In August 1975, while the group was embarking on its supporting tour for
Alive!, rehearsals for
Destroyer began.
Bob Ezrin, who had previously worked with
Alice Cooper, was brought in to produce the album. The band felt that Ezrin was the right person to maintain the commercial success the members had achieved with
Alive! and to help them take the band's sound to the next level. Before meeting with Ezrin, the band had written and recorded a 15-song demo in the Magna Graphics Studio in August 1975. The first
demo recorded during the
Destroyer sessions was "Ain't None of Your Business" featuring
Peter Criss on vocals. The plodding, heavy song, written by
country songwriters
Becky Hobbs and
Lew Anderson, was rejected by the band and later appeared on the 1977 debut album by
Detective. Although this song was rejected, other outside songs and suggestions were accepted by the band. In particular,
Kim Fowley and Mark Anthony became important contributors during the songwriting process, bringing in the title and basic structure of the song "King of the Night Time World" from their previous band
The Hollywood Stars' then-unreleased 1974 album
Shine Like a Radio (which also featured the original version of the Alice Cooper song "Escape" from
Welcome to My Nightmare). Ezrin flat-out rejected most of the material; only heavily re-worked versions of "God of Thunder" and "Detroit Rock City" made it to the album, and another song, "Mad Dog", was pilfered for lyrics to "Sweet Pain" and a riff for "Flaming Youth". Other songs from this demo were re-worked for the following album
Rock and Roll Over and
Gene Simmons'
1978 solo album, while others remained unreleased until the 2021 release of
Destroyer as a 2-CD set and Super Deluxe box set. The first recording sessions for the album took place on September 3–6, 1975 at
Electric Lady Studios in New York City, during a brief break between the
Dressed to Kill and
Alive! tours. The basic album tracks were recorded during this time. The majority of the recording sessions for
Destroyer took place in January 1976, after the conclusion of the
Alive! tour. Ezrin introduced to Kiss sound effects, strings, screaming children, reversed drums (on "God of Thunder") and a children's choir. The song "Great Expectations" uses the first phrase of the main theme from the second movement of
Beethoven's
Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13 (known as
Sonata Pathétique), but the songwriting is credited to Simmons and Ezrin. The lyrics of the opening song "Detroit Rock City" tells the story of a fan who died in a car crash on the way to a Kiss show. Various dates and events have been mentioned but journalist James Campion managed with the help of a Kiss roadie from the era to link the event that inspired the song and a handful of candidates to the November 30, 1974 show in
Fayetteville, North Carolina. During the recording sessions, Ezrin resorted to numerous tactics designed to increase the quality of music Kiss recorded. Because none of the group were trained musicians, Ezrin halted the sessions at one point to provide lessons in basic
music theory. To instill a sense of discipline, he wore a whistle around his neck and exhorted the band with sayings such as, "Campers, we're going to work!" When Simmons stopped playing during the recording of an
outro, Ezrin yelled at him, saying, "Don't you ever stop a take unless I tell you!"
Paul Stanley later compared the experience of working with Ezrin as "musical
boot camp" but said that the group "came out a lot smarter for it". Simmons echoed the sentiment by stating: "It was exactly what we needed at the time."
Destroyer is the first Kiss album to prominently feature outside musicians, such as members of the
New York Philharmonic. One musician not credited was
Dick Wagner, from Alice Cooper's band, replacing
Ace Frehley on the track "Sweet Pain". Wagner also played the acoustic guitar on the song "
Beth". The success of
Alive! and
Destroyer enabled the band to embark on its first tour of
Europe. ==Artwork==