KISS or SABBATH poll

I remember reading Kiss opened for Sabbath.
Ozzy was amazed all the girls in line outside hotel rooms for Kiss.
No girls were outside the Sabbath hotel rooms.
But who was the best band !

I don't think KISS will do well in this poll. Cultural impact etc, maybe. When it comes to music, I don't find it particularly close. And I do enjoy KISS every now and then.

I like KISS more than Sabbath, but I concede that Sabbath is objectively a better band.

Sabbath

Sabbath.

I still enjoy Kiss from time to time and have recently regained some interest in them. As a matter of fact, i purchased Music From The Elder on cd last weekend.

Lari wrote:

I don't think KISS will do well in this poll. Cultural impact etc, maybe. When it comes to music, I don't find it particularly close. And I do enjoy KISS every now and then.

Despite owning a fair number of Kiss cds in my collection, i always thought of them as being a best of kind of bands.

All you'd really need would be a couple of good compilations and that should do.

Don't get the inclusion of solo releases? Plenty of music through the decades by each band to compare. So I am strictly doing band vs band.

So does best band mean recorded output, onstage, musicianship, or who you personally like better?

70's recorded output goes to Sabbath 70's onstage goes to KISS, the 2 DIO fronted albums pretty much blow all 80's KISS out of the water, though I'll take CREATURES & LICK IT UP over the rest of the 80's Sabbath.

Don't care for any Sabbath in the 90's or beyond. Then and KISS were both chasing their own tails by the mid to late 90's. I do enjoy UNPLUGGED from KISS, but after the REUNION TOUR, they pretty much sucked onstage and on record.

All of this is...(IMHDO), of course. And after all fuss above, I can't get past that only the 70's really matter in the impact each band had on music respectively.

I like them pretty much the same, everything balances out.

KISS for me. If course, Sabbath is no slouch either.

Black Sabbath.

God, I thought this was some sort of joke, but it's real? Kiss is terrible, and doesn't even compare to Sabbath. Like someone said above, kiss can be summed up in a best of compilation, most of their music is crap. This is coming from someone that used to worship Kiss. First concert I went to was Kiss. Listening to them these days is a chore though. Their good songs are really good, but most of them are filler.

I love both bands. But KISS gets my vote.

Are you kidding?

Sabbath!

if we're defining "better band" by musicianship then obviously Sabbath is light years ahead of Kiss.  But you know what?  I like a lot more songs by Kiss than I do songs by Sabbath.  So if "better band" means who's music do you enjoy more then it's easily Kiss for me.

Sabbath is better but I probably listen to KISS more. Especially early KISS.

I love both bands and I am a fan of all eras of both bands career, but to this is easy, Black Sabbath

Kiss for me.
I like both bands but I've been a Kiss fan way longer than I've been into Sabbath, so sentiment wins out.

Black Sabbath is metal, this is a metal forum. DUH

I thought this would be a tough call, but about 10 seconds later I chose Sabbath. Five different lead vocalists and I've enjoyed them all and that says a lot for me. I usually hate when bands change their vocalist. I think 70's stuff is pretty even for me, but I prefer Sabbath in the 80's and 90's is sort of a wash.

Black Sabbath are better musicians, obviously. Plus, they had Tony Martin behind the mic .

When I was a teenager I would have said Kiss. Now I have to go with Sabbath!

metalinmyveins wrote:

I thought this would be a tough call, but about 10 seconds later I chose Sabbath. Five different lead vocalists and I've enjoyed them all and that says a lot for me. I usually hate when bands change their vocalist. I think 70's stuff is pretty even for me, but I prefer Sabbath in the 80's and 90's is sort of a wash.

That's a good thought actually. The Kiss I really like is all from the 70s; once you get beyond that it's pretty meh. Sabbath is the other way round for me; the Ozzy-era stuff is pretty blah to me (mainly because I find Ozzy's voice very irritating) but after that - and especially with Dio - I would have to take Sabbath over the Kiss albums during the same time period.

tohostudios wrote:

metalinmyveins wrote:

I thought this would be a tough call, but about 10 seconds later I chose Sabbath. Five different lead vocalists and I've enjoyed them all and that says a lot for me. I usually hate when bands change their vocalist. I think 70's stuff is pretty even for me, but I prefer Sabbath in the 80's and 90's is sort of a wash.

That's a good thought actually.  The Kiss I really like is all from the 70s; once you get beyond that it's pretty meh.  Sabbath is the other way round for me; the Ozzy-era stuff is pretty blah to me (mainly because I find Ozzy's voice very irritating) but after that - and especially with Dio - I would have to take Sabbath over the Kiss albums during the same time period.

If I did a side by side comparison of discographies:

Heaven & Hell vs Unmasked/The Elder
Mob Rules vs Creatures of the Night
Born Again vs Lick It Up
Seventh Star vs Animalize
The Eternal Idol vs Asylum
Headless Cross vs Crazy Nights/Hot In the Shade

Since there was more productivity involving KISS that decade, one can't match album for album, but I think I did this correctly, as Unmasked/The Elder get lumped together since they were the maligned albums, with either disheartened or soon to be ex-members. Crazy Nights/Hot In the Shade get lumped together, because they seemed pretty uninspiring towards the end of the decade for the band.

Given these matchups, I'm going with Black Sabbath 5-1, maybe 4-2. I love Creatures of the Night, so it probably edges out Mob Rules, even though it might be on par with Heaven & Hell. The Headless Cross and Asylum are pretty close for me as well, but probably would go with Headless Cross barely. The other matchups would be blowouts for me.

This isn't even adding the Ozzy factor into the mix. If you do that, I think it's not even close.

metalinmyveins wrote:

tohostudios wrote:

metalinmyveins wrote:

I thought this would be a tough call, but about 10 seconds later I chose Sabbath. Five different lead vocalists and I've enjoyed them all and that says a lot for me. I usually hate when bands change their vocalist. I think 70's stuff is pretty even for me, but I prefer Sabbath in the 80's and 90's is sort of a wash.

That's a good thought actually.  The Kiss I really like is all from the 70s; once you get beyond that it's pretty meh.  Sabbath is the other way round for me; the Ozzy-era stuff is pretty blah to me (mainly because I find Ozzy's voice very irritating) but after that - and especially with Dio - I would have to take Sabbath over the Kiss albums during the same time period.

If I did a side by side comparison of discographies:

Heaven & Hell vs Unmasked/The Elder
Mob Rules vs Creatures of the Night
Born Again vs Lick It Up
Seventh Star vs Animalize
The Eternal Idol vs Asylum

This isn't even adding the Ozzy factor into the mix. If you do that, I think it's not even close.
Headless Cross vs Crazy Nights/Hot In the Shade

Since there was more productivity involving KISS that decade, one can't match album for album, but I think I did this correctly, as Unmasked/The Elder get lumped together since they were the maligned albums, with either disheartened or soon to be ex-members. Crazy Nights/Hot In the Shade get lumped together, because they seemed pretty uninspiring towards the end of the decade for the band.

Given these matchups, I'm going with Black Sabbath 5-1, maybe 4-2. I love Creatures of the Night, so it probably edges out Mob Rules, even though it might be on par with Heaven & Hell. The Eternal Idol and Asylum are pretty close for me as well, but probably would go with The Eternal Idol barely. The other matchups would be blowouts for me.

Wow, you put way more thought into this than I did.

And I agree with your assessments. But those early Kiss albums still win the poll for me because I really only like a select few of the early Sabbath songs much less entire albums. Doom/Sludge metal just isn't my thing. And then there's Ozzy's voice...

Having thought more about this, I'm not sure KISS or even their most die-hard fans would be keen to argue that they are "better" than other bands, especially those of Sabbath's caliber. Rather, they just find ways to stand apart from other bands via their image, marketing, fan base, etc. Comparison is almost a moot point at the end of the day.

Thanks everyone for voting !
I’m a big KISS fan - but I feel the pale in comparison to Sabbath.
Even Ozzy solo albums - compared to Ace’s outpouring of cover tunes.
KISS were good but they were NOT the best.
Sabbath and Ozzy are endlessly interesting.