To Hell With Love

Love Gun was Kiss' fifth studio album in three years (and seventh release overall, peaking at number four on Billboard), and proved to be the last release that the original lineup played on. By 1977, Kiss merchandise was flooding the marketplace (lunch boxes, makeup kits, comic books, etc.), and it would ultimately lead to a Kiss backlash in the '80s. But the band was still focused on their music for Love Gun, similar in sound and approach to Rock and Roll Over, their previous straight-ahead rock release…

On the surface, the music of Love/Hate's debut may seem no different than most any late-'80s L.A. pop-metal, but the band's performance exudes a fury and belligerence that posers such as Poison or Warrant could never even grasp; actually, they would turn on their heels and run away screaming from it. The band literally "plays on 11," from the very first crunching power chord of the title track to the last cymbal crash of the frenzied "Hell Ca., Pop. 4." In between, they alternate the sheer power of "Rock Queen," "One More Round," and "Straightjacket" with the haunting yet beautiful melodies of "Mary Jane" and "She's an Angel."

If you need a serious shot of the Crüe, drink up. Music to Crash Your Car To, Vol. 1 is the first four-disc installment of yet another re-releasing of the band's material, though this time the entire catalog is getting the treatment in three separate boxes. This initial set covers the band's halcyon/hell-raising early days of 1981-1987 (i.e., Too Fast for Love, Shout at the Devil, Theatre of Pain, and Girls, Girls, Girls)…