I realize that the world really didn't need yet another KISS compilation, but as a casual KISS fan at best, I really like what the 20th Century Masters series has to offer. Between Volume 1, which covers the major hits of the classic 70's era, and this disc, which covers the band's post-makeup, hair metal heyday, you get a concise overview of KISS's history. If that weren't enough, the songs have all been digitally remastered for superior sound, and the price of each disc tends to be much lower than the average CD price.

The music on Volume 2 is obviously not as strong as what Volume 1 had to offer, but for the most part I really enjoyed what KISS was doing at the time. Say what you will about the hair metal/arena rock sound, it was dominating the airwaves at the time, and KISS was shrewd enough to adopt that sound in a big way. They delivered some first rate rock anthems, such as "Creatures of the Night" (perhaps my favorite KISS song), "I Love It Loud", "Tears are Falling", and "Hide Your Heart". I could do without the inane "Lick It Up" (a typical Vinnie Vincent stinker), "Uh! All Night", and "Crazy, Crazy Nights" always drove me nuts, but by and large the material on this collection is impressive.

20th Century Masters: The Best of KISS Volume 2 offers absolutely nothing to long time KISS fans who already own the band's studio albums, but for casual fans it is the perfect way to pick up the band's biggest 80's hits in a great sounding, affordable package.

For a 12-song greatest hits of the 80's CD, this really is a excellent selection of KISS songs. This CD is a testament to how good KISS still was in the 80's when many weren't paying them any attention.

There's no doubt that this CD could have been even better and longer, but the Millennium series CDs are value CDs with a limited amound of songs. In this case, they chose 2 songs from every KISS CD between 1982 and 1989. I really can't dispute any of the selections made for this CD. So for what it is, it's pretty much a perfect compilation of twelve of their best 80's songs.

"Tears Are Falling", "Crazy, Crazy Nights" and "Forever" are great KISS tracks and three of my personal KISS favorites.

For those with a keen ear, you might notice that the two opening selections from the "Creatures of the Night" album are actually taken from the late-80's reissue and remix of the CD and not from version you can currently buy in stores.

Anyhow, I think this album is a great pickup and a PERFECT companion to the "KISS Gold" 2-disc CD set that leaves off right where this CD begins.

This is the second installment of 3 in the Kiss: mellenium collection. This section covers the 80's Kiss. Great songs included, but its just a taste at the often overlooked kiss years. Yes, kiss was definitley scarier without the makeup, but the music was still good. I just wish this disc had more on it. Oh well, a good starter disc. If you buy this one, you might as well buy the other two for the whole mediocher collection. So much kiss to fit into 3 discs, although all 3 are short and could have included more.

There is some pretty good songs here.These wre the days when good old Eric Carr was at the skins.Man did he thump those bongo's to a T.When he was there Kiss had a different sound,and it gave what i think was new life,and a different energetic sound to this band.I quite liked Kiss in the 80's,but i'm as diehard as you get.These days there is nothing new,but reflecting on there old music,its realy good to hear this era of Kiss.
I would of given this Cd 5 stars if it had of had more than 12 songs.
There is lots of songs i could of added to this collection from the same era.They picked 2 songs from each of the albums from Creatures through to Hot In The Shade.
It was a realy good era for music from this band,which battled back after Ace and Peter left as well as removing the make-up.
It appeared that their careers were on the line,but creativity stepped in and this is a partial reflection.

In my opinion the 20th Century masters were not really masters at finding good KISS songs. But I think people who are just getting into the 80's KISS era would like this one. I like to think of it as a demo, because there should've been more songs