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KISS - Sonic Boom review



Reviewer:
6.0

165 users:
7.33
Band: KISS
Album: Sonic Boom
Release date: October 2009


Disc I
01. Modern Day Delilah
02. Russian Roulette
03. Never Enough
04. Yes I Know (Nobody's Perfect)
05. Stand
06. Hot And Cold
07. All For The Glory
08. Danger Us
09. I'm An Animal
10. When Lightning Strikes
11. Say Yeah

Disc II [Kiss Klassics] [US/Canadian bonus]
01. Deuce
02. Detroit Rock City
03. Shout It Out Loud
04. Hotter Than Hell
05. Calling Dr. Love
06. Love Gun
07. I Was Made For Lovin' You
08. Heaven's On Fire
09. Lick It Up
10. I Love It Loud
11. Forever
12. Christine Sixteen
13. Do You Love Me
14. Black Diamond
15. Rock And Roll All Nite

Disc III [Live DVD: Live at Buenos Aires, 2009] [US/Canadian bonus]
01. Deuce
02. Hotter Than Hell
03. C'mon And Love Me
04. Watchin' You
05. 100,000 Years
06. Rock & Roll All Nite

KISS have a new album coming out soon, which is going to be called "Monster". Interested in this one, I decided to pick up a copy of their 2009 album Sonic Boom, to get an idea of what to expect. And well... Let's just say at this point I'm not expecting much.

KISS have been around since forever. But regarding the nature of the band they are, it can be difficult to decide which light to look at this album with. If there's one band that has taken branding to a whole new level, it's KISS. They have shamelessly made millions by not only cranking out albums, but cranking out T-shirts, coffee mugs, fridge magnets, bobbleheads, and every other thing you could imagine with their name on it. So it's definitely plausible that this album is a basic commercial move. But, KISS haven't exactly been active regarding albums in the past decade or so. Not at all. What does this mean? Well, I wonder why they would release this album. Probably a commercial decision, because it's really nothing special.

We have heard basically everything on this album before done by KISS, and done better. It's a very, very safe hard rock/rock album with a bit of that old school KISS flavour. Of course, the Demon's vocals aren't what they used to be, but that's not the main problem. The main problem is that this album doesn't overwhelm you with anything new or creative or unexpected, and it doesn't underwhelm you with something far below what acceptably made music is. It is about as average and whelming as an album can get. You'll find a cool riff or two maybe, I personally like "I'm An Animal" in that regard. But this music doesn't bring anything new to the table, doesn't impress, and doesn't really have any need to exist.

I will say that the 3 disc edition is pretty cool, because it contains some of the "klassic" KISS songs and a live performance, but you would probably just be better off buying a couple of their old albums or one of the eight hundred greatest hits albums available and do without the Sonic Boom portion of the package.

Final verdict: The definition of average.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 7
Songwriting: 6
Originality: 3
Production: 7

Written by Mattybu | 04.02.2012




Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.



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