KISS are one of rock’s most instantly identifiably forces — and it’s not just because of the makeup.
Founded in the early Seventies, the New York City quartet built up an iconically swaggering repertoire through brawny hooks, literally guitar-smoking solos and a bunch of horny verses from its rotating vocalists.
Visually, KISS also cut a hell of a figure, with their signature, larger-than-life look suggesting everything was written by a Demon, a Cat, a Spaceman and the Star Child (and, some years later, an Ankh Warrior, a Fox… and a few other folks that never got to slap on the greasepaint).
No matter the makeup, KISS sold multiple millions of albums across a studio discography that spans five decades. To say the least, there’s a hell of a lot of music captured in the catalog, so we asked our Revolver Army to weigh in on which KISS classics are hotter than the rest.
We requested the best, and you unmasked the best — and shouted them out accordingly.
“Strutter”
We know a thing or two about “Strutter.” Namely, the first song on KISS’ 1974 self-titled debut is a certifiable killer that got the band off on the right foot.
The track immediately established what to expect from the NYC outfit: raunchily rock & rolling riffs, cosmos-soaring solo work from Ace Frehley, and hard glam vocal melodies coalescing around a story about a good-lookin’ stunner that’s driving them all wild. KISS-codifying elements, all.
There’s no maybe, baby — for many KISS Army members, it’s a song you can never pass by.
“Detroit Rock City”
“Detroit Rock City” is one of KISS’ most iconic songs, to be sure — millions have lost their minds and moved their feet to the jumped-up sound of Destroyer’s opening boogie since it hit the ground running in 1976. Credit can be split between Gene Simmons’ soulful, if spidery, bass line, an all-timer guitarmony in the bridge and Paul Stanley’s fevered vocal turn.
The song sports a see-sawing set of lyrics, combining the innate thrill of seeing a midnight rock & roll show in Detroit — where much of breakthrough concert LP Alive! had been recorded the previous year — and an outright chilling tale inspired by a highway accident that claimed the life of someone heading to a KISS concert.
“Love Gun”
Revolver readers could not have pulled the trigger any quicker on letting us know that “Love Gun” is one of the greats. No. 3 with a bullet, if you will.
Peter Criss gives the song a dynamic swing, while the multi-tasking Star Child zip-lined into the studio to lay down rhythm guitars, bass and operatic layers of vocal badassery.
While Simmons’ absence means KISS aren’t technically firing on all cylinders on the album version, the thrilling single became a career standout that the Demon played in-concert steadily from ’77 right up to their last show in 2023.
“God of Thunder”
This rumbling Destroyer stand-out acts as an origin story of sorts for the four-stringing Demon.
Above the thunder-thudding tom hits and boulder-heaving sleaze-rock riffage, Simmons outlines that he’s an Olympus-borne god “trained to reign as the one,” and he’s going to ruthlessly conquer us all by playing songs like this. And damned if it didn’t work.
Bonus points to producer Bob Ezrin’s children for tossing eerily reverberated gibberish onto the mix, adding a unique texture unlike any other KISS track.
“Black Diamond”
There’s untold heaviness heaped onto “Black Diamond,” the closing cut to KISS’ first album, and a top-tier track in their massive catalog. A lot of that naturally has to do with the subject matter, with both Stanley and Criss taking turns singing of a New York City sex worker experiencing days of “sorrow and madness.”
Aesthetically, the track also hits hard with fretboard-vaulting earworms, a scandalously raspy Criss vocal, the gravitas of Frehley’s bend work when they slow it down near the end, and the explosive accents of its finale.
“Black Diamond” has truly lost none of its luster, which is why Revolver readers feel it’s KISS’ greatest statement.