Monster Universal***

At last, Kiss have embraced advancing age with an album of soul-searching introspection, replete with atmospheric strings and plaintive choruses. As if. Kiss’s 20th studio album is more of the glorious same.

Compared to its subdued predecessor (Sonic Boom), this is a heavier, more frenetic return to old glories from one of the great good-time rock bands. There are echoes of their former selves, but also Led Zeppelin, AC/DC and The Rolling Stones in an album grounded in old-school, unreconstructed rock’n’roll.

The puerile Take Me Down Below and the cornball All For The Love of Rock and Roll aside, the strike rate of stand-out tracks is impressive. There still exists the spirit of a band doing it for the right reasons despite all the crass commercialisation. (Anybody for a Kiss Kasket?) Kiss continue to rock, rock against the dying of the light. kissonline.com

Download tracks:Hell or Hallelujah, Long Way Down, Wall of Sound