The 10 best Kiss songs of the 90s

Although Kiss only released three albums in the 1990s, it was quite an eventful time for the group.

At the start of the decade, the group found themselves in a mirror version of their early 80s dilemma. In 1982, after having squandered almost all of their career momentum on questionable, trend-chasing albums, they released the masterful Creatures of the Nightthat didn’t get nearly the attention it deserved. Humbled but determined, Kiss shed their trademark face paint and fought their way back to platinum sales and sold-out stadiums with a string of successful ’80s albums.

Although the situation was not quite as bad, they ended the 80s with two rather disappointing albums – 1987 Crazy nights and 1989 Hot in the shade – Kiss scored a hit in 1992 with Revengewhich are similar Creatures could not secure the deserved place in the sales charts.

This time the band responded by putting their makeup back on Atwith Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley bringing back founding members Peter Criss and Ace Frehley for a hugely successful reunion tour that resulted in what can only be described as a “reunion” album in quotation marks. Oh, and before that they had a brief flirtation with grunge that resulted in a controversial but underrated album that sat on the shelf for a year before being unceremoniously dumped onto the market. It’s all explained below in our list of the top 10 Kiss songs of the ’90s.

10. “Master and Slave”
Out of: Carnival of Souls: The Final Sessions (1997)

Unlike his zealous bandmate Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley was “absolutely against” Kiss’s attempts to incorporate grunge music into their sound. Carnival of Souls album. “I never believed that the world needed second-rate Soundgarden, Metallica or Alice in Chains,” Stanley explained in the 2001 book Kiss: Behind the MaskBut being a good teammate, the former and future Starchild did his best and even made the formula work a few times, most notably in the tumultuous “Master & Slave.”

Recorded with the RevengeThe album was shelved during the band’s original era lineup reunion tour, which featured Stanley/Simmons/Bruce Kulick/Eric Singer, and was released without much fanfare in late 1997 after being pirated in large numbers by fans.

9. “In my head”
Out of: Carnival of Souls: The Final Sessions (1997)

It’s easy to see why Gene Simmons was drawn to the darker, edgier sounds of the ’90s alternative rock revolution, which suited his once (and once again future) demonic alter ego very well. He lets loose his most ominous growl on the ferocious “In My Head,” with lead guitarist Bruce Kulick charging the riffs like a bull that’s just broken out of its pen.

8. “The End of Childhood”
Out of: Carnival of Souls: The Final Sessions (1997)

Simmons goes back to the 70s with the surprisingly touching Carnival of Souls Ballad “Childhood’s End”, with a children’s choir similar to the one on destroyer“Great Expectations” by and even included a few lines from “God of Thunder” towards the end of the song.

7. “Inside”
Out of: Psycho-Circus (1998)

After a hugely successful full-line reunion tour in 1996, the original Kiss lineup attempted to record a new studio album together. There was just one problem: Stanley and Simmons didn’t really trust Ace Frehley and Peter Criss to do their part, and recorded most of the album without them. Psycho-Circus only occasionally sounds like a throwback to the 70s, but instead offers an entertaining tour through most of the band’s earlier eras. With Bruce Kulick on lead guitar, Simmons’ “Within” offers a slightly psychedelic twist to Revenge-style hard rock, rounded off with intoxicating lyrics that make you wonder if someone slipped the famous anti-drug bassist a brownie.

6. “I just want”
Out of: Revenge (1992)

Reunited with producer Bob Ezrin two decades later destroyerKiss delivered their most powerful and consistent album since 1982. Creatures of the Night with Revenge. The kinetic “I Just Wanna” takes Eddie Cochran’s “Summertime Blues” and pumps it full of all kinds of steroids. Bonus points must be awarded for the beautiful vocal breakdown section in the middle of the song.

5. “I pledge allegiance to the state of rock & roll”
Out of: Psycho-Circus (1998)

Warning against unpopular opinion: The title track to Psycho-Circus is an admirable near-miss, an example of the band trying a little too hard to create an epic new anthem. Despite its unwieldy title, Stanley’s “I Pledge Allegiance to the State of Rock & Roll” is a much more relaxed, confident and enjoyable rock song, with Starchild trading guitar riffs with Tommy Thayer, who would replace Frehley in the Spaceman outfit in a few years.

4. “Spit”
Out of: Revenge (1992)

Kiss drop their guard Revenge‘s most exciting and entertaining track. Stanley and Simmons swap lead vocals and openly steal Spinal Tap’s “The bigger the cushion, the better the thrust” line as Kulick performs his version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” mid-song. It’s as if the band has either finally gotten the joke or finally revealed that they’ve been there from the beginning.

3. “Into the Void”
Out of: Psycho-Circus (1998)

Accordingly Psycho-Circus Engineer Mike Plotnikoff said it was a lot of work to complete “Into the Void,” the only song on Kiss’ 1998 “Reunion” album on which the band’s four original members actually play their individual instruments. “If we had to record the (entire) album with just the four original members of Kiss, it would have taken a year,” he noted in Kiss: Behind the Mask.

The thing is, it might have been worth trying. While the rest of the record is very good – underrated, actually – none of the other songs have quite the same momentum or verve as “Into the Void” with Ace Frehley fronting it, proving that the chemistry between the original band members could still produce impressive results, however difficult it was to tap into.

2. “God gave you rock and roll II”
Out of: Revenge (1992)

Originally released on the soundtrack to 1991 Bill & Ted’s Excellent AdventureKiss’ cover of Argent’s “God Gave Rock and Roll to You” was the beginning of their Revenge-era collaboration with producer Bob Ezrin and, sadly, the last song to feature Eric Carr (vocals) before his death in November 1991. The song is both a fitting capstone to Carr’s decade in the band and a powerful affirmation of his purpose, underscored by stirring dual guitar work from Stanley and Kulick.

1. “Unholy”
Out of: Revenge (1992)

A good alternative title for Kiss’ Revenge Album could Return of the Demon. By his own account, Gene Simmons spent part of the last decade on autopilot, juggling his duties in the band with his career as an actor and record producer. Part of the problem was that he didn’t know how to present himself without the face paint, which the band ditched in 1983. “I didn’t know how to act because the unvarnished version of the band was a completely new idea. Paul (Stanley) was at his best,” Simmons explained in his book Kiss and make-up“He was very comfortable in his own skin – because in a way, Paul is the same offstage as he is onstage.”

Because of these two factors, Kiss hadn’t released a single with Simmons frontman for a full decade before 1992. But on the hard-hitting “Unholy,” the bassist successfully unleashed his alter ego, dominating the proceedings with a sinister howl that seems to come from the depths of hell.