KISS recording 20th album

KISS will release their 20th studio album this year.

The 'Crazy Nights' rockers are planning to start recording the follow-up to 2009's 'Sonic Boom' in March and are hopeful the process will go as smoothly as it did on their last LP.

Guitarist Tommy Thayer said: "The great news is that we are going in the studio again in the next month or two. We are starting to work on writing some songs, approach it just like we did with 'Sonic Boom' and keep it all in the band in terms of the writing, with no agenda besides writing great rock n' roll songs that we love, then rehearsing them before then recording them. It really felt good to us so we'll go the same way this time.

"I know we are going to start working on it really soon in terms of the writing and rehearsing and we'll probably be in the studio by March, so sometime this year I'm sure you'll see a spanking new KISS album that's gonna kick some butt!"

After taking on production duties for 'Sonic Boom', the group's frontman Paul Stanley plans to do so again, which Tommy thinks is the best thing for the record.

He added in an interview with BackstageAxxess.com: "Paul knows more what a KISS record should sound like than anybody, to be honest with you, so he is going to lead the charge and produce it again and we are all really excited about it."

KISS - which features Paul and bass player Gene Simmons from the band's original line up alongside Tommy and drummer Eric Singer - took an eleven year break from recording albums between 1998 and 2009, during which they repeatedly denied they would ever make another studio record.