Featuring music ranging from Glam rock to heavy metal, Kiss became one of the most controversial bands of the 1970’s. Formed in 1973 in New York City, NY following the theatric style of Alice Cooper mixed with something of David Bowie and The New York Dolls.
The band originally consisted of Gene Simmons (bass), Paul Stanley (rhythm guitar), Ace Frehley (guitar), and Peter Criss (drums), all of them vocalists but each of them with a well-defined identity and undeniable hard rock attire blended with fashion elements.
Kiss' singing characters were taken from a comic book that helped them to forge a unique personality on stage with Simmons as a Demon, Stanley as a Star Child, Frehley as the Space Man, and Criss playing the Cat Man.
If all that was not enough, Kiss logo was originally crafted with lightning bolts-like double S, but resembling the Nazi Schutzstaffel insignia, actually illegal in Germany so it was modified for the German market.
The band gained immediate success with all this paraphernalia and rumors of satanic messages hidden in the songs, plus a name that supposedly stands for "Knights in Satan's Service".
Kiss hit the charts and were the preference of teenagers around the world, not only as a visual spectacle, but also after their contagious and rhythmic rock and roll, featured as "easy to digest" if compared with other heavy metal proposals during the same era.
From 1974 to 2006, Kiss has released 40 albums including studio and live recordings, compilations and solo projects, with a number of top seller hits such as "Nothin' To Lose", "Hotter Than Hell", "Detroit Rock City", "Christine Sixteen", "Radioactiveâ€, and "New York Groove", among many others.
In 1978, the band debuted on the silver screen with "Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park", and producing a filmography of 13 titles until the present, with “Kissology Volume Two: 1978–1991â€, released by Kiss in DVD/Home Video in August of 2007.
With two former members departing due to drug abuse, and two replacing members dead after health complications, Kiss actual lineup, Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley. Tommy Thayer, and Eric Singer, also released in 2007 a comic book entitled "Kiss 4K: Legends Never Die".
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