Asylum (Kiss album)

Asylum is the thirteenth studio album by American rock band Kiss, released on September 16, 1985. The album marked a continuation of the glam metal sound of the preceding album Animalize.^[2]

Asylum
Studio album by Kiss
Released	September 16, 1985 (1985-09-16)^[1]
Recorded	June–July 1985
Studio	Electric Lady and Right Track Recording, New York City
Genre	Glam metal
Length	38:50
Label	Mercury
Producer	Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons
Kiss chronology
Animalize (1984) Asylum (1985) Crazy Nights (1987)
Singles from Asylum
"Tears Are Falling" Released: September 9, 1985^[1]

Recording

Asylum is the first album to feature lead guitarist Bruce Kulick as an official band member. Kulick had replaced former guitarist Mark St. John on two tracks on the previous album Animalize (1984), during the latter's absence due to reactive arthritis. Subsequently, Kulick filled St. John's spot on most segments of the Animalize tour. This new lineup of Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Eric Carr, and Kulick would last until Carr's death in November 1991, while Kulick would stay with the band until the reunion of the original lineup in 1996.^[3]

Cover

The album cover depicts the four band members with colored lips, mirroring the colors of the 1978 solo releases: red for Simmons, purple for Stanley, blue for Kulick (replacing Ace Frehley) and green for Carr (replacing Peter Criss). The placement of the band’s faces also mirrors 1979’s Dynasty cover: (clockwise from top left) Stanley, Simmons, Carr (replacing Criss), & Kulick (replacing Frehley). The artwork for the back cover is similarly stylised and colourful, depicting Kiss against a white background. The cover art of the remastered 1998 CD release of Asylum featured slightly altered, bolder colours than that of the original release.

Singles

"Tears Are Falling" was the only track to be released for retail sales as a single and was a hit for the band, with the video, in particular, proving popular on MTV. A total of three music videos for the album were filmed on set in London, England, for the songs "Who Wants to Be Lonely", "Uh! All Night" and "Tears Are Falling".

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	^[4]
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal	7/10^[5]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	^[6]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	^[7]

The album was certified Gold in November 1985 by the RIAA.^[8]

Track listing

All credits adapted from the original release.^[9]

Side A

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Lead vocals	Length
1.	"King of the Mountain"	Paul Stanley, Bruce Kulick, Desmond Child	Stanley	4:17
2.	"Any Way You Slice It"	Gene Simmons, Howard Rice	Simmons	4:02
3.	"Who Wants to Be Lonely"	Stanley, Child, Jean Beauvoir	Stanley	4:01
4.	"Trial by Fire"	Simmons, Kulick	Simmons	3:25
5.	"I'm Alive"	Stanley, Kulick, Child	Stanley	3:43

Side B

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Lead vocals	Length
6.	"Love's a Deadly Weapon"	Stanley, Simmons, Rod Swenson, Wes Beech	Simmons	3:29
7.	"Tears Are Falling"	Stanley	Stanley	3:55
8.	"Secretly Cruel"	Simmons	Simmons	3:41
9.	"Radar for Love"	Stanley, Child	Stanley	4:02
10.	"Uh! All Night"	Stanley, Child, Beauvoir	Stanley	4:01

Personnel

Kiss

• Paul Stanley – vocals, rhythm guitar, bass on "Tears Are Falling"^[10]
• Gene Simmons – bass, vocals
• Eric Carr – drums, percussion, backing vocals
• Bruce Kulick – lead guitar, backing vocals^[3]

Additional musicians

• Jean Beauvoir – bass and backing vocals on "Who Wants to Be Lonely" and "Uh! All Night"
• Allan Schwartzberg – additional drums overdubs

Production

• Dave Wittman – engineer, mixing
• Ed Garcia, Ken Steiger – assistant engineers
• George Marino – mastering at Sterling Sound, New York

Charts

Album

Chart (1985) Peak position Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)^[11] 89 Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)^[12] 54 Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)^[13] 34 Finnish Albums (The Official Finnish Charts)^[14] 1 German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)^[15] 43 Japanese Albums (Oricon)^[16] 18 Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)^[17] 11 Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)^[18] 3 Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)^[19] 15 UK Albums (OCC)^[20] 12 US Billboard 200^[21] 20

Singles Year Single Chart Position 1985 "Tears Are Falling" Billboard Mainstream Rock (US)^[22] 20 Billboard Hot 100 (US)^[22] 51 UK Singles Charts^[23] 57 RPM100 Singles (Canada)^[24] 83

Certifications

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
Canada (Music Canada)^[25]	Gold	50,000^^
United States (RIAA)^[26]	Gold	500,000^^
^^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

1. "New Releases" (PDF). FMQB. September 6, 1985. p. 25. Retrieved April 5, 2023.
2. . Metal Rules. Archived from the original on November 26, 2017. Retrieved February 24, 2021.
3. Saulnier, Jason (March 14, 2011). "Bruce Kulick Interview". Music Legends. Retrieved May 8, 2013.
4. Prato, Greg. "Kiss - Asylum review". AllMusic. All Media Network. Retrieved 2022-07-25.
5. Popoff, Martin (November 1, 2005). The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 2: The Eighties. Burlington, Ontario, Canada: Collector's Guide Publishing. p. 188. ISBN 978-1-89-495931-5.
6. Larkin, Colin (2006). Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Vol. 4 (4 ed.). Muze. p. 875. ISBN 978-0-19-531373-4.
7. . Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on June 27, 2011. Retrieved September 4, 2011.
8. "RIAA Gold & Platinum database". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved February 10, 2009.
9. Kiss (1985). Asylum (LP Sleeve). New York City, New York: Mercury Records. 826 099-1.
10. "Facebook". www.facebook.com.
11. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
12. "Top RPM Albums: Issue 0598". RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved April 2, 2019.
13. "Dutchcharts.nl – Kiss – Asylum" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved April 2, 2019.
14. Pennanen, Timo (2006). Sisältää hitin – levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1972 (in Finnish) (1st ed.). Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava. p. 166. ISBN 978-951-1-21053-5.
15. "Offiziellecharts.de – Kiss – Asylum" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved April 2, 2019.
16. Oricon Album Chart Book: Complete Edition 1970–2005 (in Japanese). Roppongi, Tokyo: Oricon Entertainment. 2006. ISBN 4-87131-077-9.
17. "Norwegiancharts.com – Kiss – Asylum". Hung Medien. Retrieved April 2, 2019.
18. "Swedishcharts.com – Kiss – Asylum". Hung Medien. Retrieved April 2, 2019.
19. "Swisscharts.com – Kiss – Asylum". Hung Medien. Retrieved April 2, 2019.
20. "Kiss | Artist | Official Charts". UK Albums Chart. Retrieved April 22, 2018.
21. "Kiss Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved April 2, 2019.
22. "Kiss Chart History". Billboard. Retrieved February 3, 2022.
23. "Kiss Official Charts". Official Charts Company. Retrieved February 25, 2019.
24. "Top Singles - Volume 43, No. 12, November 30, 1985". Library and Archives Canada. November 30, 1985. Retrieved July 25, 2022.
25. "Canadian album certifications – Kiss – Asylum". Music Canada.
26. "American album certifications – Kiss – Asylum". Recording Industry Association of America.

External links

• Asylum at Discogs (list of releases)