With the exception of KISS's second release, Hotter Than Hell, their first six studio albums lacked the power and dynamics of their live performances of these same songs. Yet, like I said - the exception is Hotter Than Hell. The production for this album allowed the power of KISS music the room to strut and wave it's hard rock flag with success. For example, listen to Calling Dr. Love from their 1976 release Rock and Roll Over, then listen to the version on KISS Alive II, a live album from 1977. The Alive II version has the crunch and power that the studio album lacks. Now listen to Parasite from this album, and then listen to the Alive! album. The live version from Alive! sounds sparse and relatively weak to the rawness of the studio version. Hotter Than Hell may not have been a commercial success, far from it actually, only reaching #100 on the Pop Albums Chart, but they were successful in capturing the power of a live show and harnessing it to the mixing table when they recorded this album. Actually, a lot of good that did them, since amnesia set in, and they forgot how to do it anyway. This album is the only early one that creates the "big guitar" sound that Paul Stanley strived to hear on their albums, and it was wasteful that they never recreated it again for the original line up.


This is the second album from KISS, released in October of 1974. This album contains almost an equal input from all of the members. KISS were not allowed to have such a unified band effort starting only two years later with the release of Destroyer and future record producer, Bob Ezrin's instruction - so the first three albums stand as an ultra-classic era for the original band. So here on Hotter Than Hell we have five songs written by Paul Stanley, three written by Ace Frehley, four songs written by Gene Simmons, and two songs sung by Peter Criss. There are no outside hired help for the songwriting, (except for the Wicked Lester leftover included here). Everyone is playing their respectful instruments, and the KISS hierarchy has not arrived as of yet.

Got To Choose was written by rhythm guitarist/lead vocalist Paul Stanley. Paul has written one of his greatest songs here in the whole of his career. It's a heavy, melodic song that has an obvious structure for a great live song.
Parasite was written by lead guitarist Ace Frehley. Parasite is heavy, dark, and the legato style guitar riff leaves you with a stiff neck after you realize that you were unknowingly banging your head to the metal groove. Ace wasn't confident with his singing, so he gave this song to Gene Simmons to sing lead. A little KISS trivia, that's Ace on bass guitar instead of Gene.

One of my least favorite songs from KISS is Goin' Blind. The song seems to get easily overrated by KISS fans, which only feeds my loathing. The song is a remnant from the previous Stanley/Simmons band Wicked Lester and was added because the band did not have enough material to fill up a new album release. I guess this is the period before Gene would write a reported 100 songs per album...yeah OK.

Hotter Than Hell started off awesome with two great songs, and Goin' Blind only brings you down, it's a sluggish mess with dopey lyrics and no hooks. The title track Hotter Than Hell doesn't do the task of recovering from such a bad song like Goin' Blind, but what it stands out for me, is that this is the first anthem type song from the band, a knack that the band would be known for in the near future.

Let Me Go, Rock and Roll takes a page right out of the Led Zeppelin IV playbook, yet somehow stands on its own and can be mistaken for none other than KISS. The song was a result from collaboration of Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons. The song has some good performances from Ace and drummer Peter Criss who each take a quick solo spotlight for themselves, and it only makes the song more fun.

All The Way is written by Gene Simmons, and it's his typical style of writing. Gene can be heard counting in at the beginning of the song, somewhere in the background in a studio somewhere in LA. Watchin' You is an older song that is at least a year old as it showed up on a demo from 1973. This is another Gene song, and it's one of the best on the album, a real heavy and dark sounding song, yet with attention-grabbing drumbeats with a style that resembles Swing music, and of course lots of cowbell.

Paul Stanley wrote Mainline, and gave it to drummer Peter Criss to sing lead. The song sounds like straight ahead rock and roll of the early/mid 70s era, especially with Peter on vocals, it could pass for Rod Stewart and the Faces with his raspy voice. Comin' Home is a joint effort from Ace and Paul Stanley. It's a strum fest on the guitars, and it sounded even better when KISS opened up the MTV Unplugged show 22 years later. It's nice to hear Paul's lead vocal again, we haven't heard it since song four, since his is truly the voice of KISS anyway.

Strange Ways is the last song on the album, and also written by Ace Frehley, and given to Peter Criss to sing. Peter also demanded a drum solo be recorded and placed inside the song. He wanted a seven-minute solo, but after it was recorded, it was discarded because the feel wasn't right. The song sounds deliberately slowed down and in the process, the song sounds the most sinister on the record.

This album had received little recognition at the time of release, but with songs like Parasite, Watchin' You, Got To Choose and Let Me Go, Rock and Roll, the album eventually became a favorite and KISS Klassic. The album eventually went gold four years later in 1978.


The songs

1. Got To Choose
2. Parasite
3. Goin' Blind
4. Hotter Than Hell
5. Let Me Go, Rock 'N Roll
6. All The Way
7. Watchin' You
8. Mainline
9. Comin' Home
10. Strange Ways



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~For More KISS Reviews~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Destroyer
Rock and Roll Over
Love Gun
KISS Alive II
Gene Simmons - Solo Album
Ace Frehley - Solo Album
Peter Criss - Solo Album
Paul Stanley - Solo Album
Lick It Up
KISS: The Deluxe Box Set
Symphony: Alive IV
KISS - Gold




Recommended: Yes