Psycho Circus

Limited edition two disc version of their 1998 comebackalbum in a double slimline jewelcase with a 3-D jewelcase lid & a bonus disc featuring six tracks recorded live in concert at ISU Hulman Center in Terre Haute, Indiana on December12th, 1998 & the following night at Market Square Arena in Indianapolis, 'Psycho Circus', 'Let Me Go, Rock 'n' Roll', 'Into The Void', 'Within', '100,000 Years' & 'Black Diamond'.A combined total of 16 tracks. The release is also enhanced. 1999 release.

Talk about the roar of the greasepaint: On this first studio effort together since Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley welcomed back once-exiled mates Peter Criss and Ace Frehley with open talons (was it really almost 20 years? How the pterodactyl flies), the unkillable beast called Kiss reels off a few potent additions to its undeniably, er, prodigious body of work. Still stubbornly plodding through the musical tar pits of their classic-rock youth--a little Beatles harmony here, a little Alice Cooper guitar noise there--the dressed-to-ill foursome makes the clock roll back (if not completely unwind) with the fist-waving "I Pledge Allegiance to the State of Rock & Roll" and the if-Green-Day-can-do-it-why-not-us acoustic surprise, "We Are One." Better even than the album is the in-booklet merchandise ad, which hawks Kisstory II in all its "440-page, 9-pound" glory, for a mere $158.95. Like they say: size does matter. --Billy Altman