Creatures of the Night


Creatures of the Night is the 10th studio album by American rock band Kiss, released in 1982. It was the band's last for Casablanca Records, the only label for which Kiss had recorded up to that point. The album was dedicated to the memory of Casablanca founder and early Kiss supporter Neil Bogart, who had died of cancer during the recording sessions. It is also the band's last album recorded with Ace Frehley credited as an official member and their first album with Vinnie Vincent as the initially-uncredited lead guitarist. It was also Kiss' last album to feature the band with their trademark makeup until the 1998 release, Psycho Circus.

Background

The album represented a conscious effort by Kiss to return to the hard rock style that had helped them achieve commercial success with Destroyer and Love Gun. Their pop-oriented albums Dynasty and Unmasked had started a decline in popularity that reached rock bottom with 1981's Music from "The Elder". By 1982, Kiss knew it needed to deliver on their earlier 1980–81 promise of a heavy record.
The first key ingredient was songwriter/guitarist Vinnie Vincent, who was soon to replace Ace Frehley as the band's new lead guitarist after being introduced to the band by album co-writer Adam Mitchell. Though Frehley did not play on the album, his face was still featured on the album cover for contractual and commercial reasons. Frehley had been pushing the band to do a heavy rock record since Dynasty, and by the time of Creatures of the Night he was fully disillusioned with the band, and that combined with alcoholism and a prescription medicine dependency led to his leaving the band during the recording sessions. On the tour, Vincent was introduced with his Egyptian Ankh make-up, designed in a hurry by Paul Stanley. In 1985, Kiss re-released the album in their non-make-up state with a cover featuring Gene Simmons, Stanley, Eric Carr and then-current guitarist Bruce Kulick. Vinnie Vincent had long since departed the band by 1985.
By 1982, Kiss's popularity in the US had plummeted due to changing music tastes and their near abandonment of hard rock. 1979's Dynasty, while commercially successful, alienated many fans with the disco-flavored track "I Was Made For Lovin' You". 1980's Unmasked fell further into pop music—and was Kiss's first album not to achieve platinum status since 1975's Dressed to Kill. The band did not even tour the US for Unmasked, and it was also soon faced with its first lineup change: founding member Peter Criss, who had not participated in any of the Unmasked recording sessions, officially left Kiss in 1980. He was replaced by Eric Carr.
Fan hopes were raised in late 1980 when Kiss announced that they were going to record their heaviest record yet. Instead, the band released Music from "The Elder" in late 1981, a concept album originally intended to complement a film called The Elder that was ultimately never filmed. The album was storyline-based and had ballads, a short orchestral piece, and different lyrical themes. The album failed to achieve gold status, and having cancelled their US Unmasked Tour just a short time before, the band then called off the planned tour for Music from "The Elder". Frehley soon left the band.
Kiss's label situation had changed as well. Casablanca Records founder Neil Bogart had sold the label to its distributor PolyGram, and went on to briefly form The Boardwalk Recording Company before being diagnosed with and later succumbing to cancer. Using a clause in their Casablanca contract that gave the band an option to leave the label if Bogart did, Kiss became free agents and signed a multimillion-dollar deal with Mercury Records. Mercury, a label also owned by PolyGram, reverted the band to their "old" label, though in name only.

Recording

When recording sessions for Creatures of the Night began in July 1982, Kiss was essentially a trio. Frehley still made appearances with the band but had nearly ended his musical involvement with Kiss. Frehley looked completely out of sorts in promotional appearances for the album; in cases where the band was lip syncing to recorded tracks, he did not know the material. It was only after the album was released and a short promotional tour of Europe was completed that Frehley officially left Kiss. The lead guitar replacement for Frehley for the Creatures of the Night Tour/10th Anniversary Tour in the US was Vinnie Vincent, who adopted the Ankh make-up.
Musically, the progressive rock of Music From "The Elder" and the pop of Dynasty and Unmasked were completely absent from Creatures of the Night, making it the heaviest album the group had made at that point. "I Still Love You", the only ballad on Creatures of the Night, was still heavier and darker than any ballad Kiss had released in earlier years. Also contributing to the heavy sound was Carr's drumming style, which was more similar to John Bonham's drumming than to Criss' jazz-influenced style. Some of the earliest pressings of the album mistakenly contained one full side of John Cougar's American Fool. Both Kiss and Cougar were under the umbrella of Mercury Records at the time.
Creatures of the Night is the first Kiss album to have all lead vocal duties handled by either Simmons or Stanley exclusively. All previous studio releases by the group contained at least one song with lead vocals by another band member. The band released a video for "I Love It Loud", which received moderate airplay on MTV. In it was a stage setup that featured Carr's drum kit as a giant metallic tank with an exploding turret. Flames and explosions were also in abundance, as Kiss attempted to produce a video that reflected the music on Creatures of the Night. Frehley did appear in the video as the rhythm guitarist, with Stanley shown playing the seven-note solo.
Though Kiss had used "ghost players" on previous albums, most notably Bob Kulick and Dick Wagner , Vinnie Vincent handled most of the lead guitar as a session player and co-writer before being added as the full-time replacement for Frehley, though as an employee and not a full member. Blues guitarist Robben Ford, a friend of the album's producer Michael James Jackson, contributed two solos in what he described as one of his weirdest gigs. Mr. Mister guitarist Steve Farris provided the solo and lead fills to the title track. Co-writer Adam Mitchell also contributed guitar work to the title track. Though often given credit for playing the solos on "Keep Me Comin" and "Danger", Bob Kulick admitted in a 2011 interview that none of the studio work he did on Creatures of the Night made it to the album, this confirmed the same from an earlier Mitchell interview. Jimmy Haslip declared in 2008 that he was invited by James Jackson to record 5 songs, but Haslip only confirmed that he recorded "Danger".
Ace Frehley's Origins, Vol. 1'' album included a cover of “Rock and Roll Hell”.

Cover

Three official variations on the album artwork exist: the 1982 original issue, the 1985 reissue, and the 1997 remastered version. On the 1985 non-make-up release, the song "Creatures of the Night" is remixed, and "Saint and Sinner" and "Killer" are interchanged from side to side with each other. The bootlegged Vinnie Vincent cover has not been released on CD, but an extra rare Vincent cover has been called "Hiding from Tomorrow". There is also a bootlegged LP which shows up on eBay from time to time and claims to be a Brazilian promo version with Vincent in make-up airbrushed over Frehley.

Reception

Despite positive reviews, the album did not return the band to the commercial success they had held five years previous, and despite charting higher than The Elder, Creatures of the Night would not attain gold status until 1994. The album would receive critical recognition with both Kerrang! and Guitar World magazines placing the album at #5 on their lists of best hard rock albums in 1982. Carr noted in an interview that Creatures is his favorite Kiss record that he played on. Simmons and Stanley, who have generally been dismissive of the band's post-1977 albums, considered Creatures to be one of their stronger efforts.
Creatures of the Night was certified gold by the RIAA on May 9, 1994. It was certified gold in Brazil in 1983 for sales of 100,000 copies.

Live performances

The supporting album tour began shortly after Christmas and spanned the first five months of 1983, with the band's itinerary focused almost entirely on North America, with three concerts being played in Brazil, in an attempt to rebuild their diminished US fanbase. However, the Creatures Tour proved to be a bigger failure than the last North American tour in 1979. Kiss played to numerous half-empty arenas on the tour, including venues that the band had sold out or at least played to near-full capacity four years earlier on the Dynasty Tour and shows canceled due to insufficient ticket sales. Despite this, the favourable fan perception of the album has ensured that "War Machine", "I Love It Loud", and "Creatures of the Night" remain Kiss concert staples to this day. Live versions of "Creatures of the Night", "I Still Love You" and "I Love It Loud" were included on Alive III.

Track listing

Kiss
Additional personnel
Album
Chart Peak
position
Australian Albums Chart33
Dutch Albums Chart34
German Albums Chart42
Italian Albums Chart25
Japanese Albums Chart39
Norwegian Albums Chart31
Swedish Albums Chart22
UK Albums Chart22
US Billboard Pop Albums45

Singles – Billboard
YearSingleChartPosition
1983"I Love It Loud"Mainstream Rock Tracks22

Singles – Austrian charts
YearSingleChartPosition
1982"I Love It Loud"Pop Singles76

Singles – UK Albums Chart
YearSingleChartPosition
1982"Creatures of the Night"Pop Singles34

Certifications