Kiss
Hot In The Shade

THE REVIEW

Good afternoon DeBaser readers, your Kissarmy returns and does so in grand style by reviewing a semi-unknown album, obviously by Kiss.

1989: Kiss was preparing their last album, the CD is titled "Hot in the Shade". However, from the review I am about to write, a philosophical reasoning will emerge, but first, on with the review!

The album that falls into my hands for critique is a "perfect stranger": few are the songs that Kiss performs in concerts, in fact, almost none from this album. The cover is evidently very amusing, and let's hope the album will be as well. The good intentions are confirmed indeed, because the first song does not disappoint my expectations: "Rise to It" is a beautifully linear and smooth song where the elements that stand out the most on a first listen are: Paul's voice and Bruce Kulick's increasingly deadly guitar. The second track, "Betrayed", contradicts the good intentions and it seems that Kiss's ideas, matured two years after the release of "Crazy Nights", have already run out. I pretend nothing happened and move on to the third song "Hide Your Heart", who doesn't know it?! Beautiful as ever, Paul's voice and the classic "Kissian" chorus harmonies are heard, and especially heard in the background voices of the choruses, is Eric Carr's… The fourth song is "Prisoner of Love", truly a song that leaves you speechless…

But at this point, it's time to pause and reflect. "Hot in the Shade", the title itself is indicative of heat, of a suffocating heat that never leaves man, like "Love" for Petrarch. The heat is felt in every song of "Hot in the Shade", obviously in some songs more and in others less, but it is always present. We continue, however, with "Read My Body", beautiful, which vaguely (very vaguely) reminds "I Love it Loud". "Love's a Slap in the Face" is track number 6, even if the song is very poorly made and is also bad, there is the personal pleasure of finding the old Catman Peter Criss behind the drums. Song number seven is truly the most beautiful by Kiss ever: "Forever" is truly spectacular, the acoustic guitars of Paul and Bruce are tuned to the romantic spirit of this song. "Silver Spoon" is the following track and I must say it's cute but does not reveal surprises. However, the following song must be bowed to because it is a true Rock 'n roll masters track like the Kiss are: "Cadillac Dreams" is truly spectacular. Kiss truly make themselves heard with this song, and so does the suffocating heat, which in my opinion, is the main theme of this album.

"King of Hearts" vaguely reminds of a famous riff by System of a Down. After track number 10, "King of Hearts", it transitions to another beautiful song named "The Street Giveth and the Street Taketh Away". The heat in this track reaches unexpected levels, it becomes unbearable, and it almost seems as if this song is inspired by a nighttime fight between two gangs on a street in a squalid New York neighborhood, creating an atmosphere that is beautiful and full of suspense. The twelfth track doesn't disappoint the Kiss fans and Paul expresses his vocal flexibility to the maximum, delivering very beautiful and especially impactful high notes. "Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell" is track number 13, beautiful, beautiful and more beautiful, truly well done; the theme of heat is felt here too, and the guitars with a particular distortion contribute to this suffocating heat. Quickly listing the last two songs, "Boomerang", really good but only the solo by Bruce Kulick has been avidly copied from "I've Had Enough (Into the Fire)" from the album "Animalize". Now I have to give a somewhat longer description and some critiques for the last song: "Little Caesar" that everyone will know because it was one of the few songs written by Eric Carr, for the first time we hear his voice in a song written by him, but beware Paul & Gene, being money-consuming machines, occasionally make mistakes and don’t let Eric sing the song because they believe it's not useful, but they allow him (Carr) to sing the backing vocals in the chorus. The song is undoubtedly beautiful but if Eric had sung it, it would have been much better.

Concluding, I must say this album has been underrated and I don’t know why, but this album is truly an excellent product for Kiss's Rock 'n roll. Obviously, the "Kiss" after this album were no longer the same as the '80s but changed radically, what I can state is that Kiss is Kiss and no one can say they are foolish or shameless because they are the only true rock band still existing.

Greetings to everyone from Kissarmy!!!