Lists like these can do more harm than good but I felt it was about time I went on the record. It was a cathartic exercise that had me shuffling the order around like so many KISS cards. No sooner than a minute after hitting ‘publish’ I wanted a mulligan. Please feel free to comment with your top 10 and why?
#1 – ALIVE – this is our ‘live’ rock & roll party and the desert island keeper
# 2 – LOVE GUN – you wanted the best, you got the best studio album
#3 – KISS – the vision, the sound and the live staples in one concise initial salvo, a sacred sphere.
#4- ALIVE II – at their live zenith plus 5 studio cuts larger than life
# 5- ROCK & ROLL OVER – a band in full 70’s stride, don’t put baby in the corner
# 6 – DESTROYER – the pinnacle for some, too soft for others, dear to the daughters of Aphrodite
#7- CREATURES OF THE NIGHT – a sonic boom still reverberating from Eric Carr’s kick
# 8- ACE FREHLEY – I don’t wanna burst your bubble but the original spaceman crashes the party wiped-out with the best of the 78 solo emissions
# 9- DRESSED TO KILL – stark perfection plus the Stanley/Simmons rock & roll national anthem
# 10- LICK IT UP – the bands best sans clown album and the shape of things to come
Editors note: Scott Wheeler’s suggestion below was so right on that I have heard his words and indeed taken heed. I am still wrestling with including MONSTER on this list as it is still taking root frankly and if “Never Enough” wasn’t on SONIC BOOM I may be able to talk about it as a really great record to. It is a process. I am contemplating trying to calculate albums #10 thru #20; a Herculean task.
KISStorian 
Nice list but destroyer is way too low. How many great songs are still concert staples, as compared to creature? Flip those!
Thanks Scott, I tend to agree with you, esp. that Destroyer needs to rise a bit …. I may have to change it before others read 😉 thanks for checking in!!