B5Erik

Ladies and Gentlemen....

KISS - Carnival of Souls

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Over a decade later it still sounds great! There's some seriously bad ass stuff there!

islandclaws

I'll admit this is one of KISS' most overlooked albums, but the grunge-type sound they employed on this record isn't exactly what some fans are looking for. There are some great tracks on here. I always look forward to hearing anything Kulick plays on, and the fact that he gets his own track on this album is awesome. It's certainly not on par with the awesome Revenge, but it does have it's merits.

B5Erik

Well, you could listen to the songs embedded above as a start....


(I did spend a bit of time putting together the slide shows for 3 of the above videos. I think the one for "Hate" is pretty darned good, if I say so myself... and I do say so myself. )

B5Erik

Well, let me add this to the discussion...

For me the greatest strengths of Carnival of Souls are the songwriting and the performances. The songs are some of the most mature that the band ever wrote - both musically and lyrically - and they feature some absolute monster riffs. These songs are heavy, but still strong on melody; they're dark, but still accessible. Bruce Kulick and Eric Singer both give outstanding performances (in a way it's really their album), and they give the album an edge that few KISS albums have.

I'd rank "Hate," "Rain," "Master and Slave," "Childhood's End," "Jungle," and "In the Mirror," among the very best KISS songs ever on record or CD, and only "Seduction of the Innocent," doesn't work for me. The rest are all solid, solid album tracks that I'd grade out as 4's on a 5 scale.

project86

I despise KISS, I never knew they actually tried a different style out for once. Musically it sounds great, vocally... not so much.

B5Erik

For me it was just an extension of the style they pioneered with songs like, "Strange Ways," "Goin' Blind," "100,000 Years," "She," "God of Thunder," and "Almost Human," and continued in the 80's on occasion with songs like, "Mr. Blackwell," "War Machine," "Rock and Roll Hell," and "Not for the Innocent."

With Revenge KISS got back to the style that they played on their first 3 albums, and just updated it to 1992. Carnival of Souls was just the next logical progression from Revenge (especially considering when it was written and recorded) - going even darker and moodier.

Personaly, I think Carnival is their 3rd best studio album (after Revenge and the first album).

Bruce Kulick and Eric Singer put their respective stamps all over both of those 90's albums (Revenge and COS)....