Kix - The Atlantic Studio Albums (2019)

Kix have had exactly one hit the power ballad "Don't Close Your Eyes," from their 1988 album Blow My Fuse. But to call it a power ballad is to imply that the band was no different from the rest of the hard rock/heavy metal bands debuting in the late '70s and early '80s. The truth is, they were different. Kix was different simply because they were much better they had better hooks, they rocked harder, and they could write songs. They were also more clever than the average heavy metal band, yet that never meant they treated their adolescent anthems as jokes; it meant that they loved the music they were making so much that their albums sounded like a constant party. Naturally, they were critics' favorites and never became big stars, even in heavy metal circles; when Metallica was all the rage during the '80s, Kix's good-time metal was seen as wimpy by most metal fans. However, Kix's albums hold up better than any of the pop metal bands that sold millions of records while they were struggling in the clubs.