By the end of 1980,
Kiss knew that their next album had to be a strong one, a glorious return to
hard rock a la their classic
Destroyer. New drummer
Eric Carr had refueled the band's desire to rock, and the quartet began working on a straight-ahead
rock album in early 1981. Midway through, the band felt that they were rewriting past songs, and the sessions were aborted.
Gene Simmons and
Paul Stanley then came up with the idea of recording a concept album, based on a mythical original story by
Simmons.
Destroyer producer
Bob Ezrin was back and encouraged the band's concept album idea (against both
Ace Frehley's and
Carr's wishes).
Simmons and
Stanley had high hopes for
Music from "The Elder" (such as a movie, an elaborate tour, a follow-up record, etc.), but it completely bombed upon release. The reason? The music is totally uncharacteristic of
Kiss -- it resembles heavy
prog rock for the most part. Some of the songs could have been classics if the pompous and/or hard-to-decipher lyrics were replaced, such as
"The Oath," "Only You," "I," and
"Just a Boy." Only two tracks resemble the
Kiss of old (
Frehley's
"Dark Light" and the instrumental
"Escape from the Island"), while the rest is downright embarrassing (
"Odyssey," "A World Without Heroes," "Under the Rose").
Music from "The Elder" was the final straw for
Frehley, who would leave the band in 1982. ~ Greg Prato
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