Maxim Magazine Psycho Circus Review

KISS--Psycho Circus (Mercury)

Since the lucrative success of their 1996 reunion tour, it's clear that KISS are still ready to rock 'n roll all night--as long as they get to party every payday. Now the legendary fire spewers introduce a new revenue stream with Psycho Circus, the first studio album on which all four original members of the band have appeared since 1979. In their new incarnation they fulfill every KISS freaks wet dream by respackling their saggy mugs with Destroyer-era makeup, but does the new music measure up to KISS classics like Love Gun? Well, no. All the trademark ingredients are here: demonic Gene Simmons rockers ("Within"), spacey Ace Frehley yarns ("Into The Void"), and the obligatory "Beth"-like Peter Criss ballad ("I Finally Found My Way"). The problem is that all this by-the-numbers nostalgia doesn't add up to anything better than the umpteen greasepaint-free KISS albums you've somehow managed to live without for the last 18 years. For fanatics only. --Tom Lanham

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