Part 23 of my series of Kiss reviews, leading up to the release of Monster!
KISS – Asylum (1985)
My bias with this album is simple: Asylum was the “new” Kiss album when I first started listening to the band. “Tears Are Falling” was getting a lot of airplay, and it was the latest thing. I still think, on a whole, it is superior to Animalize. The reason for this is all around stronger songs, with Bruce Kulick contributing heavily. Recall that when we last checked in with Kiss, Bruce Kulick was temping, filling in for the ailing Mark St. John. He was their fourth guitar player in as many albums.
By the time to record a new album, Bruce was a full member of Kiss. Gene was still off in la-la land trying to become a movie star, as he was cast as a transvestite in the John Stamos vehicle, Never Too Young To Die.
The good news is, Paul was steering the ship as best he could, considering he was effectively working without his partner in Kiss. Paul contributed some decent material with a bevy of cowriters including Kulick.
- King Of The Mountain (awesome)
- Tears Are Falling (awesome)
- Who Wants To Be Lonely (great)
- Radar For Love (decent)
- Uh! All Night (decent)
Gene’s good songs include:
- Trial By Fire (good)
- Secretly Cruel (great)
That only leaves three duds by my counting: Gene’s and Paul’s first co-write in years, “Love’s A Deadly Weapon”, Gene’s “Any Way You Slice It”, and Paul’s “I’m Alive”. “I’m Alive” is almost a carbon copy of other fast Paul songs such as “Gimme More”.
The cover art is bland, but it does have links to Kiss’ past such their traditional “aura” colours (purple for Paul, red for Gene, blue for the guitar play, and green for the drummer). Production is a little glossy on the drums (samples?), but there are no keyboards, or anything like what would happen later on Crazy Nights. It’s a little more pop than Animalize, but I think it’s just a better album. Just better songs.
3/5 stars
mikeladano.com 
Gene as a tranny?! In a John Stamos movie?! How did I not know this existed? Bahahahahahahahaaaa!!
Man, by your telling of it here, you have been listening to KISS for 27 years. Just about as long as I have been listening to the Stones. I think I got Exile (my first of theirs – what luck!) on cassette around that same time. We’re lifers, Dude. Lifers.
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A review of a Kiss album by a Kiss fan is worthless.
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Thanks for your helpful comment.
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Who cares whether or not your a fan or not. This is just a place for people to have music conversation on reviews that Mike takes time to post,scan for us .
So if u don’t like it don’t chirp just move on pal..go find some sites that you can leave your intellectual knowledge at the door step of another site.
And remember …
Jesus loves You!
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Actually Deke I was going to say that a fan’s review absolutely has worth, so long as the reviewer makes it clear that they are a fan — which I certainly have. This guy was probably looking specifically for negative reviews.
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Fair enuff….
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Not if it is done by an objective Kiss-fan. What’s worthless is a Kiss review by someone who’s not a fan.
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Btw, I agree with everything you wrote here. Animalize is probably Kiss worst album ever and Mark St John was an overrated guitar player, rest his soul.
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I don’t want to go so far as to call Mark overrated — maybe overrated as a guitarist for a rock band.
Thank you!
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Overrated was maybe the wrong word here. Mark was a good player but completely wrong for Kiss. I don’t get it why they chose Mark.
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Pressure to “beat” Eddie and Randy, perhaps?
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