#8 - Hotter than HellHaving guilted loose a response for our fragile ego, we respond.
I got hold of some different files of the songs on Hotter than Hell. I don't know if they were remastered, but they sounded a lot better. Which makes me want to think about reranking it higher. But no, we must accept the past and soldier on.
Hotter than Hell is the dreaded sophomore album from a group that produced its fourth best album ever on its first try. Hotter than Hell dropped the same year as KISS, and it really dropped - like a stone.
Recorded in Los Angeles, which the boys immediately hated. Paul's guitar was stolen their first day there, setting the tone for an uneasy set of sessions.
Wikipedia calls the album cover "striking." A better word is "muddled," or maybe "amateurish."
The album is also known for its striking cover: the front featured Japanese manga-influenced artwork, and the back cover showed individual band shots taken by Norman Seeff at a wild party, and a composite of all four band members' makeup designs. Everyone present at the session (with the exception of Simmons) was drunk for the entire photography session. Stanley was so drunk he had to be locked in his car. Paul's drunken state can easily be seen on the album's front cover as it appears Peter Criss is holding him up while Paul holds onto Peter's leg.
The thing about being drunk is a good story. Again, Gene gets to brag about never taking a taste of alcohol, despite having as one of his signature songs "Cold Gin." How does he get away with that?
The picture of Peter on the back cover is particularly disturbing. He appears to be some monster out of a 70s Conan-ripoff, lording it over a woman with drawn-on star pasties. Creepy. As is the poorly drawn face with all four makeup styles represented.
Hotter than Hell did very poorly, which can be attributed to several things. One is that it's hard for a band known for a killer live show to sell studio records. No blood, fire or makeup embedded in the grooves. It eventually went gold in 1977, when KISS was nearing the height of its popularity and people were buying everything they could get their hands on.
On to the music. Hotter than Hell, songwise, is actually one of the band's best efforts. The songs just don't sound very good. The versions aren't nearly as good as the ones on Alive! (and, in the case of Goin' Blind, the band's MTV concert 20 years later). The songs seem unfinished, and the live versions round them out.
It's hard to rate the songs on Hotter than Hell without thinking of the superior live versions. "Got to Choose" and "Hotter than Hell" both sound too slow - as though the band hadn't figured out what tempo to play them yet (disclaimer: I know absolutely nothing about 4/4 beats and all that other shit - hey, this ain't "Creem").
"Parasite" is an incredible song. Some of Ace Frehley's early numbers are among the true classics of early hard rock/heavy metal. It and "Shock Me" are among Ace's best solos. He even gives Peter "Gene Krupa" Criss a drum solo. Yes, ACe's a drunken louse and, uh, sometimes he comes across as not the smartest guy in the room, but he wrote some killer tunes. Early on. Wait for it. My magnum opus is coming when we get to "Unmasked."
Seriously, the day they met Gene Simmons already knew how easy it was going to be to rip off Ace and Peter. It's really not fair to pit rock's Evil Genius up against a couple of party-hearty saps from the Bronx and Brooklyn. Even if they'd never touched drugs, they were dead meat the moment they walked into the audition.
"Goin' Blind," as mentioned elsewhere, is one of the top two or three KISS songs. The version here is good. It's hard to imagine how a man in his mid 20s would write and sing a song about a 93-year-old man in a love affair with a 16-year-old girl, but here it is. I used to think this was some kind of metaphor, but, having listened to most of Gene's catalog, and having spent a lot of time in some pretty advanced literature classes, I'm pretty sure Gene don't do metaphor. Certainly not here. What Gene do do is innuendo.
This would have been a great transition: "Speaking of which, we have [innuendo-based Simmons song]." But alas, Gene's three additional compositions on Hotter than Hell are pretty straightforward.
Even as a kid, the comma in "Let Me Go, Rock 'n' Roll" didn't make any sense. Is he asking Rock 'n' Roll to let him go? Also, why is it "rock 'n' roll" here, while one album later it's "Rock and Roll" as in "All Nite." And why "Nite?" Anyway, this song is much better on Alive! It's only 2:15 on Hotter than Hell.
"All the Way" is another relationship song. It comes across a bit like "Let Me Know" on the first record. Presumably the relationship here was not with Cher or Diana Ross.
"Watchin' You" is the best Gene song on Hotter than Hell. It's pretty blistering in concert. It's good here, but not as good.
Ace wrote two songs. One for Paul, "Comin' Home," is really not all that good. It's a filler song. They resurrected it for the MTV concert, and it sounds ok there.
Ace also contributes one for Peter, as does Paul. It's weird for the band's third singer to have songs written by the first singer and the guy who was (rightly, again) too scared to sing at this point, but, hey, it was the 70s. Peter Frampton was about to have a bunch of hits singing into his guitar.
"Mainline" and "Strange Ways" are not very good. "Strange Ways" is sort of gothic, which fits with the album, but "Mainline" is a dumbass rock tune which Paul probably wrote for himself and then gave to Peter when the latter begged him to write him a song.
In summary: "Goin' Blind" and "Parasite" are great. The other good songs on the album sound better on Alive! The rest can be safely skipped.
The next album is the last of the "classic KISS albums + Creatures of the Night." It gets rocky after the next one, and really, really rocky after that.
Love Gun is the first KISS makeup era album where I had to relisten to multiple songs. And, lo, a discovery: a song I'd forgotten turns out to unify these two records: "Almost Human," a Simmons number that is on Love Gun but sounds like a lost track from Hotter than Hell...
