What a concept...produce a tribute album to yourselves! KISS My Ass is the most self-absorbed piece of piffle I've ever heard; yet, it is oddly compelling.
    When I heard that this was coming out, I thought, "Oh my God, what are they doing?!".  Garth Brooks, GARTH BROOKS!!  I was prepared for true sacrilege as the fiddle and lap steel replaced Ace's sizzling licks.
    What a surprise I got when I gave the album a listen!  The majority of the versions are not desecrated or butchered, at all; in fact, the 10-gallon hat man himself, Garth Brooks, does a fine version of Hard Luck Woman.  Deuce gets funked-up by Lenny and Stevie and is great; Anthrax pulls off a thrashy version of She with the end riff of Let Me Know tacked on for good measure; the Gin Blossoms' Christine Sixteen and The Lemonheads' Plaster Caster are nothing special; Toad The Wet Sprocket slows Rock and Roll All Nite down to a dirge; Calling Dr. Love is the kind of crap I was expecting to hear; J. Mascis (Dinosaur Jr.) does a fine version of Goin' Blind with all of the sleaziness remaining intact; and Extreme does a bang-up job on Strutter with Gary Cherone doing his best Paul Stanley imitation.  The last 2 songs though are among the most original; The Mighty Mighty Bosstones ska-tinged version of Detroit Rock City and Yoshiki's strings-only rendition of Black Diamond are what a tribute album is all about--an artist's reworking of the original.  Only Lenny Kravitz, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Yoshiki, and The Mighty Mighty Bosstones are able to pull this off here.  The rest of the songs are, for the most part, carbon copies of the original songs.
      I was really disappointed when I bought KISS My Ass because I felt ripped off.  Only 11 songs totaling barely 45 minutes!  Here's a news flash: LP's are gone and you can get 78 minutes worth of material on a CD!  When I look at the list of all of the artists who wanted to do this project but didn't appear for whatever reason, I wonder why KISS My Ass is so bloody short!  With Public Enemy, Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, Cypress Hill, and Ozzy Osbourne among the list of those "Missing In Action", who knows what special and unique sounds could have been transformed from a KISS song.  I guess we'll have to hope for a KISS My Ass Volume 2: The Lost Tapes to find out!
    The tattoos from the fans on the inside cover are great!  Too bad I couldn't get in on the action!
    Though it is questionable whether KISS My Ass is a true KISS release, I felt that, like Killers, it holds a special place among the KISS albums so that is why I have chosen to include it in my reviews.

Interesting facts:

• Working titles included Great Expectations and KISS This, both of which are MUCH better than the chosen title.
• Some stores refused to carry KISS My Ass, so Polygram was forced to issue a "clean" version titled KISS My A**.
• In each country that the album was released, their respective national flag was used in the cover's background.
• The German release of KISS My Ass includes Unholy by Die Artze.
• KISS My Ass followed a string of tribute albums that were released in 1994-95, including tributes to The Carpenters, Tom Petty, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and Jimi Hendrix.
• KISS My Ass was originally intended to be a 2 CD set with the first disc being the covers and the second disc being the originals.
• KISS My Ass reached # 19 on Billboard's album charts.
• Any reference to Ace Frehley or his image was erased from KISS My Ass due to his ownership of his makeup.  When approached by Gene and Paul to use the makeup on the album cover, Ace refused to give it to them but offered to sell them the rights to use it.  When Gene and Paul felt Ace's price was too high, they omitted any reference to Ace in the album except as a thank you to him and Peter.  Fans took this as yet another snubbing of former members and did not let their feelings go unnoticed to the band.
• A video of KISS My Ass was released soon after the album and instead of containing material and footage of the recording sessions for the album, it offered up more vintage concert footage, some KISS TV commercials from the late '70's, and what seems like an infomercial to hock the $150 KISStory book.  Only two VERY brief segments are shown of work being done in the studio.
• The KISStory book, which first appeared in the KISS My Ass album, was available on order but had to be paid in full even though it wouldn't be available for release for another 7 to 10 months.  The price tag aggravated fans (including this fan) who had hoped to get the definitive KISS biography from the band themselves.  Many felt that KISS had lost all their sense of reality in expecting people to pay $150 (nearly $200 here in Canada) plus a $10 shipping fee to get the book.  Even though each first edition book was personally autographed by each band member and came bound in a fancy leather cover, it was simply too much money.  Once KISStory did come out, many people who did spend the money on the first edition claimed that the pages fell out and the binding was weak.

    I guess it was inevitable; KISS (like seemingly every other group who has ever recorded an album) HAD to do an Unplugged special on MTV.  Most of the Unplugged shows are run-of-the-mill at best, but KISS really did something special.  Not only did they bring back Ace Frehley and Peter Criss as a surprise to play on stage (which they hadn't done together since 1980), put KISS played some obscure songs from the "vaults", some of which they had never even played live.  This is what made Nirvana's outing so good!  To me, this is what should happen on these Unplugged specials; have a few surprises and play some of the rare stuff or rework the hits--don't just play the same song the same bloody way (did you hear that Mariah Carey)!
    KISS' musicianship really shines here.  The intimate, acoustic setting allows the instrumentation and vocals to take center stage, rather than the theatrics.  KISS is a tight band, especially the rhythm section of Eric and Gene.  Bruce and Ace (and even Paul) tear up the acoustic guitars, especially on 2,000 Man, Rock Bottom, Domino and Plaster Caster.  Paul still has the pipes as he shows us on I Still Love You.  Gene's rasp has gotten worse over the last few years but it is giving his voice a distinctive sound; sure, he can't hit the high notes anymore but Domino has a real sleaziness to it due to Gene's voice.  Yet at the same time, Gene can still make those quieter songs like A World Without Heroes and See You Tonight sound great.  And this version of Goin' Blind damn near beats the original!  I've always felt that Gene could succeed as a singer rather than the growling demon who rips out songs like Calling Dr. Love and the like.
    It was nice to see such rarities as Comin' Home, See You Tonight, and Rock Bottom come out here.  To be honest, I'd never even really noticed Comin' Home from Hotter Than Hell but after returning to it, I was awakened to its possibilities. See You Tonight has always been one of my favorite Gene songs, and Rock Bottom has all the energy of the original.  I really like these versions of Goin' Blind, I Still Love You, 2,000 Man, and Nothin' To Lose.  In fact, Nothin' To Lose is probably my favorite cut on the album.  Having the "old" KISS and the "new" KISS play together was a great idea and Peter's singing again adds something extra to the song.  Every Time I Look At You, though good to begin with, is accentuated even more with the string section.
    I can't say too many bad things about KISS: MTV Unplugged.  I really enjoyed it as it offers some fresh takes on old songs and some that are not available except on the original albums. It would have been nice to have Ace and Peter play throughout the set rather than just the last 4 songs, but I guess having them there at all was cool enough, despite all the crap that went down since they split.  I have to wonder though if Bruce and Eric knew that their days were numbered at this point.  It was a classy touch to keep them on stage when Ace and Peter came out but even they had to know what the fans wanted.  What a feeling though playing with the original KISS!
    If you ever get the chance to see the home video version of KISS: MTV Unplugged, watch it because you can't believe how happy Peter Criss looks on stage; it's as if he had a smile tattooed on his face!  I guess failing as a solo artist and virtually disappearing from the music scene for 15 years may have had something to do with it.  The chemistry is there between Ace, Gene, Paul, and Peter for the first time in a long time and it really shows.  After 15 years, the band finally gave the fans what they wanted: a KISS reunion show.  But greater things were still to come...

Interesting facts:

• KISS began an acoustic tour after the dismal Revenge tour ended.  They played in Australia for the first time since 1980 and also went to Japan, and South America.  The band put on their own KISS Konvention and answered questions from the fans, signed some autographs, and played their acoustic sets from audience requests.  These shows were very well received and KISS felt that they they would do well back in North America as well.
• KISS put on a mini-tour called the 1995-96 Worldwide KISS Conventions where they brought costumes, played the acoustic set, and had a cover band play, as well.  Loads of memorabilia was available and the whole show was quite a spectacle--except for the admission price, a whopping $100!  The high admission price forced many fans who couldn't afford to go to miss seeing their heroes and this caused more strife for the band.  The memorabilia at the shows was also very expensive; leather jackets cost upwards of $500, the KISStory book at $150, and gold and platinum albums of Alive! and Destroyer (that were signed by the "new" KISS, not by Ace and Peter) were selling for about $700.  Poor attendance forced the cancellation of a few shows on the tour, presumably due to the high cost just to get in!
• June 17, 1995--Peter Criss surprises everyone by appearing on stage with KISS for 4 songs during the Konvention stop in Los Angeles, California.  At the time, Ace and Peter were touring together on the "Bad Boys of KISS" tour.
• KISS played many rarities during their acoustic tour including All The Way from Hotter Than Hell, Love Theme From KISS from KISS, and Goodbye and Tonight You Belong To Me from Paul's 1978 solo album.
• Ace wanted to do Shock Me but he felt the solo would be impossible on an acoustic guitar so he chose to do 2,000 Man instead.
• Got To Choose is included on the Japanese release.
• Fans who attended the Konvention in New York City on July 30, 1995 signed a contest sheet and winners were notified by mail who would attend the August 9 taping of the MTV special.
• Little coverage was given to the MTV special because it aired the same day Jerry Garcia died and MTV News was locked on the Grateful Dead singer's death.
• To date, KISS' Unplugged special is second in popularity only to the "Unledded" special done by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant in 1994.
• KISS: MTV Unplugged reached # 15 on the Billboard album charts.
• After the special, KISS, Ace, and Peter went their separate ways believing it to be a one-time-only thing.  However, on April 16, 1996, KISS held a press conference at the Intrepid Museum in New York City to announce plans for a summer tour with the original band members.

     I can't remember the last time I was so disappointed as when this tripe came out.  Sure I bought it to complete the collection, but all You Wanted The Best, You Got The Best!! is is 8 songs taken from Alive! and Alive II mixed with "previously unreleased" live versions of Room Service, Two Timer, Let Me Know, and Take Me.  Then, as an added bonus, a decent, 17 1/2 minute interview called "KISS Tells All" with (unfortunately) the most annoying and unfunny "comedian" today, Jay Leno.  The tone of the band in this interview is uplifting and shows that the boys are really happy being together again.
    The songs are all great here (after all, most of them came from 2 of KISS' best albums) and being that they are the hits, what more can you ask for?  The cover of You Wanted The Best, You Got The Best!! is the highlight of the album though.  I would have to rank it as one of KISS' better covers and certainly the best since the comic strip cover of 1980's Unmasked (NOTE: I like it so much in fact that I got a variation of it tattooed on my left upper arm last year).  Great photos inside, too!
    Polygram had to be trying to get back some of the money they lost with the last few KISS albums that sold poorly because this is a blatant consumer rip-off.  Instead of releasing a whole new collection, why didn't they add these "new" versions of the songs on to the 1997 Remastered releases of Alive! and Alive II as bonus songs?  It's a simple answer--$$.  This trend would continue with the 1997 release of Greatest KISS.  I could give this album a good rating because the material is good (even though the majority of it is available elsewhere), but I can't overlook the motives behind releasing You Wanted The Best, You Got The Best!! and this really hampers my rating.

Interesting facts:

• The cover was designed by Lou Marino and Ron Ransom using computer graphics.
• Two Timer and Let Me Know were taken from shows in Detroit, Michigan in 1975, Take Me from LA in 1977, and Room Service from Davenport, Iowa in 1975.
• New York Groove is included on the Japanese release.
• You Wanted The Best, You Got The Best!! reached # 37 on the Billboard album charts.
• The liner notes for You Wanted The Best, You Got The Best!! were done by Robert Conte, the man who did the production work on the 1997 KISS Remasters collection.

    Talk about overkill!!  What is going on here?  Without a new studio release since 1992, KISS has offered up an Unplugged album, a live album, and now a greatest hits collection.  With the obligatory "new" song (or rather, an audio clip of the opening reunion tour video for Shout It Out Loud), all that we have on Greatest KISS is another mishmash of makeup-era hits.  Enough already!  We're happy that KISS has reformed but with Smashes, Thrashes & Hits, Double Platinum, and the live albums, WE HAVE THE SONGS!!!  I guess we can thank the suits at Polygram for this release because surely the band realizes that this is just too much.  The label hoped to make a few bucks from the hype of KISS touring again.  Plain and simple.  Some good early reunion photos in the package though.

Interesting facts:

• The version of Shout It Loud included here is reported to be from a video recording of KISS' reunion tour kick-off show at Tiger Stadium in Detroit, Michigan.  In fact, it is only a remixed version of the song from 1977's Alive II.
• Greatest KISS contains digitally remastered versions of the songs--the same versions that would appear on the 1997 KISS Remasters series.
• Greatest KISS reached a very low # 75 on Billboard's album charts, the lowest-charting KISS album since 1981's Music From The Elder.
• The Australian release of Greatest KISS contains different tracks than that of the North American release.  The track listing for the Australian release is as follows: Detroit Rock City/ Black Diamond/ Hard Luck Woman/ Sure Know Something/ Love Gun/ Deuce/ Goin' Blind/ Two Sides of The Coin/ Do You Love Me?/ She/ I Was Made For Lovin' You/ Shout It Out Loud/ God of Thunder/ Calling Dr. Love/ Beth/ Strutter/ Rock and Roll All Nite/ Cold Gin/ Plaster Caster.

    Similar to the Greatest KISS release that every other country got, Greatest Hits was released only in the UK and has a much better track selection.  Included are Crazy Crazy Nights, Lick It Up, God of Thunder, Love Gun, Hotter Than Hell, Shock Me and Black Diamond.  Omitted are Flaming Youth, Two Sides of The Coin, Christine Sixteen, and the "new" version of Shout It Out Loud.   None of these are essential KISS songs, not even Christine Sixteen, which we can get on Double Platinum; Crazy Crazy Nights and Shock Me, on the other hand, have never been released outside of their respective albums.  More songs and BETTER songs are found here which beats the Greatest KISS release hands down.  The cover art is better and the packaging, too with some cool new photos.  If you can find this one, pick it up; other than the hefty price tag, you won't be disappointed. Greatest Hits loses half a demon boot, however, for being another "best-of" in the onslaught of money-grubbing record company management decisions that forced these packages on us.

Rating:  1/2

    After much deliberation, KISS and Polygram FINALLY decided that Carnival of Souls was worth releasing.  As those of us who had a copy of Carnival of Souls in one form or another before the "official" release, we knew that it was truly awesome!  KISS tore a page out of Alice In Chains and Pantera's playbook for this one.
    Carnival of Souls opens with the heaviest song KISS has ever done--Hate.  Of course, Gene takes the mike for this one and screams, growls, and snarls much the same as he did on Revenge's Unholy, but this time he REALLY means business. Rain is a great Paul tune, but Master & Slave is one of the best songs Paul Stanley has ever done.  It's got a great rhythm to it and the vocalizing is there, too.  That bass line is killer, and the scream that Paul does about 2/3 of the way through...WOW!!  Very cool song and easily the best on the album!  Childhood's End is a touching song from Gene that deals with the suicide of an old friend.  This is another song where he actually sings rather than screams and shows he can do it well. I Will Be There is an ode from Paul to his son, Evan.  Very nice ballad.  Jungle was the first single released from Carnival of Souls and generated a lot of airplay and requests on radio stations around North America.  In My Head is a good Gene rocker. Seduction of The Innocent is another great song from Gene where he displays his vocal talents.  It deals with the sexual molestation of children and is a rare change of subject matter for the band. It Never Goes Away is a good outing from Paul, too.  I Walk Alone is a pleasant surprise from Bruce Kulick.  He finally gets to sing on a KISS album when....oh, he's out of the band and, well, ....walking alone, quite frankly! I Confess is a song that I didn't initially care for but it grew on me and has become one of my favorite Gene songs in a while.  In The Mirror is one of the weaker tracks on the album, though, it is still a damn good song.
    Carnival of Souls is a serious departure for KISS.  Instead of 90% of the songs being about laying pipe, KISS explores some new territory with their material and it is a refreshing change.  Even though Revenge is a great album, hearing Gene and Paul (who are both in their mid-40's at this point) talking about nailing strippers and leering after underage girls just doesn't have the same effect as it did 20 years ago.  Working around more serious subjects as religion, fatherhood, death, sexual abuse, and other such cheery topics, the band showed that they were well on their way to opening a new chapter for KISS.  Lyrically, COS is KISS' strongest album to date...BY FAR!!
    Unfortunately, Carnival of Souls was not the great success for the band as it should have been.  Possible reasons include the rather rampant bootlegging of the album, the interest in the reformed band overshadowing the Kulick/Singer lineup, or the very poor marketing and packaging of the album.  Any of these are attestable since, to me anyway, they are all true.  Unfortunately, I guess we'll never get to see what would have come out of this new direction KISS took since Ace and Peter are in again and Eric and Bruce are out, but Carnival of Souls is a great swan song for the post-makeup KISS.
    I have only one fault with this album: that dreadful cover!!  For such a monumental release as Carnival of Souls could have been, you'd think Polygram could have come up with something more original than having a rather grubby-looking photo of the band standing around in the studio.  That "zipper-head" cover that was circulating for a while would have been much, much better.  Very disappointing, indeed.  The limited liner notes and lack of lyrics was also a big letdown.

Interesting facts:
 

• KISS entered the studio in November of 1995 to record Carnival of Souls, but it wouldn't get released for nearly 2 years.  Still, bootleg copies of the album appeared (to the displeasure of the band and Polygram) and were heavily traded via the Internet.  I bought mine at a store in Victoria, BC in February 1997 and after announcing on a BBS that I had a copy,  I immediately got about 50 e-mails from people wanting it!
• Carnival of Souls was produced by Alice In Chains producer, Toby Wright.
• Bob Ezrin was rumored to be the initial choice to produce Carnival of Souls.
• Bruce Kulick co-wrote a whopping 9 of the 12 tracks on the album--the most of any KISS member EVER!
• Different titles for the album at certain points included "Head" and "Seduction of The Innocent".
• Polygram hesitated in releasing Carnival of Souls because of the dark, brooding material, fearing the same poor sales as Revenge earned 3 years earlier.
• Gene and Paul were distinctly separated during the recording of Carnival of Souls.  In fact, neither one appears on the other's songs on the album!  Bruce plays all of the bass tracks on Rain, Master and Slave, I Will Be There, Jungle, It Never Goes Away and In The Mirror...AND all of the rhythm guitar parts on Hate, Childhood's End, In My Head, Seduction of the Innocent and I Confess.
• Bruce and Eric perform everything on I Walk Alone.
• I Walk Alone features the first lead vocal by Bruce Kulick.
• Master & Slave was originally intended to be in the dreadful 1996 film Escape From L.A.
• There was talk that Hate would appear in the 1997 film, Spawn, but it never came to pass.
• I Will Be There is a song Paul wrote for his son, Evan.
• Other tracks written and recorded for Carnival of Souls but not released include: Closed Doors Welcome No One, Save Myself, Blister, Carnival of Souls, Vengeance Is Mine, Dead In Your Tracks, Sleep Until You Die, and I Can't Forgive What I Can't Forget.
• An instrumental track called Outromental was included on some of the original bootleg copies of Carnival of Souls but was not included on the final, officially released version.
• Bruce Kulick and Eric Singer were paid a reported six-figures each to sit out the reunion tour.  Then, on August 16, 1996, Eric and Bruce announced that they were leaving KISS for good.  Since then, Bruce Kulick has formed a band with ex-Motley Crue singer John Corabi, called Union, and released an album in February 1998.  Eric Singer is currently doing drum lessons and some session work.  Good luck to both of them in their future endeavors.