Band : Kiss
Album title : Kissology Vol 1
Label : Eagle Records
Distributor : PIAS
Release date : August 2009
Release : DVD (2 disc + bonus discs)

About 3 years after the Halloween (31/10/2006) release in the United States, the first volume of “Kissology” is unleashed for their European fans.
Die hard fans will certainly have ordered this amazing DVD set through internet shops like Amazon and Ebay.
But the rock music fan in general will love this as well, and this is the way to discover  “Kiss” in all it’s glory. So all fans of nowadays metalbands, see where your band got their juice!!!
Jump back in time with all these amazing shows, and see the band grow each year. Especially the the “Love gun” tour footage leaves you stunned on how “Kiss” is profiled as the “Hottest band in the world”.

Now what’s on it?
Disc 1 starts with “Acrobat” actually a pre “Kiss” song performed in Long Beach, 1974.
Then you get footage from different popular US tv shows “ABC in concert”, “The Mike Douglas show”, “The midnight special”, “The Paul Lynde show” and “Don Kirchner’s rock concert”.
The highlights of this volume are certainly the full concert shows, every “Kiss” fan had these on bootleg VHS tapes. Now is the time to throw these crappy tapes into the garbage bin and get ready for the cleaned up versions that will melt your screen like ice cream on a hot sunny day!
Once you start viewing this DVD set, you are on a rollercoaster through time, actually you will be travelling from 1974 until 1977!
Departure date will be 31/01/1975 and it starts in Winterland, San Francisco with the first “Kiss” tour footage, this is the start of a rock’n’roll fantasy. Filmed in b&w, this show already give you a good view that “Kiss” is not your common band, it’s all about theatrics and good, classic rock.
In this period “Kiss” released a record every year with some success. In 1975 “Kiss Alive!” Was released, I call it a live celebration, this record catapulted “Kiss” into rock stardom. The tour that followed this released stunned everybody, the music press who claimed “Kiss” wouldn’t make it were proven wrong!!!
“Kiss” was and is (Still) the “Hottest band in the land (World)”. You can witness their amazing live performance at “Cobo Hall” in “Detroit” 1976. This is the music “Kiss” toured with throughout Europe last summer (2008). It’s not a coincidence that this was “Kiss’s”  most successful tour ever in Europe!
“Detroit” has put “Kiss” on the map and they didn’t forget that! At the end of September “Cobo Hall” will be teared down and as a tribute, the kick off of the “Alive 35/Sonic Boom” tour will be there on sept 25, 26th. I’ll bet they tear off the roof!!!
After the success of “Alive!”, “Destroyer” and “Rock and roll over” soon followed and it was time for their first Japanese tour, needless to say that Japan went “Kiss” crazy. A bone crushing show from “Budokan” (The place to play in Tokyo) leaves no one on their seats, the band is very wild on stage and gives the audience what they came for.
“Kissology Vol 1 “ ends with, according to me, the most beautiful stage set “Kiss” has ever used. The show from the “Summit”, Texas, 1977. This is what “Kiss” is all about! See it to believe it!
This is “Kiss” in all it’s over the topness, an amazing looking stage, stage effects that are so awesome that they were copied by numerous bands in the years to come, killer guitar riffs, here you’ll find it all, from the bloodspitting to smoking guitars and pyro that looks like a 4th july celebration.
In my opinion this is the show the world has got to see one more time!!!
Needless to say that you’ll find every classic “Kiss” track on this volume, “Detroit rock city”, “Rock and roll all nite”, “Shout it out loud”, “God of thunder”, ... the list goes on and on and on ...

“Kissology Vol 1” comes in 3 different versions, with 3 different bonus discs.
“Cobo Hall, Detroit” (Alive! Tour, first night), “MSG, New York” (Rock and roll over tour), and “Largo” (Alive 2 tour). Too bad that these show are not complete, especially the MSG show would have been a great live document.
Everything is presented with some fantastic digipack artwork, included is a 20 page booklet with liner notes from all band members. “Paul Stanley” saying that the fans are what keeps them going, makes this release a must have for every “Kiss” fan!
If you don’t know which version to buy I would advise the one with the “Largo 1977” bonus disc, to my knowledge is this one of the rarest/unknown recordings from this era and again shows “Kiss” in all it’s glory, the way you should see it.
If I would be “Gene Simmons”, I would have released this volume in Europe in one version, but I would ‘ve added a different bonus disc (Maybe “Anaheim CA, 1976”) and then this volume would sell also in the US, and it would be something special for the European die hard “Kiss” fans.

I think this is one of the most anticipated “Kiss” releases ever, this is something “Kiss” fans asked for, for years, and the trip through time and space has just begun, already 3 volumes of “Kissology” have been released so far in the states (2 in Europe)

“Alive!” Has lit my flame, “Destroyer” and “Rock and roll over” got me on fire and “Love gun” and “Alive II” incinerated me!!!

In other words this is AWESOME!!!

100/100

Luc.