Looking at the cover of Molly Hatchet's 'Greatest Hits II' with its tagline: 'The South Has Risen Again' and blended flags of the United States and the Confederate States you can't help but wonder how on earth this band has exported its music so successfully outside of the US. Put the shoe on the other foot and send the Manic Street Preachers to the Deep South singing songs called 'Penderyn Whiskey Boyo', 'Badger County' or the flag waving 'Sons of Glyndŵr'. Do you think that Americans would feel and share our national pride?

Whilst I'm sure that Molly Hatchet's European fans are as rabid as the next fan I can't imagine that the bonds between band and fan resonate as deeply as with those on their home turf. Take a trip down any street in America and you're bound to see an American flag within five minutes. In the UK, excepting London, you could travel for days without seeing a single Union Jack unless the World Cup was in progress.

Anyway this double-disc greatest hits album comprises of recordings taken from the band's 15-year association with Steamhammer/SPV Records and in doing so pretty much severs connections with the past and cements singer Phil McCormack as the de facto Molly Hatchet vocalist.

Disc one is made up of tracks from the band's five original studio albums from this period while disc two delves deeply into the band's live material from 'Locked And Loaded' and 'Live In Hamburg' but finishes off with a previously unreleased studio track called 'Sacred Ground' which starts well but is ultimately less than compelling listening.

'Son Of The South' is a wide-chested strutting slab of American patriotism complete with anthemic bellowed "Hell Yeahs" in the chorus. The pride continues unabated into 'Heart Of The USA' a song about war and the "stars and bars". While 'Tatanka' breaks theme and continues in the lyrical tradition of Bryan Adams' 'Native Son', Queen's 'White Man' and Iron Maiden's 'Run To The Hills'.

The ballad 'Fall Of The Peacemakers' may sound like a song about guns but this time around there's nothing metaphorical about the title in a song that doffs its cap outside the genre to John Lennon. Co-written by founding member Dave Hlubek this piano-led ballad is perhaps the closet in tone to classic Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Out of the collection I tend to like the short succinct songs like 'Cornbread Mafia' which has a little bit of a 'Rag Doll' good-time feel about it. 'Mississippi Moon Dog' is another short song that has the kind of Southern Fried melodies that I really go for. It has a good beat and a host of Southern Belles providing back-up duties and gets close to the sound of my ultimate favourite band of this ilk: Raging Slab.

The longer jams at the end of songs like 'Devil's Canyon', 'Fall Of The Peacemakers', 'I'm Gonna Live 'Til I Die', 'Rainbow Bridge' and 'The Journey' really draw out this already long album which runs at an hour and a quarter. If this were the good old days of making a C90 cassette best of then I'd be reaching for the fade dial and packing in as many edits as I could fit on one side. But one man's meat is another man's poison and the second CD coupled with the previously unreleased track might be the deciding factor when you're thinking of buying this set.

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