Destroyer

Destroyer keeps the raw drive of rock and roll while stepping into more dramatic arrangement and storytelling on KISS’s fourth album. Bob Ezrin’s production boldly combines guitars, piano, sound effects and choirs, projecting the four members’ personalities as if onto a giant screen. From the racing opener “Detroit Rock City” through the weight of “God of Thunder” and the drive of “King of the Night Time World” and “Flaming Youth,” the songs wear different faces yet sit within one grand world, while a sing-along like “Shout It Out Loud” heightens the arena-rock celebration. The unexpected ballad “Beth” then lends the album a surprising depth with its quiet afterglow. Through theatrical staging and crafted arrangements, it lifted KISS from a mere media sensation to an arena-scale act that binds song and spectacle — an ambitious, career-defining masterwork on which the band’s range expanded all at once.