I'm possibly being unfair, but I found that there was always something ANVIL'ish about them. That fine line between touchingly valiant for the
Metal cause and slightly embarrassing.
Let's put it this way, there are bands of the hard & heavy genre (and I use the term encompassively) from NY like Vanilla Fudge, BÖC, The Dictators, Elf and The New York Dolls and there are others more like Twisted Sister, Manowar and The Rods. Kiss falls somewhere in the middle, they had moments in both camps. Not all bands from NY are created equal.
(I'm aware that there might also a difference whether you stem from NYC or New York State.)
And in any case, I prefer the later Elf line up with Craig Gruber (Ronnie was fine as a bassist, but Craig was gifted and added something) and Steve Edwards replacing David Feinstein to the original four piece of the debut album. I loved Mickey Lee Soule's piano drive and songwriting in that band and both came more to the forefront after Feinstein had left.