Album Review: Kiss - Animalize

Kiss - Animalize

Mercury Records - 1984

5/10

If Lick It Up hasn’t convinced you of Kiss’s glam metal shift, then Animalize the very next year certainly will. Along with this, we already see a change in guitar personnel, with Mark St. John replacing Vinnie Vincent’s short lived run. Someone that isn’t a seasoned fan may not see such a jarring shift, as stylistically his playing is similar enough. Thus, the heavy metal chops are still ever so present, with a heightened focus on the gang vocal choruses and pop-oriented glitter underneath the loud distortions.

This really could not be more evident on any song than the raging banger “Heaven’s On Fire.” This tune is glam metal in the most obvious form, right in line with the likes of Poison, Ratt, and Dokken. Anthemic lyrics and energetic muscles are flexed, topped off with a memorable singalong chanted chorus. It’s almost obvious that this was meant to be a hit, as the other songs still lean a bit more towards the heavy bottom than poppy build. It’s still present, of course, none scream “radio hit” the way this song does.

Unfortunately, not standing out is a theme on Animalize outside of that track. Heavier songs do not always equate to better songs, especially when a lot of it is just “more of that stuff we did well with before.” Every song tries to find a balance between the pop/metal scale, and the focus on that leaves so much to be desired. Opener “I’ve Had Enough (Into The Fire)” is the first instance of Paul and co. cranking out speed metal with a roaring solo that doesn’t make much of an impression. Calmer, but still heavy tunes like “Lonely Is The Hunter” suffer the same fate; exercising some serious guitar noodling that does very little outside of its sheer ability. You could argue that “Thrills In The Night” sidesteps into a somber mood, but I still hardly call this anything innovative. 

Again, I chalk some of this up to rushing, which only mildly hurt Lick It Up but obliterated its follow-up. Reinvention of a band sees success only as it continues to either evolve, or at least write addictive songs. Having Mark St. John’s strong chops couldn’t even save this. While there’s very little that I would call outright bad, this is one of the most average, merely existing Kiss records in the band’s entire ‘80s run with the exception of “Heaven’s On Fire.” That song is worth every bit of your time, the rest serves as background music.