Thundering riffs, masterful songwriting and a hotshot new guitarist weren’t sufficient to redeem Kiss’ 1982 album Creatures of the Evening. With their goodwill crumbled from three consecutive misfires, the band’s strongest album in years was nonetheless doomed to fail.
Kiss had spent the mid-’70s packing stadiums and releasing one hit album after one other, however they had been in dire straits by 1982. The face-painted rockers had been hemorrhaging followers after the important and industrial failure of their earlier three albums: 1979’s disco-influenced Dynasty, 1980’s poppy Unmasked and 1981’s ill-conceived idea album Music From “The Elder.”
The Hottest Band within the Land had additionally misplaced authentic drummer Peter Criss in 1980, and authentic lead guitarist Ace Frehley was largely MIA by the point they hit the studio to start work on Creatures of the Evening. Lead guitar duties as a substitute fell to a rotating lineup together with Robben Ford, Steve Farris, Bob Kulick and Vinnie Vincent, the final of whom cowrote a number of Creatures songs and formally changed Frehley in December 1982.
Creatures of the Evening was a lean, hard-rocking return to type for Kiss, however regardless of optimistic critiques and a newfound readability among the many band members, the file didn’t right the band’s industrial shedding streak. It peaked at a measly No. 45 on the Billboard 200 and led the rockers to drag a Hail Mary publicity stunt, eradicating their make-up and releasing the career-rejuvenating Lick It Up in 1983.
Watch the video under to study extra about Creatures of the Evening, and tune into our “Doomed to Fail?” video collection every week as we mud off ill-fated basic rock albums and decide whether or not they’re hidden gems or higher left forgotten.
Kiss Lineup Modifications: A Full Information
An in-depth information to all the personnel adjustments undergone by the “hottest band within the land,” Kiss.
