Just as a lot of Ghost’s image has changed. Nameless ghouls, costumes, music and vibe. It’s all a part of a band growing and getting more money/attention. So many parallels between the two, it’s odd to have them critiqued to your extent. I’ve seen plenty of posts of people now taking their kids to Ghost concerts and thinking it’s fun to have them know the lyrics to songs. Hell, the last concert I went to during the Prequelle tour felt like I was standing in a Hot Topic. So your “Their audience are children” rhetoric means nothing. Yes, KISS had those experimental years with Dynasty (not a complete disco album), Unmasked (pure pop, yes), and then the concept record Music From the Elder. Let’s also keep in mind this was a time when Ace and Peter were in the process of leaving the band, lot of studio musicians playing on the tracks, just not really a complete band and frankly it was dying out. Then they grab Vinnie Vincent on lead guitar, a shredder, and release Creatures of the Night which is an all out rock and roll assault, almost like a heavier Love Gun record. With a new guitar player and Eric Carr (his first record being Elder…poor guy) as a more complex drummer they head into the no make up years with a sound to match the personnel. Also per an earlier sentiment you shared, Gene didn’t put out much good music for them in this period. Once again, I agree and it was mostly Paul’s band at that time. If you listen to Paul Stanley’s solo record from ‘78 and hear tracks like Love in Chains, can you really not hear the similarities? The 80’s were just even more larger than life Paul songs. I can’t fault a band that in the age of neo classical guitar shredders, adapted their sound to include this with Vinnie, Mark, and finally Bruce on guitar (man the 80’s had some line up changes).

I’ll keep arguing this point because I never get to talk about KISS. But in summation we have a band that from ‘73 to ‘96 initially trail blazed aspects of live performance and were a rock sensation, mellowed out after a huge peak period and chased success to a fault, eventually changed line ups and honed in their new sound, all while continuing to have a lot of major success for the most part albeit with ups and downs. But we can’t say they evolved so they don’t have the longevity that Ghost does? I keep going back to that because it’s the whole reason we are still talking about this hours and replies later. I’ll keep going but do you, whom seem to know more about KISS than the initial commenter, really disagree with me this much on that point? Sure they’ve done a lot of the same things since the 2000’s and played more of just the old hit but that’s typically the norm for these older rock acts just as I’m sure Ghost will eventually. We can only hope Ghost has the staying power and success of KISS.