KISS - The Box Set (5CD, 2001) RESTORED

For nearly 30 years, Hard Rock god KISS have been notorious for their trademark face paint, lavish costumes and larger than life concerts. Often overlooked, however, is the band's gargantuan back catalog - one that includes roughly 35 releases, 26 charting singles and more than 100 hours of music. This box set lumps together 64 classics and 30 previously unheard tracks into KISS: The Boxed Set, a mammoth project spanning the group's entire history.

Longtime Kiss fans have come to expect things done on a grand scale by their masked heroes, and everyone's favorite rock & roll merchandising machine doesn't disappoint with their 2001 anthology, Box Set… each disc chronicles a certain time period of the band. Included are demos of such Kiss classics as "Strutter", "Deuce", "God of Thunder", and "Love Gun", as well as demos of tracks that never made it to any of their albums: "Doncha Hesitate", "Mad Dog", and "Love Is Blind", among others. But it doesn't end there; you'll also find tracks by the pre-Kiss group Wicked Lester (including an almost unrecognizable version of "She", a song Kiss would later re-record themselves) and a live take of the oft-overlooked Ace Frehley gem "Talk to Me", plus an unreleased Kiss version of "It's My Life" (the song was only previously available on an obscure Wendy O. Williams solo album) from their final studio album, 1998's Psycho Circus. The balance between the obscure and the well-known is tempered out with the inclusion of such scream-along arena rockers as "Black Diamond", "Do You Love Me", "Detroit Rock City", "Rock and Roll All Nite", and "I Love it Loud", as well as spotlighting such underrated album tracks as "Strange Ways", "Parasite", "Goin' Blind", "Larger Than Life", "Sure Know Something", and "War Machine". Although the quality of the material begins to dip on the last two discs (both focus primarily on the group's wishy-washy unmasked era, when Simmons and Stanley were the only two original members left), there's a little something for each Kiss fan to sink their teeth into on Box Set'.

~ Greg Prato, all media guide

Kiss Box Set:
CD 1 (1966-1975)

01. Strutter - (previously unreleased, 1973 demo)
02. Deuce - (previously unreleased, 1973 demo)
03. Keep Me Waiting - (previously unreleased, with Wicked Lester)
04. She - (previously unreleased, with Wicked Lester)
05. Love Her All I Can - (previously unreleased, with Wicked Lester)
06. Let Me Know - (previously unreleased, Bell Sound Studios 1973 demo)
07. 100,000 Years - (previously unreleased, Bell Sound Studios 1973 demo)
08. Stop, Look To Listen - (previously unreleased, Paul Stanley 1968 demo)
09. Leeta - (previously unreleased, Gene Simmons 1969 demo)
10. Let Me Go, Rock 'N' Roll - (previously unreleased, Bell Sound Studios 1973 demo)
11. Acrobat - (previously unreleased, live at The Daisy 1973)
12. Firehouse - (previously unreleased, Bell Sound Studios 1973 demo)
13. Nothin' To Lose
14. Black Diamond
15. Hotter Than Hell
16. Strange Ways
17. Parasite
18. Goin' Blind
19. Anything For My Baby
20. Ladies In Waiting
21. Rock And Roll All Nite



CD 2 (1975-1977)

01. C'mon And Love Me - (live, Alive! version)
02. Rock Bottom - (live, Alive! version)
03. Cold Gin - (live, Alive! version)
04. Watchin' You - (live, Alive! version)
05. Doncha Hesitate - (previously unreleased, 1975 demo)
06. Mad Dog - (previously unreleased, demo)
07. God Of Thunder - (previously unreleased, demo)
08. Great Expectations
09. Beth
10. Do You Love Me?
11. Bad, Bad Lovin' - (previously unreleased, demo - early version of Calling Dr. Love)
12. Calling Dr. Love
13. Mr. Speed - (previously unreleased, demo version)
14. Christine Sixteen
15. Hard Luck Woman
16. Shock Me
17. I Stole Your Love
18. I Want You - (previously unreleased, soundcheck recording)
19. Love Gun - (previously unreleased, demo version)
20. Love Is Blind - (previously unreleased, Gene Simmons demo)



CD 3 (1976-1982)

01. Detroit Rock City - (edit version)
02. King Of The Night Time World - (Alive II version)
03. Larger Than Life
04. Rocket Ride
05. Tonight You Belong To Me
06. New York Groove
07. Radioactive - (previously unreleased, demo)
08. Don't You Let Me Down
09. I Was Made For Lovin' You
10. Sure Know Something
11. Shandi
12. You're All That I Want, You're All That I Need - (previously unreleased, demo)
13. Talk To Me - (previously unreleased, live at Parreta Stadium 1980)
14. A World Without Heroes
15. The Oath
16. Nowhere To Run - (1989 remix)
17. Creatures Of The Night - (1985 remix)
18. War Machine
19. I Love It Loud



CD 4 (1983-1989)

01. Lick It Up
02. All Hell's Breaking Loose
03. Heaven's On Fire
04. Get All You Can Take
05. Thrills In The Night
06. Tears Are Falling
07. Uh! All Night
08. Time Traveler - (previously unreleased, Paul Stanley 1986 demo)
09. Hell Or High Water
10. Crazy, Crazy Nights
11. Reason To Live
12. Let's Put The X In Sex
13. Hide Your Heart
14. Ain't That Peculiar - (prev. unreleased, Eric Carr 1989 demo - early version of "Little Caesar")
15. Silver Spoon
16. Forever - (single version)



CD 5 (1992-1999)

01. God Gave Rock 'N' Roll To You II
02. Unholy - (edit version)
03. Domino - (previously unreleased, demo 1991)
04. Every Time I Look At You
05. Comin' Home - (live, unplugged)
06. Got To Choose - (live, unplugged - bonus track)
07. I Still Love You - (live, unplugged)
08. Nothin' To Lose - (live, unplugged)
09. Childhood's End - (with coda, previously unreleased)
10. I Will Be There
11. Psycho Circus - (edit version)
12. Into The Void
13. Within - (edit version)
14. I Pledge Allegiance To The State Of Rock & Roll
15. Nothing Can Keep Me From You - (from Detroit Rock City soundtrack)
16. It's My Life - (Psycho Circus outtake, original version)
17. Shout It Out Loud (live 1996, from Greatest Kiss album)
18. Rock And Roll All Night - (from unreleased Alive IV version)





Release Date: November 20, 2001
Number of Discs: 5
Format: Box set, Original Recording Remastered
Label: Mercury / Island Def Jam
Catalog No.: 314 586 5***

What's new
- Almost nothing.
Just a long time requested re-up.