KISS released Carnival of Souls: The Final Sessions in the United States on October 28, 1997. By then, Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons had reunited with Ace Frehley and Peter Criss, returning the original lineup to the stage in makeup. The album arriving in stores belonged to the band they had left behind: Stanley, Simmons, guitarist Bruce Kulick and drummer Eric Singer, pursuing a heavier direction after Revenge.
Toby Wright, whose credits included work with Alice in Chains, co-produced the record with Stanley and Simmons. He already knew KISS from working on Crazy Nights and was friends with Kulick. In a 2012 interview with Rockpages, Wright recalled tracking the band live at the Music Grinder in Hollywood. Kulick was involved almost every day, helping establish the guitar sounds and recording most of the guitar parts. His role extended well beyond adding solos to finished songs.
Kulick earned writing credits on nine of the album’s 12 tracks. “It was meant to be dark and moody and modern,” he told KISS Asylum, while identifying influences including Hendrix, Cream and Black Sabbath. There was room for a gentler approach, too. Stanley wrote “I Will Be There” for his son Evan, with Stanley’s 12-string acoustic accompanied by Kulick’s six-string playing and a nylon-string guitar solo.
The finished mixes pushed the heavier material further. Speaking with eonmusic in 2022, Kulick said he and Singer remembered rough mixes that sounded closer to Revenge. Wright’s subsequent mixing took the record deeper into the grunge direction associated with the finished release. Kulick stood by the playing and songwriting, while acknowledging how far the sound had moved. He also recalled that Stanley and Simmons were increasingly focused on the reunion while the album was being mixed.
Wright described that change in priorities in a separate 2012 interview with Legendary Rock Interviews. According to the producer, the band had been focused on following Revenge until the reunion opportunity emerged during overdubs. Work continued, but the completed album was shelved as KISS committed to touring with Frehley and Criss. Wright rejected suggestions that its final preparation had been hurried, explaining that mastering took considerable time amid scheduling changes.
During the delay, bootleg copies circulated among fans. For Kulick, that meant people were hearing work he had helped create through degraded recordings. In the eonmusic interview, he recalled copies passing from cassette to cassette and objected strongly to a suggestion that he had leaked the material himself. With so many writing credits invested in the album, he had wanted listeners to hear the finished record.
Its eventual release also gave Kulick a different place in the KISS catalog. The closing track, “I Walk Alone,” featured him singing lead. He told KISS Asylum that he had asked Simmons about taking the vocal and received encouragement from Wright. Reproducing the demo’s backward effects proved challenging, but the finished song retained the approach he wanted. Kulick’s lead vocal debut with KISS finally reached an official album after the reunion had ended his tenure as the band’s guitarist.
