Kiss
Carnival Of Souls: The Final Sessions

THE REVIEW

A controversial album to review, given the various, very contrasting opinions.

It is considered one of the lowest points of their discography (already modest if we're being honest), although it is particularly considered among the most fervent fans (a group I was part of) as a very underrated album, and even one of their best works!!

Nothing could be more false, one should not confuse passion for a band with the quality of their records, because this is one of the worst records I have ever heard, pure garbage! All the songs are uninspired and poorly played, even Paul Stanley (after all, he's the one who's always tried the hardest) seems to be acting as if he's at the beach with some friends; moreover, his vocal tone is totally unsuitable for this grunge experiment (???). And to think that the band was coming from a pretty good period, after all, Revenge and MTV Unplugged (featuring Criss and Frehley) can be considered two of their best works, and the lineup of the time had a great drummer (Eric Singer) and a guitarist (Bruce Kulick) in full grace, as he had finally managed to play decently in the studio.

Let's move on to the songs. It starts with Hate and already Gene Simmons seems like a zombie, then it's Paul's turn with Rain and that attitude reminiscent of Alice In Chains, but we are on a completely different quality level. The third track perhaps offers the best song, Master & Slave, with the usual overly assertive yet useless bass of Simmons, leading into a catchy chorus, despite the ridiculous riff. Then the sense of the next three tracks is unclear: the beautiful I Will Be There sandwiched between the terrible Childhood's End and the worst song ever, that trash of Jungle, which makes you want to cut off your ears because it's so awful. After a very plagiarized beginning from Nirvana but at least listenable, In My Head confirms itself as yet another useless song on this useless record, where two former members of Back in Blue participate, including Tommy Thayer, the future Spaceman in Sonic Boom, their most recent effort (??).

It Never Goes Away is almost unreviewable, apart from some guitar parts, just like Seduction of the Innocent, where Gene once again proves how he is an unlistenable singer post-70s except for some exceptions (in studio, live he's always awful). The instrumental part of I Confess is good (especially the very dark beginning, too bad for the overly audible bass), resulting in a more or less salvageable song.

Last 2 songs: In the Mirror is the usual crap, then Bruce starts singing (he should have avoided it) and gives us the final agony with I Walk Alone.

It seems the guitarist understood everything, in fact later, as hypothesized for a long time (and for many the cause of the album's failure), he was kicked out to make way for the return of the original KISS lineup, later releasing Psycho Circus, an equally lackluster album.

I almost forgot, the album was also recorded in terrible quality, adding insult to injury.