After a relatively successful tour for the "Unmasked" album especially in Australia, KISS realized crowds were starting to dwindle as well as album sales.Aces relationship with the band was becoming super fractured as well now and was looking for a way out soon. Paul and Gene meanwhile were looking to get more critical praise so they decided to try a very left field option: a concept album. The olan was simple(at least it seemed to be): Get Bob Ezrin in to produce, create a flowing story and a film to conicide with its release. The film would have been called "The Elder" and the album would be entitled "Music From The Elder". Gene came up with a barebones story of a young boy chosen to fight evil threatening the universe. Its as basic as it gets but they were intend on making it work. However, this would be the album that would nearly kill them.
Track List
1.Fanfare-A quick intro track and quite bizarre to hear from KISS. Its basically this quick medeval sounding track to set some atmosphere. Nothing too amazing but doesnt overstay its welcome.
2.Just A Boy-This track right away shows where the band was going with a big kind of Rock Opera feel to with a classical sense. Pauls vocals are good but the lyrics like most of the album feel severly underdeveloped.
3.Odyssey-The album does flow quite well i can give it that. This song has a more epic feel to it that i do actually kind of enjoy. If the band would have done a type of rock opera tour i feel this one would have been cool with an orchestra behind it.
4.Under The Rose-I do feel like this song has almost a bit of a pink floyd feel to it but it repeats too much for being nearly 5 minutes. The chorus is pretty cool with Genes more epic sounding vocals. I do wish the drums had more depth to them for this being Erica first full length debut.
5.Dark Light-This one while a bit more rocking doesn't do much for me as Ace sounds completely checked out of it. This one is very incomplete feeling. Aces solo still is pretty good on it though
6.A World Without Heroes-One of the best songs on the album with a really nice atmosphere to it as well. The only issue, again, is the story just feels incomplete like where exactly are we in it at this point. But as a song its great and Aces emotional solo is quite the centerpiece.
7.The Oath-Easily the heaviest song here with the band giving it all they have. I just wish Erics drums sounded bigger like they did on "Creatures" later on especially the double bass. There are some great vocal harmonies as well. This is usually the song fans point to as the highlight.
8.Mr. Blackwell-This seems to be the villains theme and its not bad if not a little cheesy. I do like the heavy bass and al.ost bluesy feel but the guitars and drums just feel a bit flat in the production. Not bad.
9.Escape From The Island-Straight into a tight energetic instrumental. If only the album had a bit more of this energy i feel like it would be a bit more memorable.
10.I-The energetic closer to the album and again the lyrics could use some reworking. The dualing vocals from paul and Gene are pretty nice as well. Its not as epic as a closer to a concept album should be, but it gets its point across.
Overall, I give the album a 6 out of 5. While the weakest effort from the band so far, it definitely has its moments. Its also a concept album so its really only enjoyable all the way through. However, because it seems that the story was rushed, that the whole concept sort of falls apart. Give it another year or two and this could have actually been a very solid release. As it stands though, its alright but alot of missed opportunities. This is the only KISS album that did not have a tour and Ace called it quits soon after and the band spent time writing their next album while trying out new guitarists. Little did fans know but the band would come back with their heaviest release and a step in the right direction...
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