Before
Gene Simmons and
Paul Stanley reunited with
Ace Frehley and
Peter Criss, they recorded
Carnival of Souls with guitarist
Bruce Kulick and drummer
Eric Singer, intending to release the record either in late 1995 or early 1996. Once the reunion took off,
Carnival of Souls was shelved and
Kulick and
Singer were unceremoniously given their walking papers, the final chapter of their history erased from public record. Unsurprisingly, the unreleased album became a hot bootleg in collector's circles, paving the way for its official release in the fall of 1997. In some ways, it should have stayed unreleased, since
Carnival of Souls hardly captures
Kiss at their best. None of the songs, either the predictable rockers or the by-the-book power ballads, stand out, and the music sounds canned, forced, and over-produced, with little of the self-deprecating humor that made the comeback tour a success. Only the dedicated -- who probably already own it on bootleg -- will have the patience to wade through the record to find the few minor items of worth. [
Carnival of Souls was re-released on 180-gram vinyl in 2014.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine