Finally, Universal releases the most comprehensive Kiss collection (not including the 4-cd "Kiss Box Set") to date. Those who already own the individual Kiss remastered cd's will no doubt have no need for this collection, so this is mostly for those who want the "cream of the crop" of Kiss material on two discs without buying the individual cd's. Surpassing all other collections (including 1978's "Kiss Double Platinum" album) this 2-cd set covers the best of Kiss from 1974 to 1982. Some gems included on this superb 40 track collection are "Strutter" (the original, not the '78 version), "Deuce", "Black Diamond" (the full length album version), "Firehouse", "Parasite", "Hotter Than Hell", "C'mon And Love Me", "She", "Anything For My Baby", "Rock Bottom" (From "Kiss Alive"), "Cold Gin" (From "Kiss Alive"), "Rock And Roll All Nite" (From "Kiss Alive"), "Detroit Rock City", "Shout It Out Loud", "Beth", "King Of The Night Time World", "Do You Love Me?", "I Want You", "Calling Dr. Love", "Hard Luck Woman", "I Stole Your Love", "Love Gun", "Christine Sixteen", "God Of Thunder (From "Kiss Alive II"), "Makin' Love" (From "Kiss Alive II"), "I Was Made For Loving You", "Sure Know Something", "Shandi", "A World Without Heros" plus more. You even get one song from each of Gene, Peter, Paul and Ace's solo albums that were released in 1978. The remastering is excellent with crisp highs, increased midrange, bass and extended output. This Kiss compilation would be a nice addition to any classic rock lover's cd collection.

THE BAND: Paul Stanley (guitar, vocals), Gene Simmons (bass, vocals), Ace Frehley (guitar, vocals), Peter Criss (drums, percussion, vocals).

THE DISC: (2005) 2-disc set containing 40 tracks and clocking in at approximately 151 minutes combined (77+ minutes on disc 1, 74+ minutes on disc 2). Digitally remastered sound. Included is an 18-page booklet containing a brief 3-page intro, several band pictures, song titles and credits, and which songs came from what albums along and the date released. Label - Mercury.

ALBUM REPRESENTATION: Kiss (5), Hotter Than Hell (3), Dressed To Kill (3), Alive! (4), Destroyer (5), Rock & Roll Over (3), Love Gun (4), Alive-2 (2), Solo albums (1 each), Dynasty (2), Unmasked (2), Music From The Elder (1), Killers (2).

COMMENTS: As of this release, I believe this to be the 9th 'best of' compilation from KISS. (I have to say) How much is enough? However, regardless of the numbers, this is the best package out there from the original 4 members (not counting the 4-disc "Box" set). Perhaps a 3-disc compilation is in the works down the road encompassing their entire career... but I haven't seen it as of 2006. For the casual fan looking for highlights, I believe this disc along with the "Millennium Collection - Vol. 2" (a great sampling of their best 80's material) would be the way to go. It's nice to see the inclusion of their 4 solo albums from '78 included here. Ace's "New York Groove" was a huge hit for him and deserving to be here, but I sorely missed his rocker "Rip It Out". Same with Paul's song "Tonight You Belong To Me"... great tune, but I missed his upbeat "It's Alright". As good as this "Gold" collection is, it's not with fault... it's a crime that there are some classic tunes missing; "Mr. Speed", "Take Me", "Watchin' You", "100,000 Years", "Room Service", "Goin' Blind", "Got Love For Sale", "Flaming Youth", "Sweet Pain", "All American Man", etc. The only other disappointment is when I read it was 1974-82, I had to assume there would be tunes from "Creatures Of The Night" (1982) on it. The only thing I can think of is that it had too many players (not all 4 original members) on too many different songs and was thus not included. Footnote - not all songs (excluding the solo albums) feature only the original 4 members... Anton Fig played drums on the selected tracks from "Dynasty" and "Unmasked"; Eric Carr played drums on tracks from "The Elder" and "Killers"; Bob Kulick played guitar in place of Ace on tracks from "Killers". I know that with any compilation you'll have hits and misses, but this disc is for the most part dead on accurate. For casual fans this would be the place to start. For die hard fans, I think this would be essential only to have so many great songs (with remastered crisp sound) from so many albums all in one place. Great pair of discs (4.5 stars).

Finally, after almost 30 years of average or sub-par "greatest hits" collections of KISS music, the die-hard and novice fan can now look forward to the owning the very best "best of" collection yet assembled.

If you're a novice fan, you may have noticed that there are eight--count 'em--EIGHT different "greatest hits" albums of KISS that have been released since 1978. A brief description as to why they don't measure up and why KISS GOLD blows them all out of the water:

DOUBLE PLATINUM (1978) was the first release, but it only covers hits up to 1978, and some of the songs have been dubiously remixed and altered from the original album versions. Still, until now, it was probably the best of the bunch.

KISS KILLERS (1982) was a shoddy, import-only release, with an ELDER-era (???) cover photo, a bare-minimum of actual hits and four unreleased tracks that the average or novice fan can do without.

SMASHES, THRASHES & HITS (1988) was a controversial collection, as Paul and Gene seemed intent on wiping the memory of Peter and Ace from the public's consciousness. A somewhat stronger selection of hits (it covers the '80s era, too), but tempered by the inclusion of two "new" songs and an Eric Carr performance of "Beth" (take THAT, Peter Criss!).

GREATEST KISS (1997) has probably the weakest selection of songs out of all the "Best Of" discs ("Two Sides of the Coin"--WTF???)... the only notable inclusion is a 1996 live performance of "Shout It Out Loud" from their Reunion Tour.

THE KISS BOX SET (2000) obviously is too expensive and top-heavy for the average fan, and while all their hits are included (up to and including their '90s input), the few weak outtake and rarities tracks left a lot to be desired for the die-hard KISS fan who was looking forward to a treasure-trove of unreleased material.

THE VERY BEST OF KISS (2002) is probably the second-best disc for the novice fan (it includes some '80s hits), but again, given the wealth of KISS material, this should have easily been a 2-disc set the first time around.

Then you have two volumes of the "20th Century Millennium" collections, which are strictly bare-bones affairs.

Which brings us to KISS GOLD...

While it doesn't include any '80s or '90s hits (post-KILLERS), it should be noted that the subtitle of KISS GOLD is "1974-1982," which means a "1982-1998" collection is most likely in the works. Until then, this is best, greatest, most essential version of a "Best of KISS" disc that has EVER been released. You get a generous sampling of ALL their major releases from 1974 to 1982, INCLUDING their live albums, solo projects and even the afore-mentioned KISS KILLERS import album. There are AT LEAST 1 or 2 cuts from EVERY album they've ever released, and as much as 5 from one album. To top it off, they did a fantastic job of putting together a full-color 20-page booklet, filled with gorgeous '70s-era photographs and comprehensive liner notes.

While one may scoff at the umpteenth (okay, NINTH) "Greatest Hits" release of KISS, even this life-long fan can honestly, thankfully tell you that KISS, Mercury and Universal have at last given us our money's worth. If you're a die-hard, and already own the afore-mentioned CD's, there's no reason why you shouldn't pick-up KISS GOLD and chuck (or sell) at least HALF of those other discs. If you're a brand-new, novice fan and are wondering what all the fuss is about KISS, well, now you have the ESSENTIAL disc to get started with. After years of rip-offs, they FINALLY got it right.

Probably one of the most definiative Kiss packages out there. We'll worth the price, and has a DVD to boot! If you're looking for an all in one Kiss package, "Kiss Gold" is all you need.

"Kiss Gold" has nearly all of the key tracks from their crucial makeup period (1974-1982) and includes big hits like "Beth", "Calling Dr. Love", "Hard Luck Woman", "I Was Made for Lovin' You", and "Rock & Roll All Nite".

One minor down side is that selections from their last makeup era record, "Creatures of the Night" are absent. Creatures was probably one of their strongest recordings after the glossy pop of "Unmasked" and the lackluster "Music from the Elder". Towards the end of the 70's Kiss albums in general started to get a bit thin and poppy. As a result, they created this amazing piece of heavy metal called "Creatures of the Night", which was released right before they took their makeup off. Creatures contains classics like "I Love It Loud", "War Machine" and the self titled track. Any selections from Creatures would have greatly boosted the appeal and value of this package.

Still, there are 2 cds here chock full of amazing hard rock. What makes this package even more attractive than most of the other Kiss compilations out there, is the inclusion of lesser known tracks which will be a very pleasant surprise to the casual Kiss fan, tracks like: Ace Frehley's "Talk To Me" a highlight from "Unmasked", "Nowhere To Run" a hard rocker from 1982's "Killers" compilation, and the funky "New York Groove" from Ace's 1978 solo Kiss album.

In the end you cant go wrong with this offering. It's far superior in my opinion to any of the other Kiss packages out there including "Greatest Kiss", "Smashes, Thrashes, & Hits" and "Double Platinum". Short of the pricey "Box Set", this is the best place to start exploring the Hottest Band In The World...KISS!

The only reason to get this collection, as with many collections , they put ONE unreleased track. Well, this contains the single version of "Radioactive" without the cool satanic intro. All you old fans like me who bought ALL the singles because SOMETHING was always different about the single mixes. (A Major example is "Strutter '78, TOTALLY different mix than Double Platinum") So "radioactive starts with that cool guitar chuggin' I loved so much on the single. Too bad ya have to buy a 2 CD set to get one damn alternate version. Man, I wish Universal, Def Jam or whoever will put out a true singles version CD collection. And include the extended seven plus minute version of "I Was Made For Lovin' You" only available on the rare import "Chikara" or the four song import CD single of "Psycho Circus", which also has a cool mix of "Rasie Your Glasses". Look on Amazon here for it (Mercury 566 465-2)