Kiss-Destroyer, 1976

So here is an album that many fans consider to be the definitive Kiss album while others think it's overrated. Kiss had a major hit with Alive (1975) and they were poised to become even bigger with the next album. Strangely enough "Beth" would be the single from this album that would really hit. My question about this album is can it be great even though it has two poor songs on it? You can argue and tell me you like Beth, but to me I just can't see liking this song unless your wife or girlfriend is named Beth. My wife is not named Beth so I think it's a weak song, but Great Expectations is worse, actually it's far worse. Outside of those two the rest is good to great as we open with "Detroit Rock City" which is probably one of the two most recognizable Kiss songs ever done. "King of the night time world" isn't hugely different from anything they had done before, but it succeeds with some energy and enthusiasm. "God of thunder" is so awesome that it almost wipes out all of crappy things that Gene has done over the years, the key word being almost. "Flaming youth" is maybe a little overlooked and it shouldn't be, it's an example of Kiss being slick without being too polished. "Sweet Pain" is good with some nice vocals, but nothing fancy. "Shout it out loud" is a great anthem and perhaps even the second or third best song on the album. "Do you love me" is a typical Paul song to some extent, but always seemed to me to be a great closing track for the album.
So, yes I will say it's a great album despite two weak songs. If nothing else the fantastic cover and the fact that the huge majority of the album sounds so good thirty years later puts it over the hump and into the great category. I used to be a big Kiss fan, but the last ten years have been trying. However all I need to do is listen to one of the first six studio albums and I realize why I like them so much and why they still have an audience today.