Carnival Of Souls was actually recorded in 1995 before the MTV Unplugged taping. But with the huge response for the original members performing, they went forth with the Reunion Tour, which meant that Eric Singer and Bruce Kulick were out of the band. Actually, both were paid a nice care package to step aside for the tour, but that they were still members of KISS.

So, with the Tour in full swing, Souls was put on the shelf indefinitely. It was only when the album itself was leaked and was circulating in mass quantities as a bootleg that they decided to give the album a proper release. The addendum of Final Sessions was just to clarify that this was basically it for the current KISS lineup as Gene, Paul, Ace and Peter were of the mindset that the original was it till the end. Ahhhhhhh....right.

As for Souls, it's definitely a different KISS as it stuck with what worked with Revenge but added elements of Grunge, as they always do when jumping on whatever music bandwagon is in vogue of the day.

Bruce Kulick, after being the longest tenured guitarist for the band, finally gets to sing lead vocals for I Walk Alone. Ironically, this would be the last appearance for Bruce Kulick as a member of KISS. The irony isn't lost on me that the same thing happened with Eric Carr for Hot In The Shade. Bruce plays some wicked guitar leads all over this album. At least he went out on his own terms here.

This is only the 3rd time I have even listened to this album. I hated it the first 2 times I listened to it back in '97 and I think the reason for that is because I was back on the "original KISS" train and this was so un-KISS-like. But right now, with so much distance from the last time I gave it a spin, I'm actually really digging it. It's much better than I originally gave it credit for.

Fave Songs: In My Head, Seduction Of The Innocent and I Walk Alone. The album cover pretty much tells you everything you need to know. In that this was a rush job and no thought was given to the cover other than to highlite the former members of KISS, since Ace and Peter were back in the band and in full makeup at that time.

No music videos were produced for Carnival Of Souls. All you get is a behind the scenes recording session.