As far as KISS comps go, this is one of the better ones and if you are newbie to the band, this is not a bad intro. Other then that not necessary at all and received it from Columbia Records when I did not return the card.

Yawn... another KISS compilation! Yay! Zzzzzzzzz......

KISS - The Very Best Of KISS
2002 Mercury/UTV Records

Yes, yes, just what the world needs, ANOTHER Kiss compilation. However, this is a good career retrospective for those who are only interested in the hits and some fan favorites. This one is better the Greatest Kiss. Better song selection. Far superior artwork. The disc is a little lacking of 80's material. "Creatures of the Night", "Tears Are Falling" and "Crazy Nights" could have been included. Considering the band had some say in this compilation, I am shocked that "New York Groove" made the cut while nothing from Gene or Paul's solo records.

As with any KISS release, there was tons of merchandise with this one. I actually have a Hasting's Gift Card with this cover on it.

As much as I want to say "Just another crappy compilation", I actually really like this one. This was the album that introduced me to the wonderful world of KISS. Okay, so it didn't have any new stuff, but so what? It's not an album for longtime fans, but for a newcomer like me, it's perfect.

I just have it for the collection.

KISS – Symphony Alive IV
2003 KISS Records/Sanctuary
DISC ONE
Act I
1. Deuce" (4:14)
2. Strutter" (3:22)
3. Let Me Go Rock & Roll" (6:09)
4. Lick It Up" (5:12)
5. Calling Dr. Love" (3:30)
6. Psycho Circus" (5:12)
Act II: Melbourne Symphony Ensemble
7. Beth" (3:40)
8. Forever" (3:50)
9. Goin' Blind" (3:38)
10. Sure Know Something" (4:20)
11. Shandi" (3:39)
DISC TWO
Act III: Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
12. Detroit Rock City" ( 4:49)
13. King of the Night Time World" (3:30)
14. Do You Love Me" ( 4:10)
15. Shout It Out Loud" (4:09)
16. God of Thunder" (4:26)
17. Love Gun" (4:25)
18. Black Diamond" (7:11)
19. Great Expectations" (4:19)
20. I Was Made for Lovin' You" (4:59)
21. Rock and Roll All Nite" (7:21)



According to the box set, KISS was set to release Alive IV in 2002. As we know, that didn’t happen due to issues at Mercury/Island/Def Jam. That was also to be the end of KISS as we knew it, as the band had finished the “Farewell” tour. As we also know, that didn’t happen. KISS just went on with Tommy “Gopher” Thayer in Ace’s makeup and Peter behind the drums. KISS decided to go down under and record a live album with a full orchestra. The resulting concert was released as Symphony Alive IV on two disc CD, DVD and single disc CD and the Alive IV with all four original members that I wanted to hear was shelved.



The album is divided into three acts. The first act is KISS playing as we know them in full make up with pyro and the amps to “11”. The songs in act one sound terrific live. Tommy pretty much plays Ace note for note. Psycho Circus is the only song that hadn’t been released on a live album (to this point) and sound great live. Gene and Paul sound terrific too. I also want to give a shout out to Peter – he is playing MUCH better than he did live during the 70’s! His timing is much better and doesn’t play at the “I just did an 8-ball of coke before the show” speed he used to. Peter sound really good on this disc and his playing during the reunion on with KISS has been excellent.



The second act is KISS with the Melbourne Symphony Ensemble, basically it’s KISS unplugged with a few orchestra instruments thrown in. The songs sound great, especially the criminally underrated track “Sure Know Something”. Since KISS is in Australia, they also play “Shandi” which is still a AWESOME guilty pleasure track.



Act III features KISS features KISS with the full Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. The “full orchestra” set features 6 songs from Destroyer (along with Beth, that makes 7 total on the album. Just “Flaming Youth” and “Sweet Pain” are missing). Bob Ezrin’s work with KISS on the Destroyer album did originally feature some orchestration and it makes sense that the majority of the full orchestra tracks would come from Destroyer. Heck, KISS could have hired Bob to work on the show! The folks KISS hired probably cost a lot less!!! Well, the Destroyer songs sound AWESOME with full symphony and KISS picked the right tracks to perform in this setting.



As I mentioned, KISS also released a single disc addition that has less tracks and also features a Ramones cover. This is not a KISS album I play all the time anymore. I listened to it quite a bit when I first bought it, but not as much any more. It is a great addition to any KISS collection.

I actually like 'Alive IV: The Symphony" I enjoyed the CD, but I personally prefer the watching this performance on DVD, the entire band and ochestra seem to be having the time of their life.

Ths show itself is very cool and Joker's description of KISS unplugged with strings is very accurate. The band went for some deep cuts here playing 'Great Expections' 'Shandi' and 'Goin Blind'.

Also a nice welcome return of 'Let Me Go Rock n Roll' a great tune.

Special mention to Peter Criss who is playing great and seems to be having a good time, he had no idea that his job was about to be outsourced to a fellow rocker.

I should also mention that the one disc edition contains a killer version of The Ramones classic, KISS covering the Ramones the thought only is killer and thankfully they delievered on their cover of their fellow New Yorkers.

Nowhere near as iconic as the other live albums but still a solid release.

I liked the Ramones cover (it was one of the few bright spots on Rob Zombie's Ramones tribute album, WE'RE A HAPPY FAMILY, where it originally appeared) but I've never heard the rest of the album.

I like it enough but rarely listen to it.

Love this record. A great recording of live material, both the orchestrated stuff and the straight rock and roll stuff. I have it on both vinyl and CD.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote: I liked the Ramones cover (it was one of the few bright spots on Rob Zombie's Ramones tribute album, WE'RE A HAPPY FAMILY, where it originally appeared) but I've never heard the rest of the album. I never heard the KISS Alive album either, but their cover of the Ramones song was one of the few I didn't like on that tribute album. Not that the song itself was bad. It was a decent enough cover, but I can't remember if it was in the liner notes or maybe in an interview, Paul was quoted saying something like "The Ramones didn't have any influence on us and kinda did their own thing and we did ours." Gee, how nice of you to say that on a tribute album that you're not a fan of the band, you dick. It came off as though they were doing the world a sevice by lowering themselves to appear on a punk tribute album. That always struck me as odd and kinda douchey. I guess they did it as a favor to fan-boy Rob Zombie and of course to get the KISS name out there. But it still irked me.

I read similar comments by Paul Stanley and did not come to the same conclusions. Rather, I think Paul was just saying that the two bands were existing at the same time and were doing different things, even though they were from the same city. Obviously Kiss wasn't influenced by the Ramones, but Paul did say he liked what the band were doing, thus they were on the tribute.

I am curious what Kiss members actually played on the song. Kiss are known for having outside players perform on songs like this.

_________________

As far as live albums go,this is pretty good. The Ramones cover is rather cool. I took the quotes the same way as Ult did. I don't see it as a big deal.

"journalists" and I use that term loosely, very loosely... Have the tendacy to word things so somebody comes across way out of context. It's like they can quote somebody sayin' "two plus two is four" and they can word it like that person is bad mouthing the individual who invented numbers and addition.

KISS - The Millennium Collection Volumes 1, 2 and 3
2003, 2004, 2006 Mercury/Universal

Volume 1:
1. "Strutter" (3:12)
2. "Deuce" (3:05)
3. "Hotter Than Hell" (3:29)
4. "C'mon and Love Me" (2:57)
5. "Rock and Roll All Nite" [live] (3:56)
6. "Detroit Rock City" (3:38)
7. "Beth" (2:48)
8. "Hard Luck Woman" (3:32)
9. "Calling Dr. Love" (3:44)
10. "Love Gun" (3:17)
11. "Christeen Sixtee" (3:12)
12. "I Was Made for Lovin' You" (4:28)

Volume 2:
1. "Creatures of the Night" (4:05)
2. "I Love It Loud" (4:18)
3. "Lick It Up" (3:58)
4. "All Hell's Breakin' Loose" (4:35)
5. "Heaven's on Fire" (3:23)
6. "Thrills in the Night" (4:24)
7. "Tears Are Falling" (3:56)
8. "Uh! All Night" (4:03)
9. "Crazy Crazy Nights" (3:48)
10. "Reason to Live" (4:01)
11. "Hide Your Heart" (4:25)
12. "Forever" (3:49)

Volume 3:
1. "God Gave Rock 'N' Roll to You II" (5:21)
2. "Unholy" (3:43)
3. "Domino" [live] (3:49)
4. "Hate" (4:37)
5. "Childhood's End" (4:21)
6. "I Will Be There" (3:50)
7. "Comin' Home" [live] (2:51)
8. "Got to Choose" [live]" (3:33)
9. "Psycho Circus" (4:51)
10. "Into the Void" (4:22)
11. "I Pledge Allegiance to the State of Rock and Roll" (3:33)
12. "Nothing Can Keep Me from You" (4:03)

In the early part of the 21st century, Universal started releasing the "20th Century Masters: The Millenium Collection" series of CD's to capitalize on the back catalogue on the bands on its roster. KISS received the same treatment as well, getting three volumes! Volume 1 covers the make up years up to 'Dynasty'. Volume 2 picks up with songs from 'Creatures' to 'Hot In The Shade'. Vol 3 give us tracks from 'Revenge' to the 'Detroit Rock City' Soundtrack.

The collection includes no songs from 'Unmasked' or 'The Elder'. It should be noted that the record company put these together. At this point, there were so many KISS "greatest hits" releases coming out it was hard to keep track of them. The record company was looking for a quick buck and releasing them as fast as possible. I am sure Gene had no complaints when the royalty checks started coming in.

There si nothing special about the tracks and I do wonder why the God-awful "Nothing Compares To You" or what ever that lame song is called was included.

As with the other "greatest KISS" releases, this one is only a good buy if you want to get a good overview of the band's discography. Otherwise, it's a filled to add to your collection. I actually don't own these three releases and won't buy them to add to my collection unless I find them for a buck a piece.

MORE compilations from KISS! Yippie! However, Kiss had nothing to do with these. Most of the well known bands from the 70's and 80's were getting these "Millenium Collections". Kiss just happened to be around long enough and have a big enough fan base to get three collections.

Of the three, I think that disc 2 is the best. Disc 1 has some great 70's material, but these songs have already been released on numerous compilation CDs. Disc 3 is ok. It features only three songs from the strong "Revenge" album, with "Domino" being a live version from Alive III. The acoustic version of "Got to Choose" was a nice inclusion as it wasn't included on most of the CD versions of MTV Unplugged.

Disc 2 is just a great collection of the band's 80's material. With the exception of "Lick It Up" and "Heavens on Fire", the band's non-makeup material is usually ignored on compilations. I find myself listening to this compilations quite a bit.

Good stuff on all three but once again,totally unnecessary. I can't imagine anyone really needing these things unless it's as an introduction to the band.

Never owned this comp discs and these Millenium collections are quick cash grab for those greedy dinosaurs who run the record label.

Don't have 'em, don't need 'em.

At this point my contribution to this thread ends since I donot own the Alive collector's boxset or Sonic Boom.