lucidnightmare
Max Power
Registered: Nov 2003
Location: North Myrtle Beach SC
Posts: 3353 |
quote:
Although Gene Simmons released his debut solo album in 1978 (Along with the other three original members of Kiss at the same time), you could well consider Asshole a fresh start for the bass player while Kiss continue with their never ending farewell tour.
And like his debut effort, Simmons isn’t afraid to collaborate with a host of big names to ensure that Asshole is diverse and varied in flavour and sounds, and quite honestly, more often than not sounding anything unlike his day job with Kiss.
There’s more than a slight feel of Queen’s ‘Tie Your Mother Down’ in the slide guitar sound for the albums opener ‘Sweet & Dirty Love’. It’s also somewhat of a Kiss reunion too with ex-Kiss/Union guitarist Bruce Kulick and drummer Eric Singer ensuring Asshole starts off with a bang. The trio also team up on the hard rocking ‘Weapons Of Mass Destruction’, with both tracks being as traditional rock sounding as the album gets.
While the idea may have sounded great on paper, the cover of The Prodigy’s ‘Firestarter’ has precious little new added to the mix. And with Simmons on vocals, the song is as you would expect, a recipe for disaster from the word go.
Maybe in an attempt to reinvent his musical persona, Simmons teams up with Bob Dylan (Song writing wise) for the excellent slower number ‘Waiting For The Morning Light’. Actually, had Dylan recorded this himself, it could have easily been hailed as one of his better numbers in years!
Moving further with the experimentation, ‘Beautiful’ is a basic pop song relying solely of keyboards and some distorted guitar, but essentially ends up sounding like throwaway material at best.
The title track ‘Asshole’ is a take on the pop punk phenomenon, which works on every level, while old guitar cohort Bob Kulick helped co-write the Beatles tinged ‘Now That You’re Gone’. The song itself would have worked without the annoying backing vocals.
Mrs. Simmons (Miss Shannon Tweed) helps backing vocal wise on the feel good song ‘Whatever Turns You On’, while the down and dirty ‘Dog’ and the simplistic acoustic beauty of ‘If I Had A Gun’ sound truly custom made for Simmons in structure and feel.
The odd pairing of the late Frank Zappa and Simmons yields plenty of rock on the stunning ‘Black Tongue’ (Helped performance wise in part by Zappa’s entire eclectic musical family and guitarist Richie Kotzen), but it’s the heavier ‘Carnival Of Souls’ that brings back Kiss’ familiar rock sound for the fans.
The final number ‘1,000 Dreams’ ends with a Latin influenced salsa that sadly misses the mark, bowing the album out with a whimper, rather than a bang.
Asshole is one diverse album, and while it does have its (Heavier) moments, it inevitably sounds like a collection of songs rather than a proper solo venture. Actually, on a Kiss scale, this equates to Psycho Circus (Plenty of promise, but short on genuine thrills). Kiss fans looking for the God Of Thunder might want to pass on this for the real thing on tour, or should Kiss decided to return to the studio once again.
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NECROTIC OBSESSION
A chicken in every pot and a cap in every ass.
Peter;The Family Guy
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03-24-2007 03:24 PM
