Hotter Than Hell by Kiss

Hotter than Hell, Kiss's second studio album, hit the racks on Casablanca on October 22, 1974, cut by the original greasepaint four: Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons trading lead vocals from guitar and bass, Ace Frehley on lead guitar and Peter Criss behind the kit. This was the New York band that painted up as comic-book characters (the Starchild, the Demon, the Space Ace and the Catman) and breathed fire and spat blood on stage, and the record tries to bottle that racket: fat, stomping hard rock with a snotty proto-punk sneer and a glam strut.

There was no hit single to carry it, and it stalled at No. 100 on the Billboard 200, but it kept moving, shipping enough to go gold on June 23, 1977. The songs outlived the chart run, too: "Parasite", the title track, "Let Me Go, Rock 'n' Roll" and "Watchin' You" became fixtures of the live show.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.