1. "Little Caesar" from Hot In The Shade, 1989
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBdZ4uv8xDg What can be said about Hot In The Shade? That it's the worst Kiss album of all time? Perhaps. Extracting its hidden gem is akin to searching for the prettiest piece of undigested corn in waste products. In 1989 CDs were supplanting vinyl as the primary media for records and bands were pressured by labels to make longer albums IE: fill up more space. There may be excellent examples of that thinking working out early on but Hot In The Shade isnt one of them. The albums single Rise To It and the schmaltzy Forever were ok and there was some interest in Hide Your Heart but truthfully, there is little else to recommend here. The song chosen to make the list is here primarily as a nod to the soon to be deceased Eric Carr, (RIP 1991), its primary writer and vocalist. A decent rocker at the top end of the filler spectrum it is the only studio album track on which Carr is lead vocalist, a fact that warrants it a listen. Thus closes this chapter in our look at Kiss gems from the '80's that you may have missed. Let's disagree on the details if we must but continue to share the love. As for the next chapter, considering that the '90's were interrupted by the reunion goings on, I wonder how we would rate the rest of the Kiss catalogue from Revenge right through to Monster. Suggestions?
Reverend Rock
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Ross Ingall is a 52 year old ordained Canadian baptist minister who has been listening to hard rock and metal quite literally since each was invented. A second career pastor who attended seminary in his 40's, the Rev hosts Too Metal For Church on Metal Nation Radio. Writing both under his own name as well as the psuedonym/nickname Reverend Rock, Ross has been writing music articles on the web since 1999.
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