10 Rock Band Reunions That REALLY Didn't Work

As KISS stumbled their way into the '80s, they had slowly started to outgrow the kind of makeup clad superheroes that people loved a few years before. The look of MTV had pop starlets and hair metal bands strutting their stuff on MTV as well, making the Demon and StarChild personas look more like a Saturday morning cartoons than something that you'd want to take seriously. Once the makeup came off (and replaced with a different kind of makeup), KISS entered the next chapter of their career and left the superheroes behind.

When the tides started to shift again in the '90s, KISS found themselves getting a lot more exposure for their early work, while also having a great Unplugged performance bringing back their old bandmates Peter Criss and Ace Frehley. All the pieces were there, and suddenly the original '70s version of the band were back in action, donning the makeup again and going on world tours to give their fans the greatest show on Earth all over again. That's what was going on in the press...but a different story happened with Psycho Circus.

Though some songs on here like the title track capture the same energy that the band had in the early days, the rest of the band have been outspoken about how compromised this record was, with only one Ace song added into the mix, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley doing the lion's share of the writing, and even having sessions musicians play the drums and guitars on over half of the project. The wild rock and roll family may have seemed like they were back together again, but you have to remember that the Spaceman and the Cat are here in name only.