(Credits: Far Out / Apple Music)
Tue 31 March 2026 21:30, UK
Love them or hate them, if you were asked if there’s one word that can be used as a way of describing the output of Kiss, you’d have to admit that their work was nothing if not ‘slick’.
There are plenty of other synonyms that you could then bring up in relation to this, with ‘polished’ being another reasonable descriptor for their specific brand of hard rock. Those less enamoured by the band’s work might suggest ‘overblown’ being more accurate, but if anything, that sense of taking their musical endeavours could only ever come as a result of their slickness.
As one of the first examples of hard rock and metal fully entering the mainstream, that wouldn’t have been possible without an element of dedication to tightening up their craft. It wouldn’t have been possible for them to have been as ubiquitous throughout the 1970s and ‘80s without a sense of what worked in a commercial sense, and with that, they had to ensure that their work was in keeping with modern production values, which were increasingly shifting towards having a polished feel around this time.
However, the band themselves would somewhat disagree with this sentiment, and claimed that what they were aiming for wasn’t slickness, but to demonstrate a love of the craft. They argued that it was more a case of enthusiasm and a natural sense of exuberance that went into their best records rather than a desire to seem as tight as possible, but still, the end result certainly gave the impression that their records weren’t simply slapped together without a thought.
This came as a result of them having looked up to certain styles as an inspiration, and Paul Stanley claimed in an interview with Noisey in 2014 that they had a lot more admiration for things that were lacking in this sense of finesse.
“The reason we love so much of the music we grew up listening to is because it wasn’t perfect,” he claimed. “What we’ve done is we replaced passion with perfection, and the music that I loved, Motown, was full of mistakes.”
While he did admit that the band had pursued “perfection”, Stanley still claimed that the band were more smitten by the idea that something could still sound superior to anything else while also feeling as though all of the elements are being held together by a thread.
“The first Zeppelin album was a disaster,” he added. “It’s brilliant because Jimmy almost goes off the rails at times. That’s what music is about. Music is about pushing the boundaries in search of ecstasy.” Led Zeppelin were by no means a band who lacked aptitude, but there’s a real raucous energy to Led Zeppelin I that was hugely influential to a lot of future hard rock and heavy metal acts, with Kiss certainly taking more than a few cues from them.
However, while you can definitely hear elements of these ramshackle inspirations in the make-up-clad marauders, all in all, it was clear that Kiss were far too competent as musicians to really ever emulate this sloppy and unprofessional approach that they so desperately wanted to sound like, earning themselves a reputation for being the exact opposite.
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