10 Hard Rock Albums Artists Want You To Forget About

By the mid '90s, KISS had seemed to have worked a miracle by reuniting the original foursome. After becoming darlings of the hair metal scene once they took their face paint off, a performance on MTV Unplugged with the original band made for one of the most anticipated reunions in the history of rock and roll. While Psycho Circus was the return to form that many people wanted, it did mean one lone record fell by the wayside.

Around the time that the Unplugged performance was going, KISS were already well into recording a followup to their album Revenge, which would be their heaviest record yet. Once they got back to their roots though, it's easy to see why Carnival of Souls started to wane in popularity. Being KISS' true attempt at grunge, a lot of the songs end up sounding hollow in comparison to the more high energy rockers that they performed so well.

Despite having Alice in Chains as one of their opening acts on the ensuing tour, more than a few tracks on this record do have some passing resemblance to their grunge counterparts, with Jungle having a low groove and songs like I Will Be There being more confessional than previous KISS records. Considering this was held in the vault for so long though, Carnival of Souls will still always feel like a collection of B-sides that just so happened to become a fully fledged album.