#ken templin

Gene's I Confess (1997) has, ever since I first heard it, been one of the pieces on Carnival of Souls that has sounded to me most clearly and distinctly like what I would call Kiss. And I say this from a position where I am fortunate enough to recognise Carnival of Souls as a very klassik Kiss-inspired album.

As unkonventional as that may sound at first glance, the choice of songs that underpin my enthusiastic assessment above could be regarded as equally unconventional - nevertheless, they still come from such illustrious Kiss albums as Destroyer (1976), Hotter Than Hell (1974), but also… Music from The Elder (1981).

And to stick with the latter for today, while I Confess follows the basic structure of Great Expectations in its verse arrangement (1), it is above all the melodies from A World Without Heroes that repeatedly shine through.

The way I see it, this basically works as if a shapeless something was repeatedly rising from a far-reaching and deep-lying veil of mist, taking shape for a few moments, only to dissolve once again into the mysterious and indefinable (2) - whereas I regard the vocal verses and bridges of I Confess as the mist, and the shimmering entity emerging from it selecting from the whole vocal range of A World Without Heroes.

So, do I even need to mention that A World Without Heroes was another one of those old, dusted, and forgotten obscure tracks that Kiss dug out of their archives in their mid ’90s Konventions, performed at least two dozen times, and - of course - just also wove its distinctive vibe into their current body of work in a way that felt only too natural?

Wouldn't that be a little bit like a bird without wings, or a bell that never rings? Or something in the likes?

Exactly.

Side Note:

(1) Yep, we also already talked about this one a little while ago.

(2) Even though this supposedly indefinable something sometimes tends to take on the vocal tones of a certain John Lennon.

No highlighted links today – just have a listen to both of them back-to-back and in their entirety. And then, better still, have another go.

I Confess (1997)

A World Without Heroes (1981)

This one is a good one.

Or at least today's Gene double pack has the potential to be such, but that really depends entirely on how you choose to view the matter, because neither of our two kandidates has a notable reputation as a krowd favorite, nor will they be found on any personal best list of any linear-thinking Kiss konservative, which anyway only serve to snuggle down deep into their personal komfort zone. If I may say so.

But to each his own, my dear fellow enthusiasts, as I for my part just say Great Expectations (1976) and I Confess (1997), two of my personal favorites. Got interested anyway? Excellent, so why don’t we get together and have a little listening party in our minds’ eye? That’s the most fun way to do it anyway, isn’t it?

The focus here is of course on the fact that both verses make use of one and the same buildup and therefore also follow an equally related dramaturgy. Kinda, as if one and the same person was encountered on two completely different days, and thus confronted with two quite different states of mind, you know what I mean?

This character will certainly remain true to the self-chosen role he uses to define her or himself, behaving only in accordance with the external circumstances. So, the basis and foundation of the respective songwriting remains the same in both cases, only that both strive in fairly different directions, to put it mildly.

It’s a bit like what folks mean by growing up. The older and more conventional they become, the more they develop roles and facades to slip into, but deep down, they essentially remain fundamentally pure and the same. Whether that also applies to the groupie from Great Expectations is open to debate, but it certainly applies to Kiss, at least in this one case.

After all, on Carnival of Souls, they too eventually grew up – even if only for a few moments.

The highlighted links are dying to be heard, by the way:

I Confess (1997)

Great Expectations (1976)