By 1982, Ace Frehley had departed Kiss, retaining his 1/4 interests with the band until 1985 when his contract expired. Free to do whatever he wanted, he formed a band with Anton Fig, John Regan, Richie Scarlet, and Arthur Stead. The group would alter between using Frehley's name, and Frehley's Comet. Though they would record demos, and perform live shows, the lineup would change when the band ultimately singed with Megaforce Records.
Now consisting of Frehley, Tod Howarth, Regan, and Fig, their debut, Frehley's Comet would be a much-needed success and revitalization of Frehley's career. The album would peak at number forty-three on the Billboard 200, only solidifying my opinion that he was always the true talent of Kiss. The band's cover of Russ Ballard's Into The Night would also peak on the Rock Charts at twenty-seven, while the semi-autobiographical Rock Soldiers music video would see moderate rotation on MTV.
To support the album, the band headed out on tour. However, Fig, who had accepted the full time offer as drummer for David Letterman's talk show band, would only be sporadically available, leading to his departure midway through. Billy Ward would be brought in to fill his shoes and also appear in promotional music videos.
Things start out with Rock Soldiers, which is a fantastic track to set the tone of things to come. However, what I noticed with track two, is that Frehley had definitely taken a page from his previous co-workers, Paul Stanley, and Gene Simmons. Much like Kiss albums, lead vocals rotate between Frehley and Tod Howarth from song to song. Ironically, Howarth would also make a convincing Stanley. They sound very similar.
While the album as a whole is a very satisfying rock pop mixture, there are a lot of standout tracks for sure. For the Frehley sung tunes, those are the aforementioned Rock Soldiers, Into The Night, and Dolls. While Howarth has Breakout and Calling You.
Despite its success, Frehley's Comet wasn't able to maintain much momentum in the 80's. Part of this may have been a result of the ongoing substance abuses of Frehley himself. Their follow up, 1988's Second Sighting wouldn't yield any charting singles. Its correlating tour would also see the band running out of money, ultimately cancelling appearances. With a mess on their hands, a rift was inevitable, but that, as I've said many times before, is a story for tomorrow.
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