The 1990's was a bit of a strange decade for Kiss. The band had spent the latter half of the '80's riding the popular hair metal wave then changed directions in 1992 with the release of Revenge, an album that was to have reestablished them to heavy metal respectability, territory they had not trod since 1982's Creatures of the Night. Unbeknownst to them, and the rest of the metal world, the Seattle based Grunge movement was about to steal the majority of the industry's and fans' attention for the next few years, leaving a very good Revenge album that hit # 6 on the Billboard 200 with no follow up. Kiss then did what Kiss tended to do when the tides of taste changed and made an album that fit the mold of what was fashionable (remember 1979's Dynasty, Kiss' disco album?). Carnival of Souls - The Final Sessions was recorded accordingly in 1996 and Kiss was poised to take on the plaid shirt and baggy jeans set with their own brand of soggy Seattle silliness. But wait, somewhere in the middle of this mess MTV offered the boys in the band a bucket load of money to make a dreaded Unplugged album, delaying the official release of Carnival of Souls in the process. The resulting CD and DVD (released in 1996) were actually pretty decent considering how awful they could have been; this was due largely to an interesting track selection, two of which are represented in what follows. The obvious win from the Unplugged session was the inclusion of Ace Frehley and Peter Criss who performed on the closing few tracks, the first performance with the original band members since 1980. The Unplugged event is responsible for putting the original members in the right frame of mind to overcome the whole grunge thing by becoming amenable to cashing in with a reunion tour followed by a reunion album, Psycho Circus in 1998. Kiss' only other album in the '90's was the forgettable Alive III (1993) so our sources in choosing the tracks are three studio albums and the semi-acoustic Unplugged which certainly doesn't come close to the band's prolific output of the previous two decades. Read on to discover 10 awesome '90's Kiss tracks you've never heard. If we've failed to mention your favourite or you think that the writer has completely lost his marbles please be so kind as to use the comment section below.
Ross Ingall is a 52 year old ordained Canadian baptist minister who has been listening to hard rock and metal quite literally since each was invented. A second career pastor who attended seminary in his 40's, the Rev hosts Too Metal For Church on Metal Nation Radio. Writing both under his own name as well as the psuedonym/nickname Reverend Rock, Ross has been writing music articles on the web since 1999.
