At last, after three years of waiting, has KISS’ fourth live album finally reached the surface. Of course, this previous sentence is somewhat deceiving. Let me explain.
During the new year celebrating from 1999 to 2000, KISS played in Vancouver B.C. a phenomenal show with even a greater spectacle of fireworks and stageshow than usual. This show was intended to become Alive 4. Unfortunately this album has never hit the recordstores due to problems with KISS’ recordlabel. To make a very long story short, Universal decided that KISS should bring out their future records on DefJam, a well known rap(!)label. If you know Gene Simmons just a little bit, you’ll understand that he would never do such a dreadful thing. Months became years, and after endless discussion between KISS and Universal, Alive 4 was still yet to be released. After 2 years KISS has realized that this has taken too much time and that the 2000-show was too old to be exited about anymore. Just at this time KISS was asked by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra to play a set of classic KISS-songs supported by the 60-piece orchestra. This concert was absolutely the most extravagant thing KISS has ever done and lucky for us they decided to record and film the whole thing to bring it out as the new ALIVE 4. The problems at Universal were then easily solved by KISS by forming their own recordlabel KISSRECORDS. So yesterday I picked up my special edition of Alive 4, and to speak with Paul Stanley’s words: it has truly become a symphonic sonic BOOM!

The Package
The cover of Alive 4 is something very different than people would have had expected. The opinions about this cover has stir some discussion in the KISSArmy, but something that’s certain is that it is a very original cover. I personally think it breathes the traditional KISS feeling (this in contrast with Alive3) mixed with a classic appearance. There are two versions of Alive 4. the most expensive (although the difference in price is minimal) version is a very nice package with an embossed KISS logo and contains a poster. A nice detail is that when you open this package you will see a wideshot of the stage, just like Alive 2 had. However there are only 50.000 units of the special edition and they are all sold-out to retailers. So you better be quick to if you want this one. You could always go for the standard edition, which also contains the booklet, completely filled with pictures, because after all, KISS is a very visual band. I’m very glad with this booklet, because it is something that has lacked from the previous releases from KISS.

The Performance
The first thing that will capture your eyes when you read the booklet is that KISS’ original guitarist Ace Frehley has been replaced by Tommy Thayer. This is not very new because Ace has been replaced before in 1983. But this time Ace replacement has put on his make-up and his costume. This has released a wave of controversy, but I think it has been a very smart move, because this way you aren’t reminded constantly that their someone else’s playing all the leads and solo’s. In fact Tommy Thayer is a much more technical guitarplayer than Ace and does a wonderful job by imitating Ace’s parts, and also playing KISS’ more recent material (written in the period when Ace wasn’t in the band anymore) without any trouble. This was Tommy’s first real performance with KISS, but he has proven himself a worthy asset.
I’ve heard very early (illegal) recordings of the symphony-concert and was somewhat disappointed by the performance of Gene’s singing. It also seemed that Paul was having a hard time during "Sure Know Something". When I heard the official release I didn't have this feeling at all and thought that the men have never sounded better in their careers. And I must emphasize that this isn’t because the singing parts were overdubbed (a tool that KISS has used extensively on the first three alive albums). In fact you’ll find there are almost (only "Strutter" and "Sure Know Something") no singing overdubs at all, when you compare it to a bootleg of the concert! This proves that with good mixing and by putting the singing parts more to the front, the improvement can be enormous.
Peter plays the drums very energetic and it almost seems like he’s a completely different person than the last tour. He sings "Beth" like he hasn’t sung it since the seventies. He makes a little slip at the end, but even this hasn’t been overdubbed! This also proves that KISS listens to their fans and made Alive 4 the most raw recordings of all. Even Tommy sang a very brief moment during "Shout It Out Loud", and even this sounds like Ace Frehley’s voice.

The Sound
When it comes to the sound Alive 4 stands lonely at the top of the entire KISS catalog. They have found a perfect balance between the classic KISS sound from the seventies and a modern 2003 guitarsound. Even the drums sound surprisingly good, since Peter Criss’ drumming sound has been cutback of KISS’ overall sound in the past. Peter’s now superb drumsound combined with Gene Simmons thumping bass gives your subwoofer a hard time keeping up.
Just as said before, Paul sounds brilliant. Songs like "Detroit Rock City" and "Love Gun" haven’t been sung in this way before. Gene’s voice is a little disappointing when you compare it with the enormous effort Paul puts in his vocals, but there’s nothing to complain on the "God Of Thunder" either.
The backing vocals are fine, just like were used to from KISS. It’s nice that besides being a very capable guitarplayer, Tommy also possesses a melodic singing voice and puts just that little detail in his backing vocals where Ace used to make it easy on himself.
There seems to be made some improvements on the vocals with little effects (but don’t be mistaken, Gene’s ‘evil’ sound at the end of "God Of Thunder" is something that is done live!), aside from the previous discussed vocal overdubs on "Sure Know Something" and "Strutter", but nothing very drastic.
Something that has already been discussed in my review are the overdubs. Again, there’s very little overdubbed on this album. Tommy seems to make little mistakes during part three (the orchestra-part) and of course this has been fixed on the official release. Something that’s maybe been overdubbed is Peter’s bass drum, although this must not take away any credit from Peter Criss since it already sounded very cool on bootleg recordings. The orchestra played perfect (which can be expected from a orchestra of this caliber) and on their performance nothing seems to be improved in the studio.

The Conclusion
With Alive 1, KISS has made history in 1975. Before Alive 1, live-albums were give-aways and KISS proved that it was possible to make a live-album that literary gave you the feeling that you were there among all the screaming fans. Although Alive 1 possesses this historic and nostalgic value, Alive 4 surpasses his predecessors on every front. The sound is incredible (especially the bass-sound) and the songs have never been played better before. The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra adds a extra dimension to a already spectacular performance.

Of course, to accomplish the feeling of actually being there, you’ll have to turn the volume knob to the maximum, just like KISS during their concerts.

There will always be people that will try to slash KISS down by saying that Alive 4 is a rip-off of Metallica’s S&M. But this would of course be a very unintelligent thing to say since there have been many bands BEFORE Metallica that has done a thing like this (for example Queen). There will also be people who will claim that Alive 4 is a product of studio recording, but I can supply those people with prove (bootleg recordings) that will dismember their theories.

KISS is also working on a DVD of this performance and this would be the ultimate experience, since the stage they used during this concert even bigger than anything they’ve had before and the whole 60-piece orchestra was painted with KISS-faces. Until then, you’ll find yourself more than satisfied with the symphonic masterpiece of hardrock that Alive 4 is.