Some five years after Hawkwind left RCA but just a year or so after The Chronicle of the Black Sword restored the band to a modicum of fashion, the label rounded up the best of the three LPs that Hawkwind recorded during the early '80s, presumably to compensate fans for the long unavailability of the original releases. Four cuts from 1981's Sonic Attack and five apiece from Church of Hawkwind and Choose Your Masques (both 1982) certainly hit the high spots of those records. Perhaps the drab Church of Hawkwind is somewhat over-represented, but one would not argue with the inclusion of either "Nuclear Drive" or "Looking in the Future." Similarly, the presence of "Waiting for Tomorrow" utterly crushes any suggestion that Hawkwind were now a spent force -- the return of original saxophonist Nik Turner for Choose Your Masques absolutely reinvigorated the band, even if he would depart again before the Black Sword saga got started. Despite its usefulness to newfound fans, however, Angels of Death did little at the time, and the absence of any rarities renders it more or less redundant for collectors. Today, it is most noticeable for its scarcity.