Gene and Pual

"There's one glaring irony in the Paul-Gene power axis, however. Of all the songs KISS catalog, the one that stands out most clearly as a power anthem is "God of Thunder" from 1976's Destroyer (it even surpasses "War Machine," because "God of Thunder is more epic and archetypal). Simmons carried the vocals, and it ultimately defined what his onstage persona was all about: he usually did his infamous blood-spitting routine during the song's introduction. But what's compelling is that it was written by Stanley, who fully intended to sing it. Simmons likes to insist that Paul was deliberately writing a "Gene song" and always knew he would eventually handle the lead, but Stanley says otherwise. "You want to heal the real story, or do you want to believe the rumor?" he told me in a 1997 interview. "That was totally [producer] Bob Ezrin's idea. He thought it came across better with Gene's vocals." In other words, Simmons's powerful image was a better fir for the song's powerful imagery; Paul's androgynous Girl Power would not translate into menace. At least in this case, the tenuous connection between heavy metal and power was completely conscious in the minds of the people who made the record(33)."

The first thing I noticed when reading this paragraph was the diction that Klosterman used. Unconventional words are used very with this author. It seems like Klosterman's style of writing is very unique and modern, although he witty enough to add classical references. The second thing that pops out to me are the parallels he draw's between various bands and the members in those bands. Thus far Klosterman is still trying to explain the meaning of heavy metal. How it varies from rock 'n roll and "glam" metal. In this passage the author is trying to explain the differences between the meaning of "power" heavy metal. The example used here is the difference between Gene Simmons, a metal sex god who does just about anything he wants to do, and Paul Stanley, who apparently had more of a "Girl Power" approach to things. Meaning, he didn't treat woman like dirt. Here the importance of power metal is exemplified by showing how one "menacing" song written by Paul Stanley had to be sung by Geme Simmons because Stanley's voice was powerful enough and it didn't fit hit persona. It's strange to learn all of these facts about a genre of music I have never taken seriously before.