Recently Kiss and Aerosmith have had a very minor "fued" as was previously discussed in this thread:

http://prince.org/msg/8/388513

Paul Stanley responded thusly:

So, has anyone heard both albums and if so which one do you think is better?

Aerosmiths album has some good licks & jams like Street Jesus, Freedom Fighter & Another Last Goodbye.

The Aerosmith album suprised me... it's not to bad.. not good imo, but has a few tracks worthy of dozens of listens.

Monster has some good rockers like Back To The Stone Age(Very MC5ish)

but the lyrics are just to fucking cheesy i mean 80's era kiss cheesy

''Flesh & blood just like a fantasy ''

''so come on get the part started.. i wanna hear you shout mercy''

''This is your last chance, so dance for the night & show me whatcha got''

Those are not even horrible in comparison to the others , ugh.... i am gonna sound snobbish.

But Kiss soudns just so cheesy, i hardly took there ''i'm a playa & party hard'' lyrics in there heyday.. now they are still talking about partying & sleeping with many different woman....

Right , And Paul's voice is really starting to show age, as is Steven!

Aerosmiths album fail from some blah lyrics to & blah production.

These 2 could have had a good album, after Van Halen's last album was so great(I expected it to be bad.. so i was very suprised)

KISS wins. I love both bands and the Aero single "Street Jesus" (written by the unsung Brad Whitford) belongs right on "Rocks".

There's a couple of good rockers but then (sadly) the "sappy-we want a hit on AOR-ballads" kick in, and then the CD goes downhill. I thought Aero hooking back up with Jack Douglass would make more of a rocking CD.

As cheesy as the KISS lyrics are on "Monster", I give them credit for bringing the rock and leaving off the ballads.

And I agree VH put out the best surprise rock record of the year.

I don't think that Aerosmith did themselves any favours with the way they hyped the album as being a return to their seventies sound. It has much more in common with Get a Grip and Just Push Play than it does with Toys in the Attic and Rocks. Gene and Paul may have exaggerated how good Monster was going to be (I believe Gene described it as a combination of Destroyer/Creatures of the Night/Revenge) but at least it sounds like a hard rock album which is basically what they promised. Paul has said that he thought it was important for Kiss to avoid outside songwriters and get back to the core of what the band was and I would very much like to see Aerosmith try something similar. Surely Steven and Joe, with contributions from Brad and Tom, are capable of writing ten-twelve decent rock songs? Length is another strike against the Aerosmith album. Since Get a Grip I believe that all of their albums (barring the covers album) have run over an hour long. That is just too long and inevitably the albums feature too much subpar material. With Sonic Boom and Monster Kiss delivered two fairly strong albums that run less than forty-five minutes, that seems about the perfect length.

A friend of mine, who is a much bigger Kiss fan than an Aerosmith fan, thought that it would be interesting to compare the two albums and he was shocked at how bland and middle of the road the Aerosmith album was. I think he described it as music for middle aged women which seems pretty accurate to me. It just sounds much too safe and polite. I get that they still think they need to do the ballads but even the rock songs sound neutered. I probably need to give the album a few more spins but I thought that Just Push Play was their nadir, I may have to reconsider that opinion. Hopefully hte album tanks and they realise that the pop audience that they are chasing does not exist any longer and they try to give us a much harder rock album.

rialb said:

I don't think that Aerosmith did themselves any favours with the way they hyped the album as being a return to their seventies sound. It has much more in common with Get a Grip and Just Push Play than it does with Toys in the Attic and Rocks. Gene and Paul may have exaggerated how good Monster was going to be (I believe Gene described it as a combination of Destroyer/Creatures of the Night/Revenge) but at least it sounds like a hard rock album which is basically what they promised. Paul has said that he thought it was important for Kiss to avoid outside songwriters and get back to the core of what the band was and I would very much like to see Aerosmith try something similar. Surely Steven and Joe, with contributions from Brad and Tom, are capable of writing ten-twelve decent rock songs? Length is another strike against the Aerosmith album. Since Get a Grip I believe that all of their albums (barring the covers album) have run over an hour long. That is just too long and inevitably the albums feature too much subpar material. With Sonic Boom and Monster Kiss delivered two fairly strong albums that run less than forty-five minutes, that seems about the perfect length.

A friend of mine, who is a much bigger Kiss fan than an Aerosmith fan, thought that it would be interesting to compare the two albums and he was shocked at how bland and middle of the road the Aerosmith album was. I think he described it as music for middle aged women which seems pretty accurate to me. It just sounds much too safe and polite. I get that they still think they need to do the ballads but even the rock songs sound neutered. I probably need to give the album a few more spins but I thought that Just Push Play was their nadir, I may have to reconsider that opinion. Hopefully hte album tanks and they realise that the pop audience that they are chasing does not exist any longer and they try to give us a much harder rock album.

Eh, i really try... but the Kiss albums are just so silly to me , the lyrics are so bad & the guitar rifts just seem like copies of past works.

I can rock Animalize, Rvenge & Dynasty.. but that's it as far as Kiss goes. Well some of Lovegun & Destroyer to.

Aerosmith is just GONE , i give them credit they managed to have top 40 hits from the 70's all the way to the early 90's, but they are pushing there luck.

There will never go back to the 70's work, they want those pop hits!, Ever since they made a comeback with Dude Look's Like a Lady it's been a more pop flavored sound.

Which i do love Pump & Get A Grip... but it's obvious they where looking for hits & then when after I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing it was over

But hey i give Kiss credit.. they aren't looking for top 40 hits. So i can respect that!

Same for Van Halen, they just want to do what they want.

Aerosmith just have to deal with the fact there top 40 days are over

Gunsnhalen said:

Eh, i really try... but the Kiss albums are just so silly to me , the lyrics are so bad & the guitar rifts just seem like copies of past works.

I can rock Animalize, Rvenge & Dynasty.. but that's it as far as Kiss goes. Well some of Lovegun & Destroyer to.

Aerosmith is just GONE , i give them credit they managed to have top 40 hits from the 70's all the way to the early 90's, but they are pushing there luck.

There will never go back to the 70's work, they want those pop hits!, Ever since they made a comeback with Dude Look's Like a Lady it's been a more pop flavored sound.

Which i do love Pump & Get A Grip... but it's obvious they where looking for hits & then when after I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing it was over

If you haven't given them a few spins I definitely recommend that you give Sonic Boom and Monster another chance. At the very least they are better than albums like Asylum, Crazy Nights and Hot in the Shade. Paul's voice is definitely not what it once was but he can still write decent rock songs.

Sometimes the lyrics do bother me but for the most part lyrics in all music are garbage, are Kiss really any worse? I believe there were only two times where they expanded their lyrical content (Music from "The Elder" and Carnival of Souls) and those are their two worst selling albums. The people have spoken, we love Kiss' schlocky lyrics!

rialb said:

Gunsnhalen said:

Eh, i really try... but the Kiss albums are just so silly to me , the lyrics are so bad & the guitar rifts just seem like copies of past works.

I can rock Animalize, Rvenge & Dynasty.. but that's it as far as Kiss goes. Well some of Lovegun & Destroyer to.

Aerosmith is just GONE , i give them credit they managed to have top 40 hits from the 70's all the way to the early 90's, but they are pushing there luck.

There will never go back to the 70's work, they want those pop hits!, Ever since they made a comeback with Dude Look's Like a Lady it's been a more pop flavored sound.

Which i do love Pump & Get A Grip... but it's obvious they where looking for hits & then when after I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing it was over

If you haven't given them a few spins I definitely recommend that you give Sonic Boom and Monster another chance. At the very least they are better than albums like Asylum, Crazy Nights and Hot in the Shade. Paul's voice is definitely not what it once was but he can still write decent rock songs.

Sometimes the lyrics do bother me but for the most part lyrics in all music are garbage, are Kiss really any worse? I believe there were only two times where they expanded their lyrical content (Music from "The Elder" and Carnival of Souls) and those are their two worst selling albums. The people have spoken, we love Kiss' schlocky lyrics!

Eh, as i get older i just sadly dig Kiss less & less. The albums are just so silly to me, if the group came up & made another Revenge though i would be all over it

Revenge seems to be the ONLY albumt hey did where they purposely made funny/ironic lyrics with some great bass & rock hooks, verses them trying to do lyrics & it comes out sounding campy

Aerosmith is just as guility with there last few albums to, Steven Tylers i'm a hardcore rock n roll lover spill is..... well it's old

Eh, i am just harsh on rockstars who try to be the ''ladies'' men & party anthem people there where decades earlier.

Cinderella should make a new album

over the both albums i'll say Kiss for sure. Aerosmith is good but way too long and the crap material brings the album down. you could make a good 11 track album of the 18 available. Kiss just gets in does what it does and gets out again. i like that.