Kiss - Worst to Best (all studio albums ranked) + audio samples

Welcome to another installment in the WORST TO BEST series. I review every album as a musician as I am a singer, song-writer and a bass-player, so you can expect slightly alternative viewpoint. It won't be the right one. Or the wrong one. Simply a different one. This time I decided to order all of the studio albums from one of the rock's greatest - KISS from worst to best. Enjoy :)
This video took hell of a lot of time to get ready for, to edit and to put up on YT, actually, this is the longest worst-to-best (20 albums for goodness' sake!) I've done to date so please remember this before posting any hateful comments - we all have our own opinions, no need to be possessive about them.
Also, I may be a bit breathy every now and then - the room I'm recording in is super dry and when talking for more then an hour, well, let's just say it wasn't the most ideal choice for making the video in :)
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[@aaronshoaf4644]

Really like how you put both Unmasked and Crazy Nights in your top 10. Both are top 5 for me. Really love your list!

[@rjakobej]

Thanks :-)

[@kevinbrown1893]

1. Destroyer 2. Hotter Than Hell 3. KISS 4. Dressed to Kill 5. Rock and Roll Over 6. Creatures of The Night 7. Dynasty 8. Music From The Elder 9. Love Gun 10. Lick It Up 11. Psycho Circus 12. Carnival of Souls 13. Revenge 14. Animalize 15. Asylum 16. Unmasked 17. Monster 18. Sonic Boom 19. Hot In The Shade 20. Crazy Nights

[@rjakobej]

Nice, and great to see MFTE so high up :-)

[@abwitvliet8809]

Great Ranking! Your honest personal opinion 🎼👍 As you say, every list is different. Here is mine: 1 Kiss - 1974 2 Destroyer 3 Music from the Elder 4 Dynasty 5 Hotter than hell 6 Dressed to kill 7 Love gun 8 Rock and roll over 9 Unmasked 10 Creatures of the night 11 Psycho circus 12 Carnival of souls 13 Crazy nights 14 Hot in the shade 15 Lick it up 16 Animalize 17 Asylum 18 Revenge 19 Sonic boom 20 Monster

[@rjakobej]

Thank you! Cool list, it's great to see MFTE so high up on the list!

[@JCStorm76]

Incredible ranking. Never seen anything like it and I’ve watched a lot of these. I’ve always respected you and your page so you’ll get no criticism from me. Plus the whole way you’ve put this video together is fantastic. Here’s mine, just my opinion. 1. Rock n Roll Over 2. Creatures Of The Night 3. Love Gun 4. Hotter Than Hell 5. Destroyer 6. KISS 7. Lick It Up 8. Dressed To Kill 9. Dynasty 10. Psycho Circus 11. Asylum 12. Unmasked 13. Music From The Elder 14. Hot In The Shade 15. Revenge 16. Crazy Nights 17. Monster 18. Sonic Boom 19. Animalize 20. Carnival Of Souls

[@rjakobej]

Thanks a lot! 🙂 And cool list, I don't think I've seen anyone having your No. 1. Maybe I'll give it another spin sometimes.

[@JCStorm76]

@@rjakobej Yes I think it could grow on you and you might rank it higher next time who knows!

[@JCStorm76]

@@rjakobej By the way Hard Luck Woman was a pretty big hit it made the US top 15

[@rjakobej]

I know but still, it should be more notoriously known. When I heard it for the first time (while listening to the album mind you) I was like: holy shit, that's an amazing song! How come I've never heard it before? (Like some of their other songs). But on the other hand, it made for a nice surprise. Imagine listening to Dynasty never having heard the big hit before. 🙂

[@JCStorm76]

@@rjakobej Yes and it’s from my number one album of course. I agree obviously, I actually think it’s an even better song than Beth

[@themindseyecmh]

Very interesting list, but that's what makes it fun, to see everyone else's opinions! My list: 20. Unmasked 19. Hot In the Shade 18. Sonic Boom 17. Revenge 16. Psycho Circus 15. Carnival of Souls 14. Creatures of the Night 13. KISS 12. Crazy Nights 11. Music From "The Elder" 10. Rock N Roll Over 9. Monster 8. Dressed To Kill 7. Animalize 6. Asylum 5. Lick It Up 4. Dynasty 3. Love Gun 2. Hotter Than Hell 1. Destroyer

[@rjakobej]

Wow, totally different list from mine but as you said - that's kinda the point :-)

[@blastkill]

Gday from Down Under, mate! What a refreshingly different ranking. Most of the time, I see the 70s stuff put on a pedestal. There's a lot of good shit on those earlier LPs, but Revenge, Creatures, and LIU are probably my 3 favourites.

[@rjakobej]

hi, thank you :) How would you rank all of their albums?

[@billyblanch9642]

It's great to see someone who is honest with their picks . Most list's look the same I nearly never agree with . I wouldn't have the same as you but I respect your list .

[@rjakobej]

thanks, it's sad that not many people are like that. What's your list?

[@paulhackett7015]

Yeah dude, love this list. Hotter than Hell would be higher up the list, and Crazy Nights would be a little lower, but I totally get this.

[@rjakobej]

Thanks a lot :-)

[@nerdywithautism99]

I love how different this Kiss Studio Album Ranking it is such a great video well done. I do agree with Music from the Elder it is so unique and different. My favorite track on Music from the Elder is Mr. Blackwell it is so dark with spooky elements Kiss fans should listen to Mr. Blackwell with the lights off in the dark it is quite the experience... I am going to give you a quick detailed ranking of just the 70's Kiss and what I like and don't like 1. Love Gun: This album is so great with a ton of catchy songs like tomorrow and tonight very catchy chorus hook in that song. My favorite track on there is Ace Frehley's sung song Shock Me. 9.5/10 2. Rock & Roll Over: This album is great and heavy throughout. the standout tracks for me is Peter Criss sung song Baby Driver really catchy guitar riff in that song Calling Dr. Love Gene Simmons sung track and I want you sung by Paul Stanley. 9.0/10 3. Dressed to Kill: This is a great album the production is a little better than the previous two albums. I love the opening song Room Service catchy and great lyrics my main negative is the song Rock & Roll all night is over played and Ace Frehley has no guitar solo on that album I like the Alive version better because there's a guitar solo by Ace Frehley. 8.3/10 4. Kiss Debut Album 1974: This is such a classic album even though the production on this album is weak it is still a great entertaining album... It has such great tracks like Cold Gin, Fire House, Deuce, and Strutter the weaker tracks are Kissing Time and Love Theme from Kiss are horrible songs... 8.5/10 5. Destroyer: It is an average album Great Expectations is not as strong like Detroit Rock City or Shout it Out Loud I do love Peter Criss's sung song Beth great tungs on your heart strings. 5.0/10 6. Dynasty: It is a ok album with a few solid tracks my main issue is is people thinking it's a disco album it is not a disco album it's like having a two breads and mustard and mayonnaise and cheese without the meat and calling it a sandwich... Dirty Livin fantastic Peter Criss Sung Song... I was made for loving you It is decent... 4.5/10 7. Hotter than Hell: Is a horrible album the production sounds like shit and I do enjoy the title track, and Parasite, and Going Blind sung by Gene Simmons the rest I hate... 2.1/10 There's my ranking of the 70's Kiss I'm not a huge fan of the 80's material of Kiss it is Ok minus Music from the Elder. I didn't include the 1978 solo albums because I don't consider them kiss albums...

[@rjakobej]

thanks a lot! and also for the detailed input. Not a fan of the 90s as well?

[@dirkvanderpoel6797]

Interesting ranking you did! Carnival almost reached your top ten while so many people don't like this album at all

[@rjakobej]

Thanks. Even the band is against it. At the end of the day, artists reinventing themselves can be a good thing.

[@literacylabyrinth4018]

Thanks for giving The Elder such a high ranking. Its my fave Kiss after Alive and third I rank Alive 2. Great video. But my top 3 studio features Creatures of the Night and Destroyer. Then the makeup years in no particular order followed by non makeup era starting with Revenge down to Crazy Nights. Then reunion era with Psycho Circus.

[@rjakobej]

Always nice to see some love for The Elder :-)

[@Ragnarocker80s]

Creatures of the Night is a Heavy Metal album and similar to Thin LiZZy Thunder and Lightning both were released in the similar years

[@user-kh3fv7qg8q]

I got say that I've seen many Kiss rankings and none was quit like yours. It's insane to me watching your Ranking because I would make it totally different but so is taste in music. I would never put Hot In The Shade so high. I think animalize is kinda underrated besides most of the gene songs and Love Gun and Rock And Roll Over are at least top 10 Kiss albums for me. But I respect your opinion. Good vid.

[@rjakobej]

It's all subjective. Most of the rankings seem to be based on the "general consensus" and that's why with Kiss for example it's always the 70's albums at the top. Thanks for watching and for being open-minded. Too many people are furiously possessive about their opinions, so kudos to you!

[@RAlanBryan2112]

Revenge and Creatures have been my top two albums since 1997 or so.... Our only major difference is that you like Crazy Nights more than I do...

[@rjakobej]

Cool, you can put here your whole list if you want to :-)

[@RAlanBryan2112]

@@rjakobej 20. Hot in the Shade 19. The Elder 18. Sonic Boom 17. Monster 16. Carnival of Souls 15. Crazy Nights 14. Animalize 13. Psycho Circus 12. Asylum 11. Unmasked 10. Dynasty 9. Love Gun 8. Destroyer 7. Rock and Roll Over 6. Dressed to Kill 5. Hotter Than Hell 4. Lick It Up 3. KISS (debut) 2. Creatures of the Night 1. REVENGE ... I am 62 and a long time Hard Rock/Prog Rock / Punk Rock / Glam Rock fan. I just discovered your page. Thanks for your insight as a musician.

[@rjakobej]

@@RAlanBryan2112 interesting and somewhat unorthodox list, I love it. Thanks :-)

[@metaloverkill6217]

Interesting ranking. I heavily disagree with your bottom 5 but I pretty much agree with your top spots. About to make a video on them soon but I have a rough draft ranking here 1. Creatures of the Night (1982) 2. Asylum (1985) 3. Love Gun (1977) 4. KISS (1974) 5. Revenge (1992) 6. Rock and Roll Over (1976) 7. Lick It Up (1983) 8. Hotter Than Hell (1974) 9. Dressed to Kill (1975) 10. Crazy Nights (1987) 11. Animalize (1984) 12. Destroyer (1976) 13. Psycho Circus (1998) 14. Hot in the Shade (1989) 15. Dynasty (1979) 16. Music from the Elder (1981) 17. Unmasked (1980) 18. Monster (2012) 19. Sonic Boom (2009) 20. Carnival of Souls (1997)

[@rjakobej]

Interesting list! Nice to see some overlooked albums up there (Revenge). Good luck with the video 🙂

[@AlexThorn]

Lmao I could feel the kiss army losing their mind when you said shock me is forgettable. I agree with you.

[@rjakobej]

Hehe, this is a very anti-kiss-army-general-consensus kind of a list anyway :-D

[@gregv2k]

Great rankings, and Creatures is where it belongs, at the top. It’s everything a KISS album should be and the production is unmatched.

[@rjakobej]

thanks :)

[@peterjohansen3853]

Great video king,thank you for putting Crazy nights up there. My no 1 is Revenge and ironically I prefere the 70s albums.

[@rjakobej]

Thank you. What's your whole list?

[@kevinmyles6369]

Holy cow! Incredible ranking! Love how it is so different from everyone else 😃👍👍 your own band sounds very nice too. Wish I could purchase your digi somewhere, man! 🤘

[@rjakobej]

Thanks a lot! What's your ranking? Digital releases, if you're interested, are probably best through Bandcamp: iakobei.bandcamp.com/album/pursuits-in-1ife The first album is there and a few singles. The new album will drop this summer :-)

[@kevinmyles6369]

@@rjakobej great! Will do! Only got couple KISS albums so I can give you my top 5: 5. Dynasty 4. Carnival Of Souls 3. Creatures Of The Night 2. The Elder 1. Kiss Alive Wild card: Destroyer, Hotter than hell This list changes quite a bit cuz so many great memorable songs! We'll miss them as they're wrapping up 50 years with very final concert end of this year. I'm also a musician, playing guitar for almost 30 years and constantly in bands.. 🙂👍👍

[@rjakobej]

@@kevinmyles6369 nice to see some love for Music From The Elder! Also COS - not many talk about it. :) Cool, let me know your thoughts about my music if you have time :)

[@kevinmyles6369]

@@rjakobej will do. Let you know. Any plans for your band this year besides new release? Any plans touring or too expensive? K

[@rjakobej]

@@kevinmyles6369 we're gonna have some gigs but a tour is not that possible. That requires a team and at this point I'm more or less doing everything alone (apart from other instruments being played by other musicians). Maybe once.

[@leswadley6792]

Paul should have written songs for other people during the 80s! I personally think radio just wasn’t ever going to give kiss major air play! Songs like crazy crazy nights, my way, turn on the night,could have been big hits in the states with other artists doing them!

[@rjakobej]

Hm, maybe, but they had quite a few radio hits from before. Besides, his vocal performance on these tracks is probably his best.

[@teledan105]

“Tomorrow and Tonight”, “Getaway”, and “Room Service” he likes, but from those albums that are mostly pretty good, I think those tunes are misses.

[@rjakobej]

I'm not sure I understand.

[@erictorresetd]

I think a lot of fans are not gonna like your list. I respect the fact that it's different and very personal. Mine's similar, love their late 70s and early 80s stuff from Dynasty to Lick it Up but also love their 1st 2 albums. And happy to see Crazy Nights that high. Many KISS fans put this album near the bottom but I really love it, specially I'll Fight Hell to Hold You. And The Elder is a masterpiece as you said. Great video.

[@rjakobej]

Thanks a lot! Yeah, maybe even Kiss themselves wouldn't like this ranking very much hehe. If you have time, let me know your list 🙂

[@erictorresetd]

@@rjakobej I don't include the last 3 (Psycho Circus, Sonic Boom and Monster) I'm not really into that albums 1-Creatures of the Night 2-Music from The Elder 3-Dynasty 4-Hotter than Hell 5-Kiss 6-Crazy Nights 7-Revenge 8-Lick it Up 9-Destroyer 10-Unmasked 11-Hot In the Shade 12-Rock and Roll Over 13-Love Gun 14-Asylum 15-Animalize 16-Carnival of Souls 17-Dressed to Kill

[@rjakobej]

Nice, huge thumbs up for Music from the Elder being so high! :-)

[@erictorresetd]

@@rjakobej MFTE is not a good KISS album but an excellent album on its own, sounds progressive IMO. Always been one of my favorites from any band.

[@rjakobej]

@@erictorresetd I can only agree.

[@user-xv8jv7on2h]

The Vinnie Vincent Invasion albums are the best, I remember when the first one came out and it was nothing I had heard before - way ahead of its time. Even Kerrang magazine gave it the best wrap ever. Agree the 1st one is my go to album. Shame his talent was not acknowledged as much as his attitude. I mean at the end of the day it is his guitar genius everyone talks about from Mark Slaughter to the guitar duo of Iron Maiden and I quote "his playing was unbelievable, better then anyone I've heard". I guess that says it all 🤟🎸

[@rjakobej]

His first 2 (and only) albums are both top class hard rock. Doesn't get much better than that. Slaughter was formed from the second album and while the band was surely great, it was nowhere close to VVI.

[@mrrandy1]

did you buy the new boxset of Creatures of the Night?

[@rjakobej]

no, in the last 6 years or so I'm of belief that bands like Kiss, Led Zeppelin, Metallica and so on - don't need our support anymore. Their legacy will never go away and they are unbelievably rich. I love supporting bands and I buy CDs and LPs but from artists that actually need it.

[@peterjohansen3853]

Merry Christmas Btw and a happy New year 😊

[@rjakobej]

Thank you, merry Christmas and happy new year to you too :-)

[@jimilove7773]

Kiss are iconic !

[@user-xv8jv7on2h]

Champion for acknowledgement of Vinnie Vincent talet as a guitar maestro and separating from his personality - which we all know was difficult.

[@rjakobej]

His 2 albums from the 80's are among the best rock albums. Better than anything from Kiss.

[@catsofsherman1316]

You lost me when you said 70s Kiss overrated and 80s was best. I'm not big on non makeup period Kiss so I checked out. Taste is relative. Cheers.

[@rjakobej]

I think it's important to go into videos like these not expecting the same opinion as yours. Different opinions make it fun and give you a different perspective :-)

[@jimilove7773]

elder rules! Euro metal went kiss and kiss went euro metal! You got the Japanese release in America The oath opened the alum!

[@rjakobej]

it certainly does! Nice to see some love for that record.

[@jafl2183]

Great Intro..truth

[@rjakobej]

Thanks 🤘

[@Charles-hz8qr]

My top 10 10 love gun 9 asylum 8 hotter then hell 7 rock and roll over 6 creatures of the night 5 dressed to kill 4 kiss 1974 3 lick it up 2 animalize 1 destroyer

[@rjakobej]

Interesting, animalize so high up - I think I've never seen it before. Cool

[@richardpalmer7870]

I forgot how much better Thrills In The Night is on the Animalized Live Concert.

[@rjakobej]

I'll check it out

[@richardpalmer7870]

@@rjakobej it just benefits so much from being just a tad more up-tempo

[@richardpalmer7870]

@@rjakobej kzbin.info/www/bejne/n5WXi4ygm8ahfNE

[@jimilove7773]

Vinnie was the man! G and P feared him!

[@rjakobej]

A weird person (more so in the last couple of years/decades) but those 2 albums with him + his 2 solo albums - rock music doesn't get much better than that

[@davidpack4158]

Yaaawwwnn

[@rjakobej]

do you have your own videos where I could go watch and yawn? Oh yeah, didn't think so :D

[@troywindle8308]

The non make up album are better than the make up 1s, kiss fan since 77

[@rjakobej]

Very refreshing opinion :-)

[@bjrnkarehilmen8406]

Leprous realeased a new song on youtube today. Its called Castaway Angels. You should check it out.

[@rjakobej]

I have already seen it. It's great. But please, if it's not too much trouble, try to keep the conversation under this (or any) video about the artist it is about and if you have some different-related stuff/tips/suggestions, write me a mail or a message :)

[@heavymetal6910]

01:43

[@rjakobej]

01:42

[@bjrnkarehilmen8406]

Can you react to the band AVIATIONS with the song Outliers, it is from the EP Retrospect. You will really love this band and this song. I hope you will check it out.

[@rjakobej]

Thanks for the tip, will try to check it out.

[@jafl2183]

Dtk...19?... oh man

[@rjakobej]

Dtk... not 19 for you... oh man

[@antonydick6057]

get over your intro... Far too long...

[@rjakobej]

these videos take about 20-30 hours to make, the self-promotion at the beginning is about the only thing I get out of it. Putting it in the middle would make more sense though (looking at it retrospectively). Thanks for staying after the intro!

[@nville8795]

Musician does not equal taste...I dont care if you are the pope...

[@rjakobej]

Commenting does not equal having anything to say...I don't care if you're too immature to accept someone else's opinion...

[@marksantucci4230]

First?

[@rjakobej]

Second?

[@therockbeast6214]

@@rjakobej 3rd