Kiss Symphony: Alive IV

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New York, N.Y. KISS, America's #1 Gold Record Award Winning Champion Group (RIAA - Group category) and Sanctuary Records Group are proud to announce the formation of KISS Records, a joint venture between KISS and Sanctuary Records Group, it was announced today by Merck Mercuriadis, Chief Executive Officer, Sanctuary Group Inc. and longtime KISS manager Doc McGhee, President, McGhee Entertainment. Merck Mercuriadis commented, "We wanted the best and we got the best. KISS are the barometer that everyone looks to for gold records, ticket sales, licensing income, merchandising sales and as a result are the perfect partners for Sanctuary's 360 model. Gene and Paul have lead the way throughout their career and continue to do so with the formation of KISS Records and this revolutionary deal with Sanctuary."

"After seeing what has been going on at the major record labels," Doc McGhee adds, "KISS searched for an innovative way to reach their audience. We looked mostly at new and up and coming independent labels. In doing so, we talked with Sanctuary Records and found what we were looking for. By forming KISS Records we can control how we appear, and with the great staff at Sanctuary Records, we feel we have the opportunity to create something very special in the 21st century. Both KISS and Sanctuary Group believe that if it's worth doing, it's worth over doing."

Debuting on KISS Records/Sanctuary Records on July 22, "KISS Symphony: Alive IV" is unlike anything recorded or released before by the Rock Icons. "KISS Symphony: Alive IV" captures one of the world's greatest performing rock bands with the prestigious 60-piece Melbourne Symphony Orchestra live before a sold-out crowd from Australia's Telstra Dome while on the 2003 tour. The energy-packed two-disc set promises to captivate and tantalize fans new and old alike with twenty-two newly recorded live tracks featuring ten classic KISS tracks backed by the 60-piece Melbourne Symphony, six never-performed-live acoustic versions of KISS classics and six raw classic KISS tracks sans orchestra. This spectacular concert event proved to be a memorable show highlighted by the Melbourne Symphony appearing in full KISS makeup and will be released as a DVD in the future.

KISS lead singer Paul Stanley states, "KISS Records is the continuation of the road paved by us for the past thirty years. Our first release 'KISS Symphony: Alive IV' ushers in a new era where we will exert uncompromising attention to detail, control of quality, and overall feel and direction from concept to completion." With a sly grin, Stanley adds, "With KISS Symphony, you are cordially invited to witness the unholy marriage of black tie and black leather."

"After 30 years, KISS has finally come home. KISS Records signals the end of one era and along with our perfect partners, Sanctuary Records, the beginning of a new one. You better believe it," comments KISS bassist Gene Simmons. As for the KISS Symphony, Simmons says, "KISS and The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, never have so many grown men and women looked better in KISS make-up."

KISS drummer Peter Criss comments, "I am moved deeply to know that after thirty years millions of people are still being touched by our music. It was an honor to perform with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. As a writer and performer it was truly a dream come true."

"As the new kid in town, I'm honored and excited to be part of the continuing KISS legacy. I know that 'KISS Symphony: Alive IV' will put die-hard KISS fans in the middle of the action like nothing they've ever experienced before. I was blown away by the immediate acceptance of the fans and the thrill of being onstage for a show as important as KISS Symphony," states new KISS lead guitar player Tommy Thayer.

Over their illustrious 30-year career, KISS has sold over 80 million albums, played thousands of spectacular SRO tours and continues to garner a succession of gold and platinum awards (they currently hold the RIAA record for No. 1 most Gold albums second only to THE BEATLES). The legend carries on with their upcoming North American tour with AEROSMITH, which kicks off on Aug. 2 in Hartford, CT.

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Hier is een voorproefje.

Hier en daar is het orkest wel wat zachtjes, maar verder klinkt het wel ok.

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'Symphony' no surprise
Kiss puckers up on new live album but doesn't deliver
By MICHAEL D. CLARK
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle

Symphony: Alive IV
Kiss
Sanctuary

I recently asked Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett if he was miffed that Kiss' latest live collection ripped off the hybrid of heavy metal with symphony accompaniment his band mined four years ago on S&M.

"Let's just say that Kiss was never the most original band in the world," Hammett replied.

To the loyal and aging Kiss Army these are fighting words, caustic enough to launch a counteroffensive of guitar-rattling chords and pyrotechnic confetti bombs in a bid for heavy-metal hegemony.

It's also a bit ungrateful on the part of Hammett, who probably grew up with Kiss posters on his wall. Unfortunately, Captain Kirk is right on the money.

The 21-song, two-disc set recorded with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is a slight twist on Kiss' four other performance albums, but -- even with a 100-person ensemble backing them -- it's not distinctive enough.

The Alive! concert album in 1975 was perhaps the group's finest power-chord-ripping, grotesque party moment. MTV Unplugged in 1996 was a memorable reunion of the original band -- vocalist Paul Stanley, bassist Gene Simmons, drummer Peter Criss and guitarist Ace Frehley -- whose intimacy and bare-bones production was the anti-Alive!

Symphony joins Alive II and III at a mediocre way station. Frehley is gone (replaced by Tommy Thayer), which immediately diminishes the album's value. And there are few cuts here that aren't recorded better somewhere else in the Kiss catalog.

The highlights are the rarities. Opening with a six-song concert set, Thayer sets the Aussies on fire with a Chuck Berry-inspired rip through Let Me Go Rock & Roll, a song they haven't recorded in concert since Alive! Thayer will always be an outsider, yet his technical but easy swing style is the shot of adrenaline the frazzled Frehley can no longer muster.

Also here are the pop-oriented '80s hit Lick It Up and the debut live rendition of the more recent Psycho Circus -- offering a glimpse of the electric Alive! chapter Kiss still could make.

The momentum is discharged once the Melbourne players join in for ballads and singalongs. The little-heard Unmasked-era track Shandi is disco-leaning, but interesting because it was included at all. No amount of lovely violin and cello is going to make Criss sound good croaking Beth.

King of the Night Time World is a near-forgotten early boast that's amusing when supported by breakneck woodwinds and strings. One imagines sheet music flying everywhere as a tuxedo-clad conductor tries to keep his classical players sprinting through the charts.

On other anthems like Love Gun and Rock and Roll All Nite, a traffic jam of musicians clogs the flow instead of pumping it forward.

Had MTV Unplugged not successfully caught Kiss at its most vulnerable and unpainted, Symphony might have been a penetrating success. Now it sounds like more of the same.

The most derogatory thing that can be said about Symphony is that I could predict what I would hear before disc one even dropped into the player.

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Of kwam'ie nu later.

Er is in ieder geval een clip van Detroit Rockcity op de box en je kunt hem overal al downloaden, alleen suckt downloaden.

Is er al een datum voor dat KISS-concert?