GENE SIMMONS "Asshole"
by Ozzy Stillbourne

I need to say a few things before I review this. Unfortunately, Sanctuary Records didn't send us a copy of this pile of shit to review, which on their part was a smart move. No reason to just give us great material! So I actually had to buy this. I had to drive to the store, open up my wallet, and pay for this fucking thing. The only reason I bought this piece of shit was to review it for the page because I knew our Sludgeaholics would be expecting a review from me. It took me about 20 minutes to actually walk over to the CD rack and pick it up because I was just disgusted at the thought of having to pay for this and give Gene an album sale. I believe I threw up twice on the way to the counter due to the embarrassment of having this in my hands. I finally told myself that I needed to look at this like a comedy record so I could justify purchasing it.

Cover: 6 Assholes out of 10.
It's Gene standing in the middle of a room in a suit surrounding by chicks in various states of undress. It looks like he's in a whore house, and believe me, these chicks look like whores. A few are cute but some look like they've been slapped in the face with a dick a few too many times.

Booklet: 5 Assholes out of 10.
The credits are written out by Gene who goes into a lot of detail on who played on what track, when things were recorded, etc. That's kinda cool. The lyrics are all here and there are a few photos of Gene looking old. I could do without the closeup of the fat chick's ass on the back of the booklet though. That's really fucking disgusting.

Songs: 2 Assholes out of 10.
It gets a 2 for the 2 songs that are semi-decent on here, and that's probably being generous. The best song on the record is the first song called "Sweet & Dirty Love." It's basically a Kiss song since Bruce Kulick and Eric Singer play on it and Paul Stanley does background vocals, though Paul isn't mentioned in the credits as doing so. You can easily here him though. "Sweet & Dirty Love" sounds like something that could be on "Revenge." The other song that is semi ok is "Weapons Of Mass Destruction," which also has Bruce and Eric on it. It's an ok song though the chorus sucks. The rest of the record blows dirty goat balls and I'm not even trying to be funny. I think if you put this CD under a goat, it would literally blow the goat. It sucks that much. "Firestarter" is a cover of the Prodigy song and is basically Gene doing karaoke. It's the same fucking song and I don't care if Dave Navarro is playing guitar on it or not, it sounds the same as the original. It's like an old guy trying to be hip. It's not working. "Asshole" is a sad attempt at trying to have a modern rock sound and the lyrics make anything off Bret Michaels' last CD sound like a Billy Joel or Elton John song. In fact, most of the lyrics on this record couldn't sound more juvenile if they were written by a 5 year old. I know Gene is all excited about having Bob Dylan contribute to the song "Waiting For The Morning Light" but after hearing that song, I think it would have been better if Bob Denver contributed to it.

I really don't feel like going into the rest of the disc. Trust me, it sucks. If this CD was a crime, the crime would be punishable by death.

Comments: I really can't say enough bad things about this. I could sit here for days and talk about how putrid it is. Some people have said that Gene took a chance with some of these songs since they're totally not what you would expect from him, and those people who say that can fuck right off. There's no reason that this needed to be released on the general public. He'd be better off releasing spores of the Anthrax virus then putting this out because a case of Anthrax is less harmful to people then listening to this.