Failure or underrated album? Forty years ago, on November 10, 1981, Kiss released Music From “The Elder” , a conceptual project with epic elements, an orchestra, and a complex narrative that would become the band's biggest commercial failure.
The album is the first since the departure of drummer Peter Criss , who was replaced by Eric Carr . When producer Bob Ezrin , responsible for the classic Destroyer (1976), learned of a fantastic narrative created by Gene Simmons in the style of JRR Tolkien and the Watchers, Marvel , the idea for a concept album that would become a film immediately emerged.
The end result of Music From “The Elder” couldn't have been more different: a sales flop, the album didn't even have a tour, and the songs were only performed at a few promotional events at the time. Ace Frehley left the band shortly after. Despite appearing on the covers of the band's subsequent releases, Killers and Creatures of the Night , both from 1982, the guitarist didn't play on the recordings and wouldn't return to the group until 1996.
In a recent interview with Yahoo! Entertainment , Paul Stanley and Simmons discussed the behind-the-scenes production and the reason for making an album so different from everything fans expected.
In Stanley's view, the project reflected the state of mind and a certain arrogance that had arisen in the band with their success, neglecting the audience in an attempt to prove how musical they could be. “We were lost. We were delusional,” he stated. “So, we were lazy, and I think we all felt very comfortable in a wealthy lifestyle, so to speak, and we worried more about how our contemporaries saw us than about our fans. And I think the fans were abandoned. We couldn't make a rock album. We didn't have teeth.”.
Simmons, the mastermind behind the album's narrative, considers it "dishonest." "There are some decent songs on there. But what was missing was honesty. It was a poorly directed album," continued Simmons, who likes the song "I" because it's an anthem for a drug-free lifestyle.
With personal and band conflicts, a producer struggling with drug problems, and the inflated egos of everyone involved, the vocalist understands that the project was the result of all these factors. “It wasn’t anyone’s fault in particular. It was all of us. It was just a symptom of all of us not being in a good place,” Stanley observed.
