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Pretty Boy Floyd: Kiss of Death
Pretty Boy Floyd - Kiss of Death A Tribute to Kiss CD Album Review

Pretty Boy Floyd: Kiss of Death

Melodic Hard Rock
2.0/5.0

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Dead Line (Cleopatra) Records
Words: Craig Hartranft
Added: 10.04.2015

Pretty Boy Floyd doesn't know how appropriate the title is for their KISS tribute album: Kiss of Death. It speaks volumes to Steve Summers' vain attempt to glorify their forerunners and peers. This tribute is "pretty" bad, no pun intended. (If you don't know or recall Pretty Boy Floyd, they were a glam hair metal band from the late 1980's. They cut one semi-notable album in 1989, Leather Boyz with Electric Toyz, which produced two hits. )

Pretty Boy Floyd Band Photo

Pretty Boy Floyd

First, this is not a "new" album. It was released by Pretty Boy Floyd through their website in 2010. There's only two players. Steve Summers does all the vocals; Kristy Majors everything else. Generally, they get the essence of every KISS song chosen, not really messing up the original arrangements, and that's a good thing. Actually, with a song like Shout It Out Loud they get the simplicity of it. The problem, however, is that for the vocals, KISS was always more than one voice. With this tribute, it's all one voice. So every song sounds like Summers singing a KISS song, which is all that it is, and that gets pretty damn monotonous.

But, really, there's only like eight KISS songs that I like, all from the very early period, so a tribute album of 15 songs is not on my bucket list of must have albums. They do six of my favorite songs. Deuce, Firehouse, Strutter, and Let Me Go Rock n Roll are nearly dead on arrival, wanting life support. Detroit Rock City and the aforementioned Shout It Out Loud are actually palatable. They don't cover Rock n Roll All Nite and probably for good reason. Everybody covers that one, and if you don't get it right, you probably suck at most everything else. My advice: get your KISS CDs out, rip your favorite tunes to your iPod, and make your own "best of" album as your own tribute to the iconic band. This tribute is truly the kiss of death, or the death of KISS.


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In Short

My advice: get your KISS CDs out, rip your favorite tunes, and make your own "best of" album, as this tribute is truly the kiss of death, or the death of KISS.

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