Artist Behind New KISS Album Cover Speaks

Deucenews recently conducted an interview with Michael Doret, designer of the KISS' classic "Rock And Roll Over" album cover. Michael's latest design, the brand new KISS album cover, will be premiered soon on KISS' official web site, KissOnline.com.

Regarding the cover for the new KISS CD, Doret said, "I would like more than anything right now to share with you what I did for the new cover. I am very excited about it because I think it is among the very best of my work. But an agreement is an agreement: I gave my word to Paul [Stanley, guitar/vocals] that I would not reveal anything before the 'official' release of information, and I am a man of my word.

"Paul came to me with the title of the album. We talked about the 'look' he wanted this cover to have. We talked about how the other cover I had done for them, 'Rock And Roll Over', really had become iconic and now represented KISS' music from that early period. He talked about how he'd like the new cover to be suggestive of that look, because they wanted the music in the new album to be more reflective of that time and, of their roots in hard rock. He also stipulated that I needed to use existing photography of the four members instead of creating graphic caricatures (which is what I did in 'Rock And Roll Over'). So that was my challenge: create another iconic cover that would also be reflective in some way of the previous cover.

"When I did 'Rock And Roll Over', I presented the group with one colored pencil drawing. With only a few minor comments, they approved it. After thinking about what I needed to do for this new cover, I spent a week or so creating sketches, then narrowed it down to one which I presented (very nervously) to Paul. Like the first time around, he immediately loved it. Then it was just a matter of refining the sketch, selecting the photos, working out a color palette, and presenting it all to Paul again. You will soon be able to see the result of this process."

Read the entire interview from Deucenews.

Rumored to be entitled "Sonic Boom", KISS' much-anticipated new album has a tentative release date of October 6. In addition, an update on MelodicRock.com's Twitter account states that the effort will be issued as a triple-disc set through Wal-Mart featuring the new album, a CD of re-recorded KISS hits (which was recently released in Japan),and a DVD. However, it should be noted that none of this information has yet been corroborated by an official source and should be treated as a rumor only.

The editor of Guitar Player magazine, who had a chance to preview five songs off the LP last month, wrote about the new KISS material, "Paul [Stanley, KISS guitarist/vocalist] sings his ass off. Eric [Singer] plays some amazingly powerful drums. Gene [Simmons] was finally made to play all of his bass parts (apparently, in the past, if someone had a cool bass idea, he let them play it),and he DOES have a pretty driving sound. Finally, Paul and Tommy's [Thayer] guitars sound HUGE — with some fab riffs and '70s-style solos."

Songtitles set to appear on the new KISS CD include "Russian Roulette", "Modern Day Delilah" and "Stand".

Thayer wrote and sang his first song on the album, while Singer also got his first opportunity to sing a lead vocal on an original song.

Simmons recently told The Canadian Press that there were no outside writers working on the Paul Stanley-produced disc. He also described the album's sound as "no strings, no keyboards, no synths, no tambourines, no nothing — just meat and potatoes."

Simmons confirmed during a recent radio appearance that a deal is in the works with Wal-Mart that will result in an "entire section" of the giant retailer's stores across the country (apparently dubbed "Kiss Korner") being dedicated to KISS.

There has been no official announcement of a KISS deal with Wal-Mart for the band's next CD, although artists such as THE EAGLES and AC/DC have both issued recent albums exclusively through the giant retailer. In addition, AEROSMITH guitarist Joe Perry may have inadvertently let it slip that the band's next studio album will come out exclusively through Wal-Mart.