On Aug. 19, 2009, Paul Stanley proved he was finished taking part in video games with “Modern Day Delilah,” the primary new Kiss tune in 11 years.

The band’s founding frontman solely agreed to finish the decade-plus studio hiatus that adopted the discharge of 1998’s in-name-only authentic lineup “reunion” album Pyscho Circus after setting some vital floor guidelines: no extra disco, idea album or grunge trend-chasing, no ballads and no exterior songwriters or producers.

“I was through second-guessing or being second-guessed,” Stanley declared in his 2014 biography Face the Music: A Life Exposed. “At least if we did something I loved, there would be one big fan regardless of what happened.”

The ensuing album, 2009’s Sonic Boom, was the primary to characteristic Kiss’ remaining lineup, which might finally go on to turn into its longest-lasting lineup: Stanley, co-founding bassist Gene Simmons, drummer Eric Singer, who joined for the third and remaining time in 2004, and lead guitarist Tommy Thayer, who had been performing with the group since 2002.

“The band’s never been better,” Stanley declared to Noisecreep in 2009. “It really seems like a time where we could actually – if we put our minds to it – put something together that would be definitive and that we could be proud of.”

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They hit that mark squarely with the lead single, “Modern Day Delilah,” an infectious stadium-rattler with an outsized Led Zeppelin-styled riff and a scorching sizzling solo from Thayer. After displaying Godzilla-sized variations of the band stomping round New York City a la the Rolling Stones’ “Love is Strong,” the tune’s video packed the entire explosions and stunts of Kiss’ two-hour stage present into 4 frenzied minutes. The single simply missed the Top 10 of Billboard’s rock airplay chart, peaking at No. 11, however that success helped propel Sonic Boom to the No. 2 spot on the Billboard albums chart, a profession excessive for Kiss.

Paul Stanley Says Making New Kiss Albums Got ‘Frustrating’

Kiss’ return to the studio was quite short-lived. Although they saved touring till 2023, three years after Sonic Boom, they launched their remaining album, 2012’s Monster. “[It] just became a bit frustrating, in terms of working hard to do a great album and having it kind of glossed over because somebody, understandably, wants to hear ‘Love Gun,'” Stanley instructed UCR in 2024. “I get it. But judging some of the newer material on its own merits, it was and is as good. The great stuff from the last two albums, I’d say, is as good as anything we’d done. At that point, it just became clear that if it’s not fun, it’s not worth doing.”

Watch Kiss Perform ‘Modern Day Delilah’