Alive II: Second time is NOT the charm!
KISS' first live album, "Alive!" was a fluke...nobody expected it to perform as it did, and that album basically started KISS on thier meteoric rise in fame amd world-reknown. "Alive!" was really just a live set of thier first three studio albums, all that they had released up to that point in thier career. KISS tried to duplicate that formula for "Alive II", and released a set of live performances of thier following three studio albums: "Destroyer", "Rock and Roll Over", and "Love Gun".
Many things conspired to prevent this album from turning out as awesome as the first live album: This was the era when wireless guitars and amps were just becoming practical for concert use, and KISS was one of the early-adopters of the technology for obvious reasons. Unfortunately, this also imparted a rather trebly, tinny sound to the recording which dramatically reduced the bombast and thrust of the music. Compounding this was the venue where it was recorded: The LA Ampi-theatre, a large outdoor complex, which made the acoustics something less than favorable for a professional recording.
For the first live album, many of the studio songs were lengthened with longer intros, longer guitar solos, and in the case of a couple of tunes, an additional, second guitar solo. This enabled the meager amount of songs to nicelty fill up 4 album sides of the first release, a double album.
For "Alive II", the songs were played with no 'extras', so they were all realatively short. Even the 'long' drum solo in "God of Thunder" was miniscule as compared to the drum solo on "Alive!" Consequently, there was not enough material to fill up four sides of a double album by using tunes only from the last three studio releases. KISS even went so far as the record three songs 'live' that they did not actually play during that 3-night concert: "King of the Nightime World","Hard Luck Woman" and "Tomorrow and Tonight" were all recorded 'live' during the day-time soundcheck before that night's actual concert, and the crowd noise was edited into the tracks for the album.
The fourth 'studio' side was a harbinger of things to come. Not one of the studio songs on the album contained all the members of KISS playing on the same track. These were more like preliminary efforts made for thier up-coming individual solo albums.
Whereas the first live album, "Alive!", definitely improves on nearly every studio version of the songs they played, "Alive II" almost universally presented inferior versions of every song. The fact that KISS' production values made a vast improvement in studio recordings from thier first three studio albums to thier second set of three studio albums has a lot to do with that.
Nevertheless, "Alive II" is not the phnomenon that "Alive!" was (and still is!)
To make it clear, "Alive II' is a good album when compared to most other typical albums of the era (especially the average 'live' album), but "Alive II" has the unfortunate disadvantage of always being directly compared to "Alive!"...a comparison that very few albums could ever hope to end up favorably.

Kiss Alive II defined and era
If you're a Kiss fan, Alive II is essential. If you're not a big Kiss fan, start with Alive!(one) before II if you're looking for their best stuff. To any member of the Kiss Army, Alive II is a classic. But what a difference from the raw, powerful rock of Alive! to Alive II's pomp and circimstance. Still a must have though - it's Kiss in 1978, still riding their peak. This album has been in steady heavy rotation for my listening from 1978 until today. With three sides live and the forth of studio efforts marking the beginning of the end for the original line up this album is not only great for the music but a huge chapter in Kisstory as well. Standout tracks: Detroit Rock City, Love Gun, Dr. Love, Shock Me, Larger Than Life, Rocket Ride.

Good Album
While overall this is a good album it does have weaknesses. The sound is not very good on the live portion of the album. It needs some remixing. The studio efforts for the most part sounds stiff to me, with the exception of Rocker Ride And Anyway You Want it. I think the resoning is the lack of teamwork especially since Ace only played on one studio song. Still a good album that deserves recognition.

Four Stars for Any Kiss Fan
Although it is great that classic Kiss albums like this are available on CD now, there is a little of the original magic missing. Kiss Alive II is a perfect example of this. The CD does feature several studio tracks; however, the Live portion of Kiss Alive II is what makes this great. If you want the best, you got the best, the hottest band in the world.... Kiss. The Shock Me offereing on this CD is one of the gems for those of us that favored Ace. He was always my favorite, but each member has at least one standout moment on this CD. A must have for Kiss fans. I wore this album out as a pre-eenager, and as a teenager, and a little as an adult.

KISS Alive in 1977 = AWESOME!
The problem with this record and all other live records after it, is that it will forever be compared to 1975's perfect "Alive!" If one looks at this record for what it is...it is very very good. It sounds phenomenal - more agressive and hard rocking than ever. I think the studio side of new material was cool, but I wish that stuff could have been turned into a KISS album for 1978. But I know that couldn't have happened because at this point they were starting to want to kill each other. I would have loved to see "Hooligan" "Take Me" "Do you Love Me" included here. But...die hards are always going to want more in the set list. Taken for what it is...Alive II is a real live masterpiece and really kicks serious butt. The highlights are "King of the Night Time World" "Shock Me" - which includes the greatest live solo ever from Ace, and the most demonic, high speed version of "God of Thunder". The studio cuts are all great especially Ace's "Rocket Ride" and Gene's "Larger Than Life". But I like "All American Man" as well. More songs they should have been playing live!!