KISS: Hotter Than Hell (1974)

KISS released "Hotter Than Hell" on October 22, 1974. The album was recorded at The Village Recorder Studios in Los Angeles with Kenny Kerner and Richie Wise as producers. They began working on it in August 1974, just six months after their debut album was released in February of the same year.

By Martin Johannessen

The working title was "The Harder They Come," but fortunately, it was changed. Besides, it had already been used by Jimmy Cliff two years earlier. Thankfully, it's okay to change your mind, or else the album would have had songs like: "Who's Your Baby," "Parasite Lady," "Little Lady," and "Baby, Let Me Go." Lots of "Lady" and "Baby"!

Gene Simmons sings on half of the songs, Paul Stanley on three songs, and Peter Criss on two.

Side 1

"Got to Choose" opens the first side. At 3 minutes and 54 seconds, it's actually the longest track on the album. No one can accuse KISS of being progressive. Originally titled "Who's Your Baby" before Stanley changed the title during recording.

Is "Parasite" the best song from Ace Frehley ever? Even though he was too unsure to sing it himself. Nonetheless, the song impressed the band and Gene Simmons:

"Ace pretty much thought out those songs from beginning to end. The riffs, lyrics, the point of view, etc. There was very little rearrangement done, whereas 'Cold Gin' did feature contributions from some of the other guys in the band. But when he brought in 'Parasite,' which was originally called 'Parasite Lady,' we were floored."

Ace Frehley (supposedly) plays bass on this song.

Gene Simmons wrote "Goin' Blind" with Stephen Coronel. Stanley contributed a couple of lines, and Simmons admits to borrowing a bit from Eric Clapton's "Layla." Originally titled "Little Lady." Frehley's solo is excellent!

"Hotter Than Hell" is heavily inspired by Free's "All Right Now" (1970). But Black Sabbath was also an inspiration.

Stanley says about the song that it "was written about an encounter with somebody in a bar, and then at the end of the song I didn't know quite how to end it so I came up with this riff that was kind of like a Black Sabbath kind of riff and we tacked that on."

"Let Me Go, Rock 'n' Roll" was the only single released from the album (with "Hotter Than Hell" as the B-side). It was actually considered for the debut album but didn't make the cut at the time. They revamped the song and lyrics.

Simmons says: "We were writing, there was so much material coming in, and I wrote the lyric as a free-form lyric. That was one of the few times that lyrics were written, that lyric was written first, before the chords or whatever were written out."

Side 2

Side 2 opens with "All the Way," a thoroughly Simmons song. Cool, but not the coolest. Great solo from Ace, as usual.

Then there's "Watchin' You," much better. In fact, it was played at the first KISS concert at The Coventry in January 1973. The song draws inspiration from both Jeff Beck and Mountain. Simmons says: "The riff that introduces the song is really a passing guitar lick I rearranged from 'Mississippi Queen'."

"Mainline" is written by Stanley and sung by Peter Criss. According to Simmons, Criss "threatened" to quit the band if he didn't get to sing on the song: "Peter literally came over to us and said, 'If you don't give me a song to sing, I'm leaving the band.'"

"Comin' Home" is about life on the road and longing for home. It's a collaboration between Stanley and Frehley, although Stanley has said that he had never written songs with Frehley before.

The album concludes with "Strange Ways," another insanely good song from Ace Frehley. This time with Peter Criss on vocals. Rumor has it they did some takes with Simmons behind the microphone as well. But Frehley says: "I let Peter sing it because I was afraid to sing."

Originally, they included a 7-minute drum solo in the middle of the song, but it was cut out. Paul Stanley says: "We all knew the solo was terrible, and we cut it from the song without Peter knowing it." Perhaps it exists on a bootleg - anyone know?

Their best album?

Even though the production isn't the best, this is sometimes my favorite among KISS studio albums - it depends on the mood. Today, it's brilliant!

"Their second LP, Hotter Than Hell, does not sound as bad as the band looks," wrote Rolling Stone in their review. Yeah right.

Podcast

The excellent podcast Podkisst has a total of two episodes about the album. Listen below:

Reconstructing "Hotter Than Hell" (part 1)
Reconstructing "Hotter Than Hell" (part 2)