Kiss drifted away from their hard rock roots in the late 70's to dabble in disco (Dynasty, 1979), pop-rock (Unmasked, 1980) and concept albums (Music from "The Elder", 1981) before realizing that most of their original fans had bailed somewhere along the journey. So they did the sensible thing and returned with a balls-out rock album. But it was really too little, too late: original drummer Peter Criss left in 1980, and guitar-whiz Ace Frehley ceased working with the group in early 1982 - partly in protest against the late 70's musical direction of the band, but mainly because of his descent into alcoholism.
Despite appearing on the cover and in the "I Love It Loud" music video, the Space Ace didn't play a single note on this album, (much to my dismay when I found out years later). Session guitarist Vinnie Vincent replaced Frehley on this album, adding some heavy chops to "Rock & Roll Hell", "Danger" and "War Machine", while Paul & Gene carved up vocal duties.
It all effectively died (for me anyway) in 1983 when Kiss took the make-up off and became yet another cheesy 80's hair-metal band - but I'm glad they managed to get this full make-up, heavy rock album out with Ace's face on it before the magic disappeared....
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