Kiss Symphony: Alive IV - Album Information

Album Information

The album featured three of the original members of Kiss (Peter Criss, Paul Stanley, and Gene Simmons). Ace Frehley once again left the band and the concert featured for the first time a replacement musician Tommy Thayer, dressed as Ace Frehley's "Spaceman". This would be the last Kiss album to feature Peter Criss (who would leave the band officially in 2004 to be replaced by Eric Singer).

In 2000, Kiss was to release the original Alive IV (featuring the original re-united lineup), but due to label politics and contracts, it did not happen. Even with the artwork being revealed and "Rock and Roll All Nite" (from Alive IV) being added to the Kiss Box Set, the album was shelved. The band then moved labels from Universal/Island to Sanctuary Music and they released Alive IV - Kiss Symphony. However the original Alive IV was released when the band released the box set of all past Alive albums entitled Kiss Alive! 1975-2000 in 2006. The album is not called Alive IV, but ALIVE: The Millennium Concert.

The members of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra who accompanied Kiss during this performance wore Kiss makeup. At the same time they also wore tuxedos. 10,000 limited numbered copies were released on vinyl in the US. Unlike past Alive releases, the songs on the album appear in the order they were performed, with the concert split into three acts. In Act One, the members of Kiss performed six songs by themselves. In Act Two, Kiss performed an acoustic set with the Melbourne Symphony Ensemble for the next five songs. In Act Three, the band played with the full 60 piece orchestra on all tracks.

The live versions of "Rock and Roll All Nite", "God of Thunder" and "Lick It Up" were featured on the soundtrack for the video game Tony Hawk's Underground.