Dynasty
marked the first time that the original four members of
Kiss
didn't all appear together for the entire album -- session drummer
Anton Fig
subbed for
Peter Criss
due to the latter's erratic behavior and injuries sustained in a serious car crash. And even though it was a platinum-plus smash,
marked the beginning of
' unfocused period, which would ultimately end in a nosedive of the band's popularity, as well as
Criss
and
Ace Frehley
leaving the band by 1982. In latter-day interviews, the band admitted that they started to listen to outsiders about what direction the music should go around the time of
. And since small children were a large part of
' audience by 1979 (due to merchandising and the God-awful TV movie
Kiss Meets the Phantom
), the band began backing away from
heavy metal
and embracing
pop
. Included is their hit
disco
experiment,
"I Was Made for Loving You"
(which was no better or worse than any other
rock
-meets-
experiment of the late '70s), as well as
"Sure Know Something,"
a melodic pop/rocker that should have also been a smash. Many other tracks would have been better if they weren't so glossed up (due to producer
Vini Poncia
), such as
"Charisma,"
"Magic Touch,"
"Hard Times,"
and a great reworked cover of the
Rolling Stones
obscurity
"2,000 Man."
Not a horrible album (that distinction would go to 1981's
Music from "The Elder"
), but certainly not on par with such classics as
Hotter Than Hell
,
Destroyer
, or
Love Gun
. ~ Greg Prato