On August 19, 2009, Paul Stanley proved that he was no longer playing games with “Modern Day Delilah,” Kiss’ first new song in 11 years.

The band’s founding frontman only agreed to end his ten-year studio break with the release of the original line-up’s “Reunion” album in 1998, which was only released in name. Psycho-Circus after establishing some important ground rules: no more disco, concept albums or grunge trends, no ballads and no outside songwriters or producers.

“I was tired of questioning things or being questioned,” Stanley explained in his 2014 biography. Face the Music: A Life Uncovered. “If we did something I loved, there would be at least one big fan no matter what.”

The resulting album, 2009’s Sonic boomwas the first album to feature the final lineup of Kiss, which would ultimately become its longest-lasting lineup: Stanley, co-founder and bassist Gene Simmons, drummer Eric Singer, who joined for the third and final time in 2004, and lead guitarist Tommy Thayer, who had performed with the group since 2002.

“The band has never been better,” Stanley told Background noise in 2009. “It really seems like a time when we could actually – if we put our minds to it – create something that is definitive and that we can be proud of.”

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They achieved just that goal with the first single, “Modern Day Delilah,” a rousing stadium smash with an oversized Led Zeppelin-style riff and a blistering solo from Thayer. After showing Godzilla-sized versions of the band stomping through New York City like the Rolling Stones’ “Love is Strong,” the song’s video packed all the explosions and stunts from Kiss’ two-hour stage show into four frenzied minutes. The single narrowly missed the top 10 on Billboard’s Rock Airplay chart, peaking at No. 11, but its success helped Sonic boom reached number 2 on the Billboard album charts, a career high for Kiss.

Paul Stanley says producing new Kiss albums is “frustrating”

Kiss’ return to the studio was rather short-lived. Although they continued to tour until 2023, three years after Sonic boomthey released their last album, 2012 Monster. “(It) just got a little frustrating to work hard to make a great album and then see it kind of glossed over because someone understandably wants to hear ‘Love Gun,'” Stanley told UCR in 2024. “I get that. But if you look at some of the newer stuff on its own, they were and are just as good. The great stuff on the last two albums, I would say, is as good as anything we’ve done. At that point, it just became clear that if it’s not fun, it’s not worth making.”

Watch Kiss perform “Modern Day Delilah”