Performance: Defiant
Hot Spots: "Pain Behind Your Eyes," "October Morning Wind"
Bottom Line: Bruce Kulick proves he can kick Kiss's ass no problem.

Getting kicked out of a band as a victim of baby-boomer reunion fever really sucks, as ex-Kiss guitarist Bruce Kulick and ex-Motley Crue singer John Corabi likely would tell you. Hell, Kulick was a member of Kiss Longer than Ace Frehley (12 years versus nine for Ace). But rather than wallow in the ignominy of being replaced by original, but less talented members of those bands, Kulick and Corabi have channeled their frustrations and/or anger into their new band, Union.

With Jamie Hunting on bass and drummer Brent Fitz, Kulick and Corabi have crafted a debut album that's a better approximation of mid-'80s classic blues-based hard rock than either of their former bands is producing in reunion form. Corabi is an archetypal scratchy-voiced rawk howler, a sort of intergenerational cross between Chris Cornell and Steven Tyler. He mixes shaggy bravado with muscular yelps in a timeless lyrical formula that goes back to Shakespearean times (OK, back to Robert Plant, then). Song titles such as "Empty Soul," "Pain Behind Your Eyes," and "Let It Flow" (I'm with ya, dude) brilliantly encapsulate Corabi's joi de vivre.

Kulick is the guy who provided Kiss with any and all of its musical credibility during its 25-plus years of fireworks, fake blood, and fog machines. His playing on "Union" is strong, willfully out-of-style, and always interesting. He was shunted to the shadows in Kiss and he remains a willing second gun to Corabi's shotgun attack. But the continuum of solos he takes on the album is as inspired and super-hero bold as on any album in the '90s. Whether blasting through the "Pain Behind Your Eyes," getting wah-wah- fever on the basher "Love (I Don't Need It Anymore)," of doing his best Jimmy Page 12-string thing on the acoustic "October Morning Wind," Kulick saves Union from being instantly heaped on the gone-and-forgotten pile alongside Blue Murder, Badlands, the Firm and other guitarist-led blips on the screen. --Buzz Morison