To be honest, I’d hate to be a Kiss collector. If you start now, it’s hopeless, believe me. It’s mountains of comic books, CDs, vinyls, action figures and what not. It never stops. Literally. Recently even bands that have had modest merchandise before, like Maiden and Metallica started doing the same. For God sake, on Graspop Metal Meeting 2008 they even released their performance on a CD the next day and special Kiss officers were selling those in the crowd. How on earth did they manage to do that overnight is still a mystery to me. I’m telling you this story, because no one really expected Kiss to return in such shape. To be more precise no one expected them to return at all especially after Simmons bashed the music fans for not buying records and promised that Kiss wouldn’t release a new album until the situation was like that. Well, it’s still 2009 outside, isn’t it? The situation hardly changed because of Mr. Simmons’ words back then, but his band has a brand new album called ‘Sonic Boom’. First, there are no stark contrasts in this album. It’s Kiss no less. What’s more it is designed, composed and delivered in the typical 70’s Kiss era style. If you don’t believe me, just take a look at the cover. Yes, it’s the same artist who did Rock’n’Roll Over (1976). His name is Michael Dorret. But it’s not only the vision. While many believe that Gene Simmons is the tough guy in the band and Paul Stanley is, how to put it, a pop songwriter or something, in this album Mr. Stanley is the man behind the album and you know what? He fucking rules! ‘Sonic Boom” is ten times better than everything since Revenge (1992). Some kissologists compare this album to ‘Creatures Of The Night’ (1982) but also admit there’s a a certain 70’s feel about it. Play this several times and it will most likely to grow in your ears although the real deal doesn’t really kick off until the 3rd song. Now ‘Never Enough’ is the deal. It clearly shows why Kiss are arena rock stars. It has a solid melody, a catchy chorus, big hooks, memorable guitar work. Riffastic! And this my friends is only the beginning. ‘Stand’, ‘All For Glory’, ‘Hot And Cold’- they are all potential hit single bombs. All in all it’s Kiss inevitable 25th gold certified album and like it or not, that tells everything. Some bands are destined to be huge. They may be comic sometimes, but they are always laughing all the way to the bank.