Review: Bruce Kulick - BK3

Bruce Kulick was the guitarist for Revenge, my favorite KISS album to date. Although it was great to see the original members get back together a few years after that came out, seeing Bruce leave the band was a hard pill to swallow. BK3 is Bruce’s third solo album since leaving KISS and is his strongest effort yet. The album is an all-star collaboration with some pretty big names and sounds like a true labor of love.

Joining Bruce on the album is fellow KISSer Gene Simmons, who sings the killer track Ain’t Gonna Die, which is far superior to anything Simmons has recorded since Unholy or Domino. The album also marks the recording debut of Simmons’ son Nick, who comes off a bit like his demon father on the grunge track Hand Of The King.

Another key standout track is Dirty Girl, with vocals from The Knack’s Doug Fieger. This brought back some memories of The Knack when My Sharona was battling KISS’s I Was Made For Lovin’ You on the charts in the summer of ’79. Dirty Girl could have easily been a Knack song from the ‘70s and would have been a hit following Good Girls Don’t in the band’s glory days.

Other guests on the album include KISS drummer Eric Singer, vocalists John Corabi and Tobias Sammet and fellow guitarist Steve Lukather, who adds some guitar flair to the instrumental track Between The Lines.

Bruce’s guitar is well defined on this album and has just the right amount of punch and grit when needed. Bruce’s solo tracks (ones without the celebrity guest stars) prove that KISS really missed the boat by not letting him contribute more to the albums of the ‘80s.

Any KISS fan should love this CD, especially for the Gene and Nick Simmons tracks, but there is plenty here for rock fans in general.

Review By Dan Savoie
RockStar Weekly