10 Legendary Rock Bands With Sophomore Slump Albums

Part of the problem with KISS' first few records came down to the way that they sounded. While the band themselves looked absolutely terrifying on all of the promotional photos for the record, things didn't really get up and running until they exploded with their live album Alive!, which brought the band's spectacle into everyone's living room. And while their first records weren't too shabby, it wouldn't be surprising if Hotter Than Hell flopped from production alone.

After having a balanced sound on their first album, recording outside of New York made for a disaster on this record, especially with the bass sounding so in your face on every track. Which is a shame considering that the songs themselves are actually pretty decent. Sounding much better on Alive!, we're just hearing the worst possible versions of these songs, where the bass overtakes everything else and guitars that almost sound out of tune on a handful of tracks.

The guys in the band weren't really big fans of this kind of production either, with Paul Stanley complaining years later that he wished that they had taken a second pass at mixing the whole thing. You can definitely hear the shift on Dressed to Kill as well, going back to New York and getting a sound that was a lot more crisp. The songwriting was on the right track, but they definitely needed someone behind the desk for this record to keep everything in check.