Kiss – Asylum – 1985
It’s been a long time coming. The only year that Kiss didn’t put out an “official” album (or two) was 1978 and that was the year of the FOUR solo records.
That’s a lot of music. some of it fun, a lot of it great, much of it bad.
By 1985 the Simmons/Stanley trust had jettisoned yet another guitarist and brought in ol’ buddy, Bruce Kulick. The Kiss Corporation had finally found a team that they could rely on for at least another 6 years.
So, they put out yet another record, because a year without a Kiss record is like a Leap Year. You’re not a peddler without something to peddle.
And that’s why the world had to endure “Asylum”.
Oh, the echo on those drums…so 80s. You know the sound. It’s like everyone was trying to make the records sound like they were recorded in massive arena. It’s so endemic of the times. And that wouldn’t be what makes this record fail. It’s that there are no songs to back them up. There’s virtually no structure to a track like “King of the Mountain”. Besides being about nothing except a self-extolling shout from the…well, the mountain and an excuse for Kulick to move his fingers really fast along the fretboard, there’s nothing to hold on to.
The only thing even remotely resembling a Kiss song, or a song, for that matter, is the single “Tears are Falling”. But that’s even more generic than any other single the band had ever put out before.
It isn’t that Asylum is bad. It is. It’s like somebody listened to a LOT of Metallica and Megadeth and decided to just copy that sound. Trouble is, that’s not what I want from Kiss. It’s not what Kiss wants from Kiss. It’s proficient but without any personality. It’s like someone grafted Van Halen to Megadeth and took away any original ideas or subject matter.
It’s a coaster.
Grade: D
ASide: Tears are Falling
BlindSide: —-
DownSide: too many to mention by name
