Kiss Eases Off on the Sex Talk With ‘Monster’
If you're looking for a heavy dose of sexual boasting on the new Kiss album, you might want to re-align your expectations, according to Gene Simmons. "A lot of the lyrics and points of view have less to do with sort of the cocksmanship," he says, declaring the subject matter to instead be "more about sort of primal notions about who we are and how we feel."
In a recent interview with Billboard, the rock demon and reality TV big mouth says fans might be a little surprised at the lack of "Hey babe, I'm gonna rock you all night long"-style lyrics. "Something like 'The Devil is Me,' for instance, is more confessional," he explains, "you can keep pointing your fingers at all the evil in the world, but you've got some of it and here's the Lord's decree -- the devil is me. Maybe there's a little devil in all of us."
'Monster' is due for release on Oct. 16 and Simmons calls it "one of the best or the top three albums we've ever done." The lead single, 'Hell Or Hallelujah,' is already blasting out of classic rock radio stations across the land.
The band took a decidedly back-to-basics approach on the album, with Kiss co-founder Paul Stanley in the producer's chair. As for instrumentation? "Just guitar and drums, nothing else," Simmons states proudly. "It's really a band effort... four guys in a car but somebody's got to be driving and everybody else is going, 'No, turn right here, turn right there!' Ultimately we're all going to the same place, and Paul got us there. I no longer have that patience or the temperament to be strapped in the studio for three months."