The Devil Hits Back

This was an impulse buy for me without any research. I'd actually wanted an Atomic Rooster 'best of' and mistakenly believed this was one....in my defense it does include their two most famous singles and similar artwork to their 'Devil walks behind you' album!!The sleeve-notes state these are 1980 studio recordings and live rarities that span their entire career encompassing most of the various line ups but further internet research suggests this was a tribute album issued after Vincent Crane's death and is mostly material from their 1980 comeback album. Possibly the two live tracks are older? My copy is the 2008 release on Plastic Head Records and although the Amazon listing shows 15 tracks for this release mine only has 12 (it's missing the last 3 live tracks) so i guess there must be different versions?Because of my mistake I was expecting a more proggy album but this is mostly (very good) hard rock in the vein if Deep Purple or Uriah Heep. Without comparing to their earlier material and reviewing it as an album in isolation i was pleasantly surprised. The guitars rock hard (as you'd expect from John DuCann) and the keyboard sound is great ,although i'd personally have preferred more of the latter.The sound on the live recordings is crystal clear and many of the songs have catchy hooks but i did find the vocals a little too affected on a couple of tracks namely 'living underground' & 'hiding in the shadows'.Overall though not a bad mistaken purchase and 3.5 stars or 7 out of 10.