Is this prog?

When it was recorded in 1981, this album was to have been a masterwork of epic proportions. A concept album with serious prog leanings, early preview copies of the album received poor reviews. In a last ditch effort to save it, tracks were moved around to accentuate certain songs (in the hopes of producing a hit). Ambient sounds between tracks were, in many cases, removed (in others shortened). The end result was an album that, although far better than the average LP, sold poorly.

Now, all these years later, in the effort to remaster the Kiss catalog, the album has been reissued as initially intended. The concept, originally quite muddled due to the shuffling around of songs, is now a well told (although slightly cliched) heroic tale of good versus evil. The competent production gives a CD that sounds great, and the restored ambient bits add character.

When the earth was young, they were already old...

KISS' notorious Music from The Elder is silly, overblown and always on the edge of complete disaster, yet if listened to with absolutely no expectations (is that possible?) it's also somewhat likeable in its lameness and actually a weirdly admirable flop.  Either way, it's inarguable that it exists forever as a total experimental one-off oddity in the band's long and rarely adventurous career.  The band, or rather Stanley and Simmons with mega-producer Bob Ezrin's encouragement, bit off far more than they could ever chew in attempting to create a prog-rock influenced concept album, let alone that it was also a companion piece to a planned film, which thankfully was never filmed.  As if KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park wasn't bad enough, one can only imagine the horrors The Elder would have had in store for stoners.

Without a doubt the best cuts are the rockers, led by Ace's album-saving "Dark Light", along with "The Oath", "I", "Only You" and instrumental "Escape from the Island", but rather surprising is the Simmons-sung soft rock beauty "A World Without Heroes", which is one of three songs on the record co-written by Lou Reed.

The odyssey begins...