I have a feeling there are going to be quite a few Kiss Retro Spins to come...Mainly because I amassed the band's entire discography seemingly overnight. Mind you, I know very little about the group or their material beyond the limited hits on the radio I heard.
I do remember my first attempt to get into them. It was back int he days of those BMG / Columbia House music clubs. I signed up everyone on the bus to Vo-Tech one day and then went to work on selecting the four CD's I would receive for free as a result. While a handful of discs trickled in, the majority of them never came.
To this day I don't know what happened. I don't know if this was a result of those folks not paying for their orders or if the club I submitted the stack of memberships to in one day thought it was a scam. As if one person couldn't possibly get ten people to sign up in one day. Oh well. No big deal.
While I've listened to a few of the 70's released albums, I thought for my first Retro Spin endeavour, I'd jump into the middle of the 80's with 1985's Asylum.
Unfortunately, while the tempo of the album kept up, the songs weren't has catchy. That was until track five, I'm Alive. I don't know why, but I swear I've heard this one before. I thought perhaps from a movie, but a Google search didn't turn anything up.
Once again, the tempo kept kicking up dust as tracks continued to shred. However, once again things started to sink into the realm of just okay. If nothing else, I was gaining an appreciation for Kiss's ability to straight up rock. They were no slouches when it came to jamming. Bruce Kulick was crushing the guitar solos and Gene Simmons was killing it on bass.
Paul Stanley...
I don't honestly have anything to say about him based on this album. I just didn't want him to feel left out in the offhanded chance he was reading this. And if he is, "Hi, Paul!"
After hearing this album, I can definitely say I'm interested in hearing more from the band. More so in the realm of the 80's before I trudge off into the classic rock era or latter years. King Of The Mountain remains the standout track for me, but overall, this was a pretty solid album.
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