1985's Asylum would be Kiss's thirteen studio album, but would it be unlucky, as the number is often associated with? Or would this continue the upward trend of the band?
Honestly, there's not many details given on the recording process of the album, with exception of noting the new lineup of Gen Simmons, Paul Stanley, Bruce Kulick, and Eric Carr. As I noted in yesterday's post for 1984's Animalize, this was the lineup which would finish out the decade.
Instead, information seems to be focused on the album cover itself. It's noted that the lips of each person are colored to mirror the colors of the 1978 Kiss solo efforts, red for Simmons, purple for Stanley, blue for Kulick (replacing Ace Frehley) and green for Carr (replacing Peter Criss). Additionally, the placement of the band members themselves mirror 1979's Dynasty, with Kulick and Carr again in place of the folks they replaced.
Tears Are Falling was the only track to be released as a single. However, in total there were three music videos produced, which aired on MTV frequently. These were the aforementioned tune, along with Who Wants To Be Lonely, and Uh! All Night. Despite only one single, Asylum would go gold before the end of '85.
Asylum starts with a killer drum intro from Eric Carr, and from there, takes off like a bolt of lightning. King Of The Mountain is a satisfying hard rock song, which sets a solid tone for the album. This level of energy does keep up. However, it also quickly falls into obscurity.
While there are standout tracks for me, the opener noted above, along with Who Wants To Be Lonely, I'm Alive, and Tears Are Falling, overall, Asylum just falls under generic hard rock. Nothing really stands out as a radio friendly powerhouse that would have kept Kiss relevant at this point.
Candidly, that's always been my biggest problem with them. They've been around for decades, yet they really don't have all that many hits to show for it. If you're not a major Kiss fan, or like me needed every single one of their albums in your collection (for whatever reason that was - I still can't figure it out), then this one would be easy to pass on.
After completing the tour for Asylum, Gene would once again depart to pursue further acting gigs, and produce other musicians, forcing Kiss to take a hiatus. However, this remained a point of contention for Stanley, who would eventually confront his partner during the recording sessions for 1987's Crazy Nights. We'll get into that tiff next time.
As for the band as a whole, this lineup would remain in place until the unfortunate and untimely death of Eric Carr in 1991. Bruce Kulick would stick around a bit longer, but depart in 1996 when the original lineup reunited.
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| THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS October 19, 1985 |
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