When you grow up next to Detroit Rock City it seems only natural that you should love Kiss, or hate them. You find very few people in the middle, but I am one of those. My dad was a huge fan and tried to get me into them when I was young. However, they didn't do too much for me. The only songs I distinctively knew from the band were Rock And Roll All Night, and Detroit Rock City. I really liked the second, and didn't mind the first.Over the years my taste for Kiss grew, and I discovered I liked other stuff. Revenge ended up being the first album I bought (the newest at the time), followed by Alive!, and then a couple others. Most of which were live or compilations.
Now somewhere between 1992, when Revenge came out, and the original line-up releasing Psycho Circus in 1998, Kiss had been working on another album. An album that was pretty much tossed out in a shuffle to try and appease the fans. Kiss' biggest bastard child since Music from "The Elder" in 1982.
Carnival Of Souls has to be a giant steaming pile, you must be thinking, if Kiss made it a bastard album. Rest assured, that's not the case at all. In fact one of the Detroit radio stations had gotten a hold of a bootleg of this album about a year before it came out and played it live on air. That was in 1996 right after the reunion tour started, and this album didn't end up dropping until 1997. I was not impressed, by the disrespect shown to the non make-up wearing members.
For starters this album was a million times better than Psycho Circus, which came out the next year. Carnival Of Souls is not an album of second rate Kiss songs that are trying to recapture the glory days, in all the cheesy glory. It's the exact opposite.
The musicianship on this album is fantastic. The guitars are full sounding, styled, well written, and heavy as fuck. I love Ace Freely, but Bruce Kulick is a better guitarist. The Bass is thick, heavy, and well played. Almost a little too well played for Gene. Paul's vocals are just as beautiful and grandios. Which bring me to Eric Singer, and the fact that the best part of the Kiss Reunion was Eric went back to playing with Alice Cooper. I love Singer, he's one of my favourite rock drummers.
The album opens with Hate, which is Gene doing his Demon, but without it being "The Demon". I love the bad ass monster of bass, and this is one of his songs, done in the vain of God Of Thunder, but really angry and Metal. It's an interesting selection to kick off the album, but the right choice.
I'm not sure when Paul Stanley went from being a flambouyant Rock singer to an Operatic vocalist, but this album was two years before he would don the role of The Phantom at Toronto's Pantages Theatre (May 25 to August 1, and September 30 to October 31, 1999). When his vocals kick in on Rain I'm just transported away. It doesn't matter what the words are, they just sound so pretty sounding. The music on the other hand is heavy and a bit Alternativish.
Master & Slave sounds like it should be an S&M song, by the music and title. Lyrically, I believe it's meant to be more symbolic and literal of the specific words. Instead of words like "whips and chain and all good thangs," the lyrics are about wanting someone to let up. The repeating ugmenting choruses at the end of the song are what really help drive the idea home. "Every time I see a sign / Tell me what's the bottom line / Tell Me / I just want a place to rest / Stop and let me catch my breath / Every time I see a sign / Tell me what's the bottom line / Tell Me / Forget all that I've been told / I just want to lose control / Every time I see a sign / Tell me / what's the bottom line / Tell Me / I just want to take my turn / Now before I crash and burn". Then again, sometimes the slave just wants to be the master.
The fourth song on the album is a bit slower than the first two, and is a bit typical of your standard reminiscing song. The part I find the most interesting about this song is that Tommy Thayer has a writing credit. Thayer would officially replace Ace on February 28, 2003, becoming the Spaceman guitarist after the reunion finally ended.
The album gets really slow with the accoustic ballad I Will Be There. Like other fine accoustic ballads that are enjoyable, this one is not about a woman. It's about a father and son. It's nice, pretty and does a great job slowing the album down, but it's not a skip it song. I rather enjoy it.
The only song from Carnival Of Souls to be released as a single was Jungle. It's a good song, nice and heavy, with a strong drive, and the bass is some of Gene's best work on the album. There's a very distinct altenative sound, like Alice In Chains or Soundgarden, which is the biggest draw back to the song for me, but it's also what makes the song cool on multiple levels. I both like this song and feel a need to skip it at the same time.
One thing I find really interesting with this album is how long most of the songs are, and not because they repeat the chorus over and over like Rock And Roll All Night, but because they are just musically intense. Bruce Kulick helped make Kiss their best musically, instead of the forced commercial BS that Gene is constantly trying to sell now.
In My Head isn't complicated, special or unique. It's another Demon song that stomps around spewing fire. However, with Gene singing the opening line "I'm obnoxious and no one's home / In My Head / In My Head" you can get a crisp look at Simmon's psyche. At this point the album starts getting a little too Alice In Chains droning. The part of grunge I can't stand. I find myself asking why would Kiss want a song like It Never Goes Away to just drone onnnnnn an' onnnnnnnnnnnn an' onnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.
Then I look at who the producer is, Toby Wright. Here's a few other albums he produced; Alice in Chains - Alice in Chains, Alice in Chains - Jar of Flies, Korn - Follow the Leader, Primus - Rhinoplasty, Sevendust - Home, Fishbone - Muttasaurusmeg Fossil Fuelin, Jerry Cantrell - Boggy Depot, Soulfly - Primitive, Slayer - Divine Intervention, Slayer - Soundtrack to the Apocalypse, Tantric - Tantric, Tantric - After We Go, Tantric - The End Begins, and Ozzy Osbourne - Prince of Darkness. This guy does Alternative/Grunge/Hard/Metal like very few other people. He is the master of the drone.
Now the album starts to make more sense with it's overall sound.
Seduction Of The Innocent continues the album in the path that it was going, but this track is cleaned up instead. The buzzing drone is gone, and Gene is singing (best as he sings) along all nice and hippy like. In fact Hippy Grunge might be a good term for this song. Think Alice in Chains meets The Beatles, which I would say is oddly complimentary.
This song is actually kind of anti-religion, though. "The padre looks well fed / Remember what the good book said / Vultures circle overhead / Whatever gets you through the night / Friends sing to clear your mind / Seduction Of The Innocent". I don't even know where to begin with I Confess. It's slow, it's spiritual, it's uplifting, it's angry, it's depressing, and it's a pretty good listen. The construction of this song is complicated in it's simplicity, and just really thick and full.
In The Mirror sounds like Bruce and Paul decided to have some guitar fun. This is the most typical Rock sounding song on the album. It's nothing special, but musically it's really fun. It's like Bruce decided to show Vai and Satriani that he too can do wild ass things with his guitar.
The album ends with Bruce Kulick performing as the main vocalist for the first and last time on a Kiss CD. I Walk Alone is almost like Bruce saying good-bye to a band that he helped lift back up to rock star status. "I Walk Alone, can't you see? / I don't belong, let me be / Everything I dreamed of being / And I don't belong, can't you see? / I Walk Alone, let me be / Everything I dreamed of being is me / And I got myself to lean on / I got both my feet on the ground".
As I said I in the beginning, this album is a million times better than Psycho Circus. I hate that it became a casualty of the Kiss Reunion, and was subsiquently so horribly overlooked. It's a well written and performed album. Most of my complaints come from a production stand point, or the fact this album got screwed over so badly. It should have been one of Kiss' best albums.
8/10 - content
7/10 - production
9/10 - personal bias
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