I have a love hate relationship with "The Hottest Band in the World..." KISS. Most of their stuff is (IMO) dreadfull US rock, but once or twice they put out something of real quality. Notwithstanding a lot of their cheesie stuff, they do (did?) put on a pretty amazing live show. Anyhow I digress...
"The Elder" is one of those albums that is (I think) almost universally hated by all KISS fans. And from what I recall was one of those albums that the band just wishes they'd never started... But for me, it's by far my most favorite of their albums.
The album itself is a concept album (the first thing that doesn't sit well for a KISS album!) about a boy's right of passage into manhood, within a sword and sorcery world (the second thing that doesn't sit well - it's not about girls!).
And I think the album works really quite well, okay I've a soft spot for concept albums and the sword and sorcery (I grew up in a world of D&D playing during my formative years!). Most of the songs are pretty standard rock, crafted with a fair amount of KISS-polish.
The highlights are many but probably the best are "Odyssey", "Mr Blackwell" and "Escape from the Island". I really like "Escape..." which is an instrumental (a what?), but what really makes it is that it's really high energy and without any of the trademark cleches you'd expect from an instrumental - it's how KISS would do one.
