In a recent interview on “Artists on Record”, ex-Kiss manager Larry Mazer talked about his regret leaving the band right after ”Revenge” release.

He said:

“I mean, to me, my frustration is that I think another album with Bob Ezrin and me, the path that they were on with ”Revenge,” the songwriting, and Bruce Kulick’s a big part of this, I think their next album would have been ‘Their ‘Sgt. Pepper’, for lack of a better example.”

The band recorded one more “unmasked” record before the original lineup reunion in 1996. “Carnival of Soul” featured heavy influence from the early ’90s Seattle scene but never received a proper release until 1997.

Comparing that record to “Revenge”, Mazer added:

“Instead, they did the worst thing they could do… ‘Well, grunge is big, so let’s do that.’ And they did this horrible album called ”Carnival of Souls”…They put it out later as ‘The lost great Kiss record.’ But they hired [producer] Toby Wright, who had done Alice in Chains, and Toby’s a great producer, but not the right guy for Kiss. And they made a horrible record.

“They didn’t have a manager at that point. They did it themselves, and they just chased a trend rather than doing what, to me, should have been the next step: ”Take ‘Revenge”, and now let’s really write another 10 great songs. Bob Ezrin producing, Larry Mazer managing, and let’s go to the next level.’ I mean, do I miss it? I miss it because they’re rock stars, and I love working with rock stars. And they still are, to this day, rock stars.”