Kiss’ 1981 concept album (Music From) The Elder is subject of forthcoming book, movie

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Suddenly, Kiss’ (Music From) The Elder, a memorable 1981 concept-album flop for one of the biggest bands in rock, is a hot property.

Independent British author and film maker Seb Hunter has approached Kiss management for their endorsement of a new movie treatment of the song-cycle — which involves the training of a young hero by the Council of Elders, a group that oversee the Order of the Rose in combating evil. OK, Rock and Roll Over, this most certainly wasn’t. Elder became the first Kiss release ever to fail to at least go gold.

Apparently, however, Hunter’s request for official approval was just a formality, since the new ElderTheMovie.com Web site has already gone up for the project, with the tagline: “Thirty years later, the odyssey begins.”

“I’ve decided to reset it as a kinda post-apocalyptic road movie, but with all the signifies in place and the characters are the same and the general narrative is the same or at least what we know of it,” Hunter told Blabbermouth. “It basically tells the same story and, of course, it’s an old story with a boy on a quest and the story of good and evil.”

Meanwhile, Music from the Elder: The Unauthorized Story of the Most Spectacular Failure in the History of Kiss, written by Matthew Wilkening, is set for publication later this spring.

Here’s a look back at our recent thoughts on Kiss. Click through the titles for complete reviews …

SOMETHING ELSE! FEATURED ARTIST: KISS: News that Kiss is back in the studio, working toward the 2012 release of a new project called Monster, got us scurrying back to our old album collections. And not just because of those fond memories of playing air guitar with former guitarist Ace Frehley during Kiss Alive. Bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons said something interesting about the sessions: “This new record feels heavier than (2009’s) Sonic Boom. It feels like a connection between Destroyer and Revenge. Those were but two of the favorites we discussed here.

FORGOTTEN SERIES: KISS – REVENGE (1992): There is one non-makeup Kiss record that certainly belongs in the conversation with the band’s best work. Released in 1992, Revenge came on the tail of two snoozers — 1987’s Crazy Nights and 1989’s Hot in the Shade — that were completely lost in the keyboard-laden, ballad-heavy 1980s radio rock sound. Revenge, though, was a different beast. There were still plenty of mindless sex and party anthems. It wouldn’t be a Kiss record without those. But there was a darker, heavier edge to the album, which was loaded with Gene Simmons’ gruffer vocals.

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