Universal Music Japan released a few years ago a High Resolution disc (MQA-CD + UHQCD) of KISS album “Killers“, a 2020 DSD remaster based on US original analog tape converted to 352.8kHz / 24bit.
At the time of its release (1982) “Killers” became a rarity, at least for the American public, because it wasn’t released in the USA. The album included some of the recent KISS hits re-mixed, but also 4 new songs, recorded specifically for this release.
These new songs were recorded at the behest of Phonogram / Casablanca Records, in response to the commercial failure of 1981’s Music from “The Elder”.
By 1982 KISS’ commercial popularity was goin’ down. 1980’s ‘Unmasked’ had barely achieved gold certification in the United States, and the band toured exclusively outside the US for the first time in their career that year, aside from one show in New York which introduced Eric Carr as their new official drummer.
‘Music from The Elder’ fared even worse, as it failed to gain any certification, and the band did not tour behind it at all. The album, released in November 1981, was off the charts after three months.
Phonogram Records (the parent company of Kiss’ label Casablanca Records) then requested the recording of four new songs to be included on an upcoming new greatest hits / compilation album. Phonogram requested ‘hard rock’ songs specifically, in contrast to the progressive rock-style of “The Elder”.
However, the album cover for “Killers” featured the streamlined look the band had adopted during the Elder period.
Numerous outside songwriters and session musicians were employed for the writing and recording of the four new songs on ”Killers”, as well as the subsequent album, Creatures of the Night.
Canadian Adam Mitchell co-wrote ‘I’m A Legend Tonight’ and ‘Partners In Crime’, while songwriter and musician Mikel Japp, who co-wrote three songs on Paul Stanley’s 1978 solo album, helped with “Down on Your Knees” with Stanley and Bryan Adams.
Despite being pictured on the album’s cover art (from the photo session for Music from “The Elder”), Ace Frehley wasn’t part of KISS anymore. His replacement for the ”Killers” sessions was Bob Kulick, who had previously substituted for Frehley on a handful of studio tracks on 1977’s Alive II; however, whereas Kulick had been asked to mimic Frehley’s playing style when recording for Alive II, he was permitted to employ his own techniques for ”Killers”.
The four new songs were considered a “primer” for Kiss’ next release, while some fans have indicated that fan club memos at the time listed Frehley as “temporarily out of action,” possibly due to a car accident or something similar, and originally listed Vinnie Vincent as a temporary replacement for Frehley.
Due to the large volume of Kiss live albums and greatest hits albums already available domestically, Phonogram decided to issue ‘Killers’ outside the US only.
There’s different track list versions, which became collector pieces for the fans.
This Japanese release featured two additional tracks not found on the standard edition: “Escape from the Island” (which is not on the Japanese release of Music From “The Elder”) and “Shandi”.
Similarly, “Talk to Me” and “Shandi” were added to the track listing of the Australian release.
Also, due to the shape of the S in the band’s logo, there were two covers: one with the standard “S”, and a more European friendly version with a “backwards”-Z shape.
The version of ‘Shout It Out Loud’ found on this release features the single mix that has all the vocals in the center channel, whereas the original ‘Destroyer’ version features Paul Stanley on the right channel, and Gene Simmons on the left. It also fades about ten seconds earlier than the album version.
The version of “God of Thunder” on ‘Killers’ erases the intro found on the album ‘Destroyer’, to give the song a more ‘instant’ impact.
The sound definition of this MQA-CD + UHQCD is excellent.
01 – I’m A Legend Tonight [New Song]
02 – Down On Your Knees [New Song]
03 – Cold Gin
04 – Love Gun
05 – Shout It Out Loud
06 – Escape From The Island [Bonus Track]
07 – Sure Know Something
08 – Nowhere To Run [New Song]
09 – Partners In Crime [New Song]
10 – Detroit Rock City
11 – God Of Thunder
12 – I Was Made For Lovin’ You
13 – Shandi [Bonus Track]
14 – Rock And Roll All Nite (Live from Detroit, 1975)
KISS – Killers [Japan Hi-Res MQA-CD UHQCD / DSD remaster 2020], MP3+FLAC
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