seems to be picking up and developing into a strong song until the Star Child croons into the heavens to ruin it. The same happens with the Oath, spoilled by Stanley's shrill shrieking. He even manages to ruin the half decent Only You. Dark Light is the last track Ace Frehley recorded with the band but is well below his previous offerings. Fanfare and Escape from the Island are decent instrumental pieces but are nothing special. And others such as Odyssey and Mr Blackwell could suck a football through a hosepipe.

There clearly was some talent floating around the studio when this album was recorded. Unfortunately producer Bob Ezrin tried to turn KISS into something they were not and misdirecdted the work. It has some awesome moments, but is let down by far too many poor ones. Nonetheless it is worth buying for those strong moments alone.

End of an Era
For me (and hindsight is a valuable tool I know) 'The Elder' represents KISS at a crossroads in their careers.
Seemingly uncertain of where to go next, the band was in disarray with Criss already departed and Frehley on the brink of leaving. Having barely survived the punk onslaught, KISS were looking for a new direction for a new decade.
Following on the footseps of the rather forgettable 'Unmasked' 'The Elder' represented a stab at returning to the halcyon days of the mid to late 1970s where KISS had established themselves as the most versatile band in Rock. Musically The Elder with its mix of hard rock and opera worked, however a lack of critical acclaim and commercial success saw KISS abandon any ambition of recapturing their glory days or the 1970s after The Elder.
Instead KISS headed for the safer commercial ground of mainstream rock which although saw them once again climb out of the post 'Dynasty' slump of the late 70s and early 80s, back to the top of the Rock ladder, also saw their music become far more bland and lacking the spark and imagination of their earlier work.
The Elder is the last vestige of 'vintage' KISS which sees their imaginations both musically and conceptually to the fore for pure arts sake.
The novel idea of a soundtrack for a film which although mooted at various stages of the 1980s never came to light (if it had ever been written at all -one of the great KISS mysteries!!) had hardcore KISS fans abuzz with anticipation and looking forward to more of the same.
Sadly, not many people apart from KISS fans liked the album for 'The Elder' is a truly high quality production and one can but wonder where KISS could have gone had they been allowed to continue to create.
For me 'The Elder' stands out as the last truly great KISS album. A poignant beacon lighting the end of an era.

The most ridiculous KISS album of all
"(Music from)The Elder" is the result of a somewhat misguided decision for KISS to become "serious", which ultimately, along with their new, shorter hair image, was the cause of a vast decline in the bands popularity in the USA.
The experimentalist nature of songs like "Fanfare" and "Under the Rose", with their orchestral codas and bizarre subject matter, would prove hard to discern as a KISS album to many fans. Both Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley slip into another bizarre mask on this album, by translating a short fantasy story into rock n' roll, albeit without the ground breaking momentum of "Seargent Peppers..." or the finely tuned genius of "Tommy."
Following the orchestral intro of "Fanfare", Paul Stanley croons gently on "Just a boy", as this bizarre story unfolds. "The Oath" is a surprisingly heavy song, with not-so-subtle hints at KISSes next direction on "Creatures of the Night." "Under the Rose" lurches around like some Frankenstein-esque monster, with a bizarre chorus, reminiscient of a Gregorian Monks chant. Gene Simmons also sounds suitably evil on "Mr Blackwell" a reprieve from the lightweight material on offer from Stanley.
Ace Frehley only appears on two songs here, these being his final hurrah with the group. "Dark Light" is a typical Frehley number,being morose in mood and staccato in its riffery, but is really not as good as many of his songs from the last few years. "Escape from the Island" is a chance for new drummer Eric Carr - the fox - to show his bludgeoning drum skills and jam with an aggressive Space Ace. "A World without Heroes" is one of the few songs here that could survive out of the concept it was born from - it is a mature ballad so far removed from Gene Simmons' style that it is almost unrecogisable. Although this album is convoluted with misformed ideas and concepts that never really gel, it ends well, with the traditionally KISS sounding anthem of "I", driven by buoyant percussion and Simmons' yodelling and rabble-rousing.
This is undoubtedly KISSes most bizarre record, and although many of the songs fail with their over-burdened content, many of the songs succeed, whether by their own individaulity ("A World without Heroes") or through their anthemic power ("I") which makes it more of a pity that the band never played any of these songs while in makeup. All-in-all, an album only for the KISS collector.