Kiss
Asylum

THE REVIEW

Dear DeBaser readers, today I'm reviewing an album by my favorites: the Kiss! Before reviewing it, though, I need to make a brief introduction.

This album was released in 1985, one of the crisis periods for Kiss because in the '80s, dance "music" was rampant and Kiss had to defend themselves against the attacks of all the new bands that were popping up like rabbits during those years. However, the four couldn't cope with the pressures, consistently releasing mediocre albums in the '80s, like this one: "Asylum". But after this "let's get to the review".

The album in question starts off fantastically with the spectacular track: "King of the Mountain" and here Kulick’s solos are clearly heard. The second track is somewhat ugly, "Any Way You Slice It", Gene Simmons' voice doesn’t seem very in shape and occasionally "hits a wrong note". We proceed to the third track, one of my favorites on this album, "Who Wants to Be Lonely" sung by the "Starchild". However, there is one thing to note, all the songs (more or less all) always start with the same note or almost. This makes listening to the album heavier than expected. But then Kiss "lapses" and includes in the tracklist a predictable and monotonous song "Trial by Fire" (the guitar intro is blatantly stolen from AC/DC) and even in this song Gene is off-key. The album, however, continues with the horrible "Love's a Deadly Weapon" where practically the guitars are overshadowed by Carr's deadly drum sound (R.I.P. 1950-1991 - legendary Eric!!!). The next song is "I'm Alive" and Kiss seems to have returned to their glory days; after this the "Kiss" delight us with "Tears Are Falling" beautiful and full of emotions. The following songs "Secretly Cruel" and "Radar for Love" are entirely questionable and horrible with a pathetic sound. The album closes beautifully with "Uh! All Night", the intro seems the usual and repetitive of the songs of "Asylum" but instead, it's in perfect Kiss-style. However, with this album, the four Americans demonstrated their fragility regarding the circumstances and above all, the incapacity to make a good album; the technique is not lacking but not always with technique do you make beautiful songs.