![\"Kiss](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Kiss-1975-Far-Out-Magazine1-1140x855.jpg\")
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Credit: Far Out \/ Casablanca Records<\/p>\n
The 1980s were an uncertain time for many musicians, even established and successful ones like Kiss<\/a>, but with waning interest in their music and even less in their image, the challenges they faced were especially difficult, forcing them to make decisions they\u2019d look back on and regret.<\/p>\n The band\u2019s 1980 record Unmasked placed them between a rock and a hard place, with poor sales numbers that forced them to make a handful of uncharacteristic decisions \u2013 one, of course, was touring extensively outside of the US for the first time, mainly to promote the album beyond their established market and keep people engaged when interest felt especially rocky.<\/p>\n The problem with Unmasked wasn\u2019t that it was bad; it just didn\u2019t feel like a quintessential Kiss record, with the band opting to lean into a more pop-adjacent sound to appeal to a more mainstream audience, and while this decision carried over into their image, they weren\u2019t pulling nearly the same numbers as they once were, meaning the stakes were high in ensuring the next era was even more successful.<\/p>\n After all, even though numbers rarely equate to the quality of art, the figures around Unmasked were pretty diabolical. For instance, sales dropped well over half compared to those accumulated from 1979\u2019s Dynasty, and it also marked the first-ever Kiss album to fail to reach platinum since the mid-1970\u2019s Dress to Kill. People felt they were becoming sell-outs, which, all things considered, is a pretty reasonable analysis when looking at the sort of music they put out at the time.<\/p>\n As a result of this backlash \u2013 and recognising that what the people wanted was for their familiar, beloved Kiss<\/a> to return, not this strange, watered-down version \u2013 they returned to the studio to make Music from \u201cThe Elder\u201d, aiming to return to their heavy rock roots and once again prove themselves as serious, credible rock \u2018n\u2019 roll musicians who were still very much capable of creating a great, stadium-ready anthemic record.<\/p>\n However, recreating more of the same wasn\u2019t going to cut it either, and so the band recruited Bob Ezrin once again to help them deliver hardcore rock \u2018n\u2019 roll with a punch. As such, it was decided that not only would they create heart-thumping rock anthems that would surely guarantee their rejuvenation as the era\u2019s biggest and best rock stars, but they\u2019d deliver it within the framework of a concept album, packaged as though it were the soundtrack to a big blockbuster movie.<\/p>\n Still, despite all the building blocks in place to make Elder the band\u2019s magnum opus, it didn\u2019t really gain the traction they wanted at the time. In fact, the record landed with an even worse response than people hating it, which was that people didn\u2019t actually really care that much. Some reviews were relatively positive, but it ultimately failed to perform commercially, with some critics later reflecting on it as quite possibly one of the worst albums ever made.<\/p>\n Further reading: From The Vault<\/strong><\/p>\n Even though there are some parts worth listening to \u2013 if only to understand the trajectory of Kiss\u2019 career better<\/a> \u2013 most of it ended up feeling a little sonically disjointed and thematically misguided, which, considering what they were aiming to achieve at the time, doesn\u2019t really scream the kind of defining 1980s concept rock triumph they were desperate for.<\/p>\n
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/wp-content\/themes\/far-out-magazine\/img\/google-discover.svg\")
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