I just got a Crap* ton of Kiss records, what are the good ones?

[Dark Castle]

Title says it all, friend was making space for more vinyls, sold me all of his Kiss records for $20.  I'll list them all and I know I'll like a few but I'm not very learned on their discography so I'd love a little help
IN ORDER of how they were stacked
Peter Criss
Gene Simmons
Ace Frehley
Paul Stanley
(Those four have Army Fan Mail on them?)
Kiss Alive II
Kiss Alive
Asylum
Lick It Up
Creatures of the Night
Kiss Unmasked
Dynasty
Love Gun
Rock and Roll Over
Destroyer
Dressed to Kill
Hotter Than Hell (In Japanese?)
Kiss
Double Platinum
Kiss My Ass

[Jaq]

Of the solo albums, Paul and Ace have the best ones. Peter's is more soft rock and Gene's all over the place.

Of the albums you listed, I liked these:

Kiss Alive
Lick It Up
Creatures of the Night
Dynasty (yes, I like this one. It's a bit overpolished and, yeah, it has a disco song, but the rest of the album's decent enough.)
Love Gun
Rock And Roll Over
Destroyer
Hotter Than Hell

Of the rest of the list:

Alive II-really a messy sounding album. Nowhere near as good as Alive
Asylum-I liked the run from Creatures to Animalize. This is kind of boring
Unmasked-a flat out pop album, and with a bland, wimpy production to boot
Kiss-their debut album. A bit uneven
Dressed to Kill-same as the debut.
Double Platnium-greatest hits album with the songs weirdly re-edited so almost all of them ended on fade outs.
Kiss My Ass-isn't this the early 90s tribute album?

[Dark Castle]

Of the solo albums, Paul and Ace have the best ones. Peter's is more soft rock and Gene's all over the place.

Of the albums you listed, I liked these:

Kiss Alive
Lick It Up
Creatures of the Night
Dynasty (yes, I like this one. It's a bit overpolished and, yeah, it has a disco song, but the rest of the album's decent enough.)
Love Gun
Rock And Roll Over
Destroyer
Hotter Than Hell

Of the rest of the list:

Alive II-really a messy sounding album. Nowhere near as good as Alive
Asylum-I liked the run from Creatures to Animalize. This is kind of boring
Unmasked-a flat out pop album, and with a bland, wimpy production to boot
Kiss-their debut album. A bit uneven
Dressed to Kill-same as the debut.
Double Platnium-greatest hits album with the songs weirdly re-edited so almost all of them ended on fade outs.
Kiss My Ass-isn't this the early 90s tribute album?

Alright, this gives me some better ground, thank you   And looking closer at the kiss my ass yeah it's a bunch of bands ranging from Garth Brooks to Anthrax covering them, it intrigues me so I'll have to pursue that one at some point, thank you again, I'll probably start popping em in while doing homework later.

[TAC]

The Ace and Paul solo albums are terrific! I would even to dare to say that there are some progressive elements on the Ace album. Lots of different time changes and all.

Obviously Alive is THE Kiss album.

My faves..Hotter Than Hell and Dynasty. The 3 Ace tracks on Dynasty are great. Hard Times

I also like Asylum a lot, although that cover is pretty queer. King Of The Mountain

[Dark Castle]

Just started the pile, decided to start with Lick It Up.  Exciter 
I think I've let my hate for Gene Simmons get in the way.  This is good stuff so far.
EDIT: I think I spent $20 in a very good way 
EDIT2: Finished Lick It Up, all I can say is    On Hotter Than Hell now.

[King Postwhore]

Alive
Destroyer
Rock and Roll All Over
Creatures of the Night
Paul and Ace's solo albums

[jjrock88]

This is the greatest 20 dollars you will have spent in your life.

My favorite 80s Kiss and favorite Kiss overall is Creatures of the Night
My favorite from the 70s is Rock n Roll Over.

[PowerSlave]

The japanese characters on Hotter Than Hell were always on the album packaging so, it's nothing unusual.

The best era of Kiss in my opinion was their debut through Love Gun. Alive 1 is often considered one of the greatest live albums of all time.

[jammindude]

I absolutely *ADORE* all three of the first three albums.   Kiss, Hotter Than Hell and Dressed to Kill.   To me, the second three were really great, but not as good as the first three (that would be Destroyer, Rock n Roll Over and Love Gun).   After that, I think they lost their freakin minds...very spotty stuff, with the occasional good track and several bad ones.  (Dynasty and Unmasked)   

Too bad you didn't get Music from the Elder.   VERY underrated album.   Kiss goes prog rock...and they do it well, it's just that "The Kiss Army" wouldn't accept it.

The comeback albums (Creatures, Lick it Up and Animalize) are all FANTASTIC.   Then after that it started to get a bit too "glam rock for my tastes...

I've never been into the solo albums.  But both Alive albums sound great to my ears.  (although I admit, 2 doesn't have the flow that 1 does).

[Dark Castle]

Destroyer has a big dent over the first two tracks, two of my favorite from Kiss   At least Detroit Rock City is on Alive II
EDIT: Looked closer, it's just over Detroit Rock City, whew

[ThroughHerEyesDude6]

I'm pretty close to what everyone else has been saying, but I'll post what I like anyways:

Kiss
Hotter Than Hell
Dressed to Kill
Alive!
Destroyer
Rock and Roll All Over
Love Gun

[BlobVanDam]

Let's face it, KISS Alive is the essential KISS listening experience. That has to be first.
The live versions are all superior to any of the studio versions, although those first 3 albums are pretty good anyway. I'm not personally a fan of the Alive 2 versions of anything, so I'd listen to Rock n Roll Over and Destroyer (and maybe Love Gun) individually.
Creatures of the Night is also a great album.

[Dark Castle]

Thanks guys, I got to tell you, I shouldn't have let my hate for Gene Simmons keep me from checking Kiss out, but hey, if my friend wants me to practically steal them from him, I'm okay with it 
Tonight I listened to:
Lick It Up
Hotter Than Hell
and Side one of Ace Frehley's solo.

[WebRaider]

You definitely got your moneys worth! 

[jjrock88]

IMO the Ace solo disc steals the show compared to the other three

[Zydar]

Man, are you in for a treat.

[Lowdz]

Gene's input in the 80s was pretty poor, he was too busy acting. Paul's stuff was great throughout the 80s though.

Paul's solo album is the best KISS album- Ace's is good too.
I love all their early albums but Hotter Than Hell, Love Gun and Unmasked are favourites.
I prefer Alive II to Alive but both are great.
Double Platinum was one of the first albums I ever owned and its probably the best o the many best ofs.

The greatest American Hard Rock band ever. Shame they'll never get the kudos though.

Gene Simmons has become a parody of himself.

[Mladen]

Love Gun
Rock and Roll Over
Destroyer
Dressed to Kill
Hotter Than Hell (In Japanese?)
Kiss

These are their first six studio albums, and all of them are really good. I'm not sure about the rest of their records, I haven't even heard them, but some fans told me not to bother... 

[BlobVanDam]

Love Gun
Rock and Roll Over
Destroyer
Dressed to Kill
Hotter Than Hell (In Japanese?)
Kiss

These are their first six studio albums, and all of them are really good. I'm not sure about the rest of their records, I haven't even heard them, but some fans told me not to bother... 

Then they're clearly not real fans.

[Mladen]

Possibly. Any particular post-Love gun albums worth listening to?

[BlobVanDam]

Revenge is my favourite KISS album of any era, and quite popular among KISS fans. Creatures of the Night is another one that's considered quite good. I personally think Dynasty is one of the better KISS albums too, although fans are generally much more divided on that one since it was the first to start deviating from their sound, so I'm not sure I should recommend that.
The rest of the later albums generally have a couple of great songs, but are generally weaker albums overall.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

Fantastic!  That is $20 WELL spent!!

The Paul and Ace solo albums are fantastic.  Kiss Alive is off the charts awesome.  Alive II, the production value isn't nearly as good.  I really liked their 80's output, and all three (Creatures, Lick It Up, and Asylum) are good, but I love Animalize.  Of the three mentioned, I like Creatures best.  Unmasked and Dynasty are a huge thumbs down for me.  Of the first 6 studio albums (Kiss, HTH, DTK, Destroyer, RNRO, and LG), Hotter Than Hell and Rock and Roll Over are my favorites.  Love Gun is probably my least favorite.

Kiss My Ass is a lot of fun.  It's cool to hear other bands' takes on classic Kiss material.  However, save this for last.  Hear all of the original versions first before you hear them redone, because some of them are WAY off of the original, like Extreme's remake of Strutter.  Of note, on Garth Brooks' cover of Hard Luck Woman, Paul and Gene are playing on the recording.

I'm with BVD on the post Love Gun Albums.  Creatures and Revenge are where it's at.  Revenge is just a flat-out bad-ass hard rock album.

ALSO, as an FYI, you need to change the thread title to censor the word "shit".  No profanity in thread titles.

[King Postwhore]

I'm with Blob and Cozmo.  Revenge and Creatures & Animalize is where it's at.

[BlobVanDam]

I Love Animalize too, although I wasn't sure how people here would appreciate the super 80s cheese of it.
For me that's half of the charm though.

[Mladen]

Revenge is my favourite KISS album of any era, and quite popular among KISS fans.

Then I guess it would be a good album to start the later-Kiss investigation with. It will happen as soon as I get tired of prog, I've been in a Porcupine tree adventure singe mid December.

[King Postwhore]

I Love Animalize too, although I wasn't sure how people here would appreciate the super 80s cheese of it.
For me that's half of the charm though.

I know.   It is a ballsy 80's album though.

[Zydar]

Music From The Elder is one of my favourite Kiss albums, if you can overlook the fact that it's Kiss who wrote and recorded it

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

I do like Music from the Elder also.  There are a couple of songs on there that are quite good.  The Oath is a pretty cool song.

Then I guess it would be a good album to start the later-Kiss investigation with. It will happen as soon as I get tired of prog, I've been in a Porcupine tree adventure singe mid December.

I don't think you'll be disappointed.  Let us know how you like it.

[Zydar]

I do like Music from the Elder also.  There are a couple of songs on there that are quite good.  The Oath is a pretty cool song.

The Oath, Odyssey, A World Without Heroes, and Dark Light are all killer tracks.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

Mr. Blackwell, I could do without.

Also, Under the Rose = Jaded Heart by Dokken:

Under the Rose (1:08)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOTUPhS7cPA#t=1m08s

Jaded Heart (2:40)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AoN5r6i190#t=2m40s

[Zydar]

Nice find!

[King Postwhore]

The Oath
I
Dark Light

Years ago I was upset they did this style of album.  Years later I enjoy the hell out of it.

Though nothing beats good groin rock like some KISS KlaSSics

[jammindude]

I never thought things got too cheesy until *AFTER* Animalize.   I mean yea, you've got that single with Heaven's On Fire...but most of the rest of it carries the same feel as Creatures and Lick It Up.     Now Asylum and Crazy Nights...THOSE were the cheese albums IMHO.

I love every single track off The Elder...and let's not forget that despite any similarities.    The Elder = 1980   Under Lock and Key = 1985.   So if anything, Dokken ripped off Kiss.   (not to mention that UL&K was, IMO Dokken's crowning achievement...and Jaded Heart is a great song in its own right)

I love all their early albums but Hotter Than Hell, Love Gun and Unmasked are favourites.

....I literally did a double take.   I have never in my lifetime see anyone list Unmasked among their favorites.    I do think it gets a bit too much hate.  It's not as terrible as people try to make it out to be.   But *favorites*?    I'm just floored that any Kiss fan could make that statement.

Do we have a 'spit take' emoticon???

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

The Elder = 1980   Under Lock and Key = 1985.   So if anything, Dokken ripped off Kiss.   (not to mention that UL&K was, IMO Dokken's crowning achievement...and Jaded Heart is a great song in its own right)

I realize that.  I wasn't saying either one ripped off the other.  I was simply pointing out the similarity between the riff in the two songs.

[TAC]

I think Unmasked is pretty terrible. Although Tomorrow is a TAC Top 10 Kiss song. I also like Naked City and Easy As It Seems, but after that...nothing