Tag Archives: album reviews

“KISSWORLD – The Best Of KISS” by KISS

Artist: KISS
Title: “KISSWORLD – The Best Of KISS”
Label: Universal Music
Release Date: 1/26/2019
Genre: Hard Rock
Rating: 4/5

Lo and behold my friends, there is yet another “Greatest Hits” compilation for the legendary masked men of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal – The Hottest Band In The World KISS!!!! This one is entitled “KISSWORLD – The Best Of KISS” and it hit the streets in late January and I’ve finally got a copy of this in my hands. As a lifer in terms of KISS releases, I will be most likely purchasing another 50 hits packages if they come out and my main interest in this one was to see what sort of booklet might be included in the packaging. I’ll return to that topic later on but first let’s take a quick glance at the “20” tracks included on the release. From top to bottom there doesn’t seem to be a single track of “filler” and instead are all go to songs in the now massive KISS catalog. I found it interesting that the release began with “Crazy Crazy Nights” because when that song first hit I was aghast but now so many years later have found it to be enjoyable Rock and Roll.

There aren’t any omissions in terms of the necessary staples as “Love Gun”, “Detroit Rock City”, “Shout It Out Loud” and of course the seminal “Rock and Roll All Nite” are included. The latter one being the original studio track as opposed to the one that we often find on such a release that hails from the essential “Alive” album. There are NO live tracks on this compilation. The post-makeup years are well represented with the most notable tracks from the era such as “Tears Are Falling”, “Lick It Up” and “Heaven’s On Fire” in addition to the album opening “Crazy Crazy Nights”. I think I would have liked to see “Who Wants To Be Lonely” here but it is not.
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“A Very Spidey Christmas” by Various Artists

Artist: Various Artists
Title: “A Very Spidey Christmas”
Label: Sony Classical
Release Date: 12/21/2018
Genre: Holiday/Comedy
Rating: 4/5

I recently caught the brand-new animated Spider-Man feature by Sony Pictures called “Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse” which was a whole lot of fun for a wide age range of viewers. We’re big superhero fans here at the PiercingMetal Media Command HQ and regularly offer up critique on the comic book and film industry that releases such as this are geared towards and some items about the film can be enjoyed HERE. During the film, the original Spider-Man of the film lines out a number of his accomplishments with one of them being a Christmas Album. That brings us to “A Very Spidey-Christmas” and with today being Christmas Eve, I figured lets do a quick overview of this fun little EP. There are five tracks in all but the entire release is only 10 minutes in length so you can give it a quick listen in Spotify if you are so compelled when all is said and done. Now let’s discuss the tracks.
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“Diary Of A Creep” by New Years Day

Artist: New Years Day
Title: “Diary Of A Creep”
Label: Century Media Records
Release Date: 2/23/2018
Genre: Alternative Hard Rock
Rating: 4/5

It’s been a minute since I’ve looked into the doings and brewing’s of the band New Years Day, so I was rather excited to dig into this new EP offering called “Diary Of A Creep”. The extended play comes care of the Century Media Records label and is one brand-new original song along with five covers. Generally speaking, the idea of cover albums has grown boring for me, but I’ve opened up on them a little more of late since they are not coming out as often as they used to. There was a time a few short years ago where almost every artist was dishing out a covers album and too much just makes a unique idea stale. The new track is called “Disgust Me” and I loved the overall groove of this one and had to say that there were points when Ash reminded me of Maria Brink of In This Moment. With that band no longer on CMR, perhaps NYD will rise in the ranks to be that sort of band for their roster.
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“Anomaly” (Deluxe Edition) by Ace Frehley

Artist: Ace Frehley
Title: “Anomaly” (Deluxe Edition)
Label: eOne Entertainment
Release Date: 10/6/2017
Genre: Hard Rock
Rating: 4.5/5

Back in 2009, the world was excited as all heck about the return to recording by the legendary Ace Frehley, the forever Space Man of the band KISS where he used to sonically shred us on the lead guitar. The album was called “Anomaly” and at the time came care of Rocket Science Records. I reviewed that release on the website and you can see that care of THIS LINK. However, now that the Space Ace has been signed to the fine folks at eOne Entertainment AND re-issued this album as a spiffy Deluxe Edition, I am rehashing my original thoughts about the album (since they are the same as they were back then) and then closing out with words on the newly added Bonus Tracks. Take a look.

“Has it really been 20 years since the last Ace Frehley solo record was released? Yes my friends it has because in 1989, The Space Ace would release his final album with Frehley’s Comet “Trouble Walkin’” and eventually find his way back to KISS for reunion shows in full makeup. From this he would return to his solo career and that brings us to the present and to his stellar new release – “Anomaly”. I know what you are saying and that is probably something like “Twenty years? This better be good” and you have a right to be concerned because Guns ‘N Roses took sixteen to put out “Chinese Democracy” and that album was uhm well, let’s move along shall we. The great thing is that the Ace record does live up to expectations and delivers on all counts that one could have hoped it would have. We have been finding ourselves in the year of the throwback release and this means that a legacy artist is returning to a form that made them so special to us in the first place and as far as “Anomaly” is concerned, I would have to say that this is the natural successor to the groundwork first delivered on his 1978 solo release and then on his debut with Frehley’s Comet for their self titled album with just a touch of “Second Sighting” tossed in for good measure. I realize that I appear to be putting it on thick but in truth this is no exaggeration which the listeners will quickly understand as opening track “Foxy & Free” opens up with its crunching riff and rock solid drums. The first single Ace put forth for the release comes up next with “Outer Space” which is a good tune but not one I would have opted to make my first listen. A slight sarcastic wit comes out during “Pain In The Neck” where Ace shows us how not all relationships are peaches and cream. We get a tasty rendition of The Sweet’s “Fox On The Run” that while bearing none of the familiar synthesizers or high pitched vocals is still a nice cover.”
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“This Is Real” by The Last Stand

Artist: The Last Stand
Title: “This Is Real”
Label: Irish Voodoo Records
Release Date: 6/9/2017
Genre: Hardcore/Thrash
Rating: 4/5

Truth be told I really don’t do a lot of Hardcore reviews here on PiercingMetal.com and despite that oversight we’ve a strong appreciation for the bands of legend like Sick Of It All, Agnostic Front and even some Murphy’s Law when it all comes down to it. It’s important to stress that this oversight is not based on indifference and instead more of a “going with what you know” sort of things and with us that is a deep breadth of Heavy Metal, Hard Rock and Punk and this is what made my overview of the new EP by The Last Stand a bit of a quandary but once I started streaming “This Is Real” it became a little easier of a task. The EP begins with a building riff that leads to an almost Thrash Metal sort of crescendo and when the quick paced drumming kicks into gear it’s enough to get you off your feet and start the circle pit. The words for the album’s title lines out how this is more than just clever phrasing and is instead a lifestyle that is believed in firmly. Good stuff.
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