Destroyer (album)

Destroyer
Kiss studio album
Publication (s)	March 15, 1976
Label (s)	Casablanca Records
Format (s)	LP
Genre (s)	Hard rock
Title (number)	9
running time	34:03
occupation	Paul Stanley - rhythm guitar , vocals Gene Simmons - bass , vocals Ace Frehley - lead guitar , backing vocals Peter Criss - drums , percussion , vocals Dick Wagner - lead guitar (5), acoustic guitar (8)
production	Bob Ezrin
Studio (s)	Electric Lady Studios , Record Plant Studios
chronology Alive! 1975 Destroyer Rock and Roll Over 1976

Destroyer is the fourth studio album by the American hard rock band Kiss . It was released by Casablanca Records on March 15, 1976 , reached number 11 on the Billboard 200, and went platinum in the United States in 1976 for one million units sold. The music magazine Rolling Stone ranks it 489th on its list of the 500 best albums of all time .

Emergence

Bob Ezrin produced the album (Photo: 2011)

Kim Fowley co-wrote two songs on the album (Photo: 2012)

The band's popularity was huge, they played sold-out stadium concerts. The previously released albums did not reflect this success, as they only placed in the lower part of the charts. After Kiss renewed the record deal with Casablanca Records for two albums, the goal was to release the first commercially successful studio album . In order for this to succeed, the band enlisted the help of third parties with the songwriting for the first time.

For example, producer Bob Ezrin composed the guitar solo for Detroit Rock City , which the band initially didn't like because of the oriental touch. Ezrin was also able to convince the band that God of Thunder fit the voice of Gene Simmons better than that of Paul Stanley. Also involved in the songwriting were songwriter Kim Fowley and guitarist Mark Anthony, who had previously worked for Alice Cooper ; they wrote King of the Night Time World with Ezrin and Paul Stanley ; Fowley also worked on Do You Love Me . The piece Beth originated from the song Beck, which drummer Peter Criss originally wrote together with Stan Penridge. Both had been members of the band Lips , for which Beck was written , between 1970 and 1972 .

Work on the album began in August 1975 at Electric Lady Studios in New York City and was completed in January 1976 at Record Plant Studios.

In 2012 Universal released a remix of the album , created by producer Bob Ezrin on the basis of the original tapes , under the title Destroyer [Resurrected] . This version of the album was released on CD and vinyl with the original cover by Ken Kelly, which was rejected by Casablanca Records in 1976 because the costumes depicted on it were no longer current at the time of publication. Both versions of the cover are by the same artist and show the members of the group against the backdrop of a destroyed city.

Track list

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Albums

Destroyer   DE 36 03/15/1976 (2 weeks)   UK 22nd 05/29/1976 (5 weeks)   US 11 05/15/1976 (83 weeks)

Destroyer
No.	title	Songwriter	length
1.	Detroit Rock City	Paul Stanley , Bob Ezrin	5:17
2.	King of the Night Time World	Stanley, Ezrin, Kim Fowley , Mark Anthony	3:19
3.	God of Thunder	Stanley	4:13
4th	Great Expectations	Gene Simmons , Ezrin	4:24
5.	Flaming Youth	Ace Frehley , Stanley, Simmons, Ezrin	2:59
6th	Sweet pain	Simmons	3:20
7th	Shout It Out Loud	Stanley, Simmons, Ezrin	4:34
8th.	Beth	Peter Criss , Ezrin, Stan Penridge	2:45
9.	Do you love me?	Stanley, Ezrin, Fowley	3:40
Overall length:			34:03

The album ends with an undisclosed track that later became known as the Rock and Roll Party .

successes

With around 3.5 million copies sold, Destroyer is Kiss' most commercially successful album. Shortly after its release in the USA, it achieved gold status in April 1976 , but initially lagged behind the sales of its predecessor Alive! With around 850,000 units sold . back. The Single -Auskopplungen Shout it Out Loud , Flaming Youth and Detroit Rock City did not meet the commercial expectations. After radio DJs played the ballad Beth , the B-side of Detroit Rock City , the song made the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100 . With this success, the album rose again in the album charts and reached its top position at number 11. In November 1976 Destroyer was awarded platinum . The album entered the British album charts on May 29, 1976, stayed there for five weeks and reached number 22. In the German album charts, Destroyer reached number 36. In the Swedish charts, the album reached number 2, and the album also made it into the Norwegian (number 25) and New Zealand charts (number 16).

The magazine Guitar World Magazine chose the song Detroit Rock City in 2011 one of the 100 greatest guitar rock songs of all time .

Reviews

In a contemporary review of the music magazine Rolling Stone , the author wrote that it was the band's best album thanks to producer Bob Ezrin, but missed the spark of creative craziness that makes the music interesting. The album is lackluster, the vocals are ordinary and empty of emotions. In 2003 Destroyer magazine described it as an exaggerated party rock album that got better with age. Greg Prato of Allmusic considers the album to be one of the most experimental and strongest of the band, and Jan Jaedike of the music magazine Rock Hard calls it "one of the most important records in all of hard rock history". Bruno McDonald wrote that the fruits of Ezrin's work with Kiss included “timeless hymns, especially Detroit Rock City and God of Thunder, ” but “also oddities like Beth and Great Expectations. “ Destroyer is one of the 1001 albums You Must Hear Before You Die .

literature

• Jan Jaedike: Classic: Kiss - Destroyer (1976) . The story behind the milestone. In: Rock Hard . No. 283 , November 2010, p. 60-61 .
• James Campion: Shout It Out Loud: The Story of Kiss's Destroyer and the Making of an American Icon Publisher: Backbeat, 2015, ISBN 978-1-61713-618-4

Web links

• Destroyer at Discogs (English)
• Destroyer at Allmusic (English)
• The Kiss Album Focus - Destroyer. (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; accessed on April 2, 2020 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Destroyer on the US Billboard 200 album charts
2. ^ Certifications: Destroyer. RIAA , accessed March 21, 2010 . 
3. ↑ ^{a b} 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: Kiss, 'Destroyer'. Rolling Stone Magazine, accessed March 5, 2014 . 
4. ^ ^{A b c} Jan Jaedike: Kiss - Destroyer . In: Holger Stratmann (Ed.): Best of Rock & Metal. The 500 strongest discs of all time . Heel Verlag, Königswinter 2007, ISBN 978-3-89880-517-9 , pp. 140 .
5. ↑ Deluxe Edition of Classic KISS Album 'Destroyer' Coming With Original Cover. In: Geeks of Doom. Retrieved October 13, 2017 . 
6. ↑ Charts DE Charts UK Charts US
7. ↑ David Roberts: The Chronicle of Rock Music - The History of Rock from AC / DC to ZZ Top. Librero IBP 2018, pages 272 & 273
8. ↑ Beth / Detroit Rock City on the US Billboard Hot 100
9. ↑ RIAA Database , accessed February 8, 2010 (English)
10. ↑ Destroyer in the Official UK Charts (English)
11. ↑ Album Chart Action The KISSFAQ, accessed February 8, 2010 (English)
12. ↑ ^{a b} Destroyer in the Swedish charts on SwedishCharts.com
13. ^ Guitar World honors Detroit Rock City. In: Kissonline.com. May 21, 2011, accessed October 13, 2017 . 
14. ^ Guitar World Magazine , August 2011 issue
15. ↑ John Milward: KISS: Destroyer. Rolling Stone , June 3, 1976, archived from the original January 1, 2010 ; accessed on February 8, 2010 (English). 
16. ^ Greg Prato: Destroyer - Kiss. In: Allmusic . Retrieved October 13, 2017 . 
17. ^ Robert Dimery: 1001 albums. Music You Should Hear Before Life Is Over . Edition Olms, Zurich, August 8, 2015, ISBN 978-3-283-01249-6 , page 360