Kiss: Kissology, Volume One 1974-1977

Even if you believe that “too much Kiss” is an oxymoron, this double-disc, six-hour excursion into the archives of the then-hottest band in the land's breakout years of 1974-77 will surely test your metal mettle. And this is just the first (!) of three installments chronicling the history of a band that folks either love with all their hearts or avoid like the plague (there's precious little middle ground with Kiss). Featuring 70-plus songs compiled from four full-length concerts and television appearances ranging from ABC's In Concert to a wonderfully weird guest spot on The Mike Douglas Show, this is a wildly uneven collection (with much of the video and audio quality bordering on the painful, Dolby Digital 5.1 sound notwithstanding). For the uninitiated, things will start to get pretty boring by about the fifth version of “Firehouse,” but devoted fans will fawn over every blood-spitting, chest-baring, fireball-blasting minute of the antics by Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley, and Peter Criss. Depending on how you feel about Kiss, you'll be bangin' your head…either enthusiastically or against the wall. For anybody else, this is an exhaustive—and exhausting—package that becomes redundant by about the end of the first hour. DVD extras include sparse audio commentary by Simmons and Stanley, and a 20-page booklet. Likely to be appreciated only by those faithful who continue to march in the Kiss army, this is an optional purchase. Aud: P. (M. Moore)