Dub Warrant on the case:

That’s it, folks. I can’t take it anymore. Something’s gotta be said, and now, in late 2020, I am gonna say it: KISS is the band that existed from 1973 to 1982 with the makeup on; KISS is not the band that continued through the 80s, 90s, the second makeup era, and the Singer/Thayer tenures. Everything after 1982 (and really after Ace Frehley left, prior to the “Creatures of the Night” album) is the band that used to be KISS but wasn’t, even though they, and the fans, pretended they still were. I’m sorry, it’s the truth. It had to be said. So I said it. Can we all just stop denying this reality?

Tell the truth, KISS Fans of a Certain Age (KFCA), is the band you see here:

The same band you see here?

Or is this band:

The same as this band?

Do you feel the same way when you see this:

As when you see this?

Does anything KISS-related after 1982 give you the same totally cool feeling you had in 1977 when “Love Gun” was on your record player and your walls were covered with KISS posters?

When Gene “spit fire” in 1984, were you like, “Yeah, this looks totally as cool as when Gene spit fire back in the seventies, only now he’s wearing multi-colored ladies clothes and a wig!”?

When the makeup came off on MTV and “The World!” was watching, did you think it was not a big fat dud, since no one outside of the KISS community knew who Vinnie Vincent was, and Eric Carr (not his fault) was still the new guy?

Did you think the great unveiling of…Paul and Gene…was awesome and worthy of the hype?

Did you ever refer to Gene as “The Demon” after 1982? When he was wearing wrestling boots onstage in the early 90s, were you thinking, “You rock, Demon!”?

When someone asks you to name the greatest KISS songs of all time, how many of them come from post-“Creatures”?

When the original lineup put the makeup back on in 1995, how many of you were thinking, “This reunion idea sucks, I wanted a tour so I could hear live versions of the totally awesome ‘Carnival of Souls’ material!”?

“Lick It Up,” “Heaven’s on Fire,” and “Tears Are Falling.” The only three songs anyone ever talks about from the 1980s. And yet, they are all dull, weak songs written with a nod to whatever Gene and Paul thought was popular at the time. Notice, though, how these three songs stand on their own in song discussions, like everything post-1982 is viewed in a vacuum? No one ever compares “Heaven’s on Fire” to “Parasite,” right? No one says “Lick It Up” was better than “I Stole Your Love.” Nobody ever says that “Tears Are Falling” just blows away all of “Love Gun,” am I right? See how the fans separate these bands and these eras? You will never find “Murder in High Heels” as part of the same conversation as “Strange Ways.”

How many KISS fans have bought into this idea that the band just morphed from one lineup to the next, with a change of style along the way, and maybe some new clothes, but really, yeah, no big deal, totally the same band…ya know, like the Stones…?

The concept…the vibe…the “feel” you had in the 1970s when you saw a new KISS magazine on the newsstand…all of that is gone. KISS turned into an 80s light-metal band, based largely on the guitar style of Vinnie Vincent, and continued down that road with Bruce Kulick. There is no comparison — zilch –between the band in 1978 playing “God of Thunder” and the band in 1992 playing “God of Thunder.” Yeah, two of the band members are still there, but that’s it. Nothing else.

[Dub “Almost Human” Warrant, Reporting]