Hotter than Hell is the second studio album by American hard rock band Kiss, released on October 22, 1974, by Casablanca Records.

Many of the album's songs were live staples for the band, including "Parasite", "Hotter than Hell", "Let Me Go, Rock 'n' Roll", and "Watchin' You".

The production team of Kenny Kerner and Richie Wise, who had produced the group's first album, was again chosen for the follow-up.

The pair had just relocated to Los Angeles, and Kiss made the trek to the west coast to commence recording, the first the band had done outside their native state of New York.

"Goin' Blind", which details a doomed romance between a 93-year-old and a 16-year-old girl, was a song written by Simmons and Stephen Coronel during their days with Wicked Lester.

Although the album featured two songs composed and one song co-composed by lead guitarist Ace Frehley, he did not sing on any of them; his lack of confidence in his singing abilities at that time led to Frehley delegating lead vocal duties to other members of the band, with "Parasite" and "Strange Ways" going to Gene Simmons and Peter Criss, respectively.

In an interview with Songfacts' Greg Prato in 2013, Richie Wise shouldered the blame for the album's sub-par sonics.

[10] The Japanese character on the bottom of the album cover (力) is chikara, which means "power".

Despite the intense touring schedule Kiss maintained in 1974, Hotter than Hell failed to outperform the band's first album and fared considerably worse.

The only single released from the album, "Let Me Go, Rock 'n' Roll", was distributed in low numbers and failed to chart.

Four months after the album was released, Kiss was pulled off of the tour and called back into the studio to record a follow-up.