silktempest's Full Review: Hotter Than Hell [Limited] [Remaster] by Kiss
Sophomore albums are hard tasks. Especially if your debut - as KISS' - was the stuff of legend. But more than following a legend, KISS had to follow what didn't follow from the legend.
In spite of the excellence and the visionary aspects that their debut possessed, KISS was something odd and not much commercial circa 1974. Far from the hottest band in the world, they were considered an eccentricity, a novelty act at worst, a Glam spin-off at best. So? They recorded Hotter Than Hell mere 8 months in advance, a record loaded with steamy rockers and ready to take the world by storm, as their rapturous concerts displayed. If the world didn't catch-up with the band then...It would be a matter of months.
From Paul Stanley's batch of great Hard Rockers Got To Choose and the title track were unleashed. Gene Simmons revived an early tune called Goin' Blind but also brought some new blood to the proceedings (Watchin' You). The great Ace Frehley was consolidating his compositions chops with Strange Ways. I don't miss Peter Criss' contributions. Best of all, KISS was improving their inner dynamics. Frehley and Stanley spawned a frantic monster called Parasite as well as the moody (and underrated) Comin' Home. Topping them all one of the ultimate KISS anthems, 50/50 Stanley and Simmons, Let Me Go, Rock N'Roll.
With two great (underrated) guitarists, a great bass player, a professional enough drummer and four (!) revolving singers, with peculiar voices, KISS had plenty to offer to 1974 audiences. Bone-dry studio resources still complicated their effort, but in Hotter you could say it was closer to KISS onstage. This band combined to great effect an abrasive sonority, anthemic lyrics and bubblegum melodies. Their electric ecstasy never prevented them to go unplugged. People sometimes wonder why bands like NIRVANA love KISS. I wonder why. In Hotter than Hell KISS sometimes resembled a deranged cross of THE NEW YORK DOLLS, BLACK SABBATH and THE BEATLES. And now we have it all with drastically improved sound.
Stanley and Simmons share vocal duties during Got to Choose, which enhanced the track greatly. Mid-pace growling riffs (Eddie VAN HALEN would pick some of them lately, as well as the backing vocals) find unsuspected strangled doo-woop bridges dealing with the inexorable choices in lovemaking - in which unmistakable KISS melodies find their due comfort. The rousing guitar solo is a finding. Got to Choose would go on to greater (and faster) heights in KISS' Alive!
The menacing Parasite - with a meat grinder of a riff - wiped off any doubts that KISS were rocking their arses out freewheeling. The mucky, muddy proceedings - Grunge? - coalesced around hermetically-sealed Frehley melodies, mysterious Criss detours and angry Simmons vocals, yet anthemic enough to rival Frehley's and Stanley's thick soloing. An underrated Heavy Rock masterpiece.
Goin' Blind, with its odd lyrics about a 93-year-old dating a teenage girl, seems shocking tactics at first, but it makes more sense if you know it was an old Simmons tune called Little Lady. A moody, yet abrasive power ballad, one of the most peculiar in Rock history, it is one of the most distinguished KISS performances ever. With melancholic power chords suspended over layers of ambivalence, and Simmons doing his loveliest vocal piece ever, it builds great atmosphere for the outpouring of silky roads by Frehley, the underrated late 1970s guitar hero. Vintage KISS.
The title track gave wild expectations about what was to come - KISS, the hottest band in the world, dealing (illicitly) with hot girls. The sonority is not as flamboyant as the title intended, resting on Hard Rock truisms (abrasive riffs, sweaty vocals, double entendres etc.) and taking second place next to vocals (Simmons, Stanley and raunchy backing vocals), which are obsessively placed, aiming at the charts. The chorus is pure 1970s KISS:
Hot, hot Hotter than Hell You know she's gonna leave you well done Hot, hot Hotter than Hell Burn you like the midday sun
Another number that would greatly benefit from live recordings, Hotter than Hell is a beloved KISS anthem.
A dry run for Rock N'Roll All Nite, Let Me Go, Rock N'Roll delivers the goods with savagery. A looser structure, less a rally cry, less a stellar Hard Rock/Pop staple, but arguably, twice as much sweaty, ballsy Rock N'Roll. Lyrics lack a purpose other than...The excitement of Rock N'Roll. You can call it the "old style" Rock N'Roll in KISS. The band fire at all cylinders. The music does the talking here. Criss in special delivers much more than the expected accompaniment. But you can resort to the interlocking grooves of Frehley (running wild, oscillating wildly around his ego), Stanley and the sinewy support from Simmons. You need to no nowhere else to find why KISS started calling themselves the hottest band in the world - the calling becomes thinner than the sound of it all. One need no introduction to Rock N'Roll besides that...Or go to AC/DC's Let There Be Rock for a more studied (!) statement.
After a stellar side A - a good match for any Rock N'Roll classic recording - KISS delivers a less than perfect side B. The almost never played live All The Way is a Simmons composition. It tries to bring to fruition a hybrid of Got to Choose's melting riffs and Hotter than Hell's anthemic choruses. But the indecisive vocals and less than outstanding backing vocals mean this belongs in a minor arena. Frehley's solo follows more closely the main riff, which means that this sometimes lack invention. Conventional KISS is more than the average, but it is far from a triumph. Still, the chorus has some dignity. And the composition rests in the DNA of many 1980s Hard Rock and Hair Metal.
Watchin' You is more pleasing by walking the swamp again. Once again it is built on a 1970s Hard Rock canvas - but sturdier, edgier (lyrically speaking) and more charming, more sleazy charming. A trademark great riff from Simmons roams from Frehley to Stanley and becomes a barbed wire Hard Rock motif. Simmons sings with his gentle caveman tone - this time resolutely alternating the voyeur and the Big Brother personas, always threatening. But KISS shines as a band here, not just a marching band following Simmons' lead. If the 1972 demo was an extended jam, the final product included another stellar (forgive me for saying the obvious) soloing from the Ace, following a bluesy pattern (THE ROLLING STONES are a shadowy influence here) as well as solid drumming from the always reliable (before the booze) Criss. Showmanship pays off. A solid concert staple, as solid as many things by BLACK SABBATH, LED ZEPPELIN and DEEP PURPLE.
Mainline is an underrated composition. Almost a poignant counterpoint to party-heavy counterparts, it has a solid guitar riff, only left in the background (as in Hotter than Hell), a decent chorus (sung with hesitation, though, by a shy boy Stanley) and a solid and decent guitar solo courtesy of the Ace. But that's bread and butter for KISS. Subdued songwriting quite never fulfilled their ambitions.
Two Ace compositions clear the desks towards a grand finale. Now famous due to KISS Unplugged, Comin' Home (shared with Stanley) it was originally a hot electric guitar ditty. Stanley sings the compressed composition about finding your way back, which had a country feel decades before guitars were tuned off, like Hard Luck Woman and Black Diamond. A stardust solo once again displays dexterity in a solid Hard Rock tune. Not a classic, but an above-average sensitive (!) number with everything in its right place.
Last but not least, Strange Ways is a muscular Frehley composition, a tough rocker that would improve in live versions, with his beloved whisky-soaked voice. The shaky voice-guitar composite resembles drunken Rockabilly from outer space. In studio, with Stanley singing (great choruses, with Frehley joining), the song becomes arguably shaky and stratospheric due to the rock-solid guitar licks and during the solo - one of the Ace's bluesiest. Instead of just letting it go, he relentlessly explores texture within those basic licks, alternating velocities. A fascinating end to a fascinating, if unjustly underrated, album. See ya. In the show.
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