The first sound on Back in Black is the deep, ominous drone of church bells -- or "Hell's Bells," as it were, opening the album and AC/DC's next era with a fanfare while ringing a fond farewell to Bon Scott, their late lead singer who partied himself straight to hell. But this implies that Back in Black is some kind of tribute to Scott, which may ...
There's a real sense of menace to "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap," the title song of AC/DC's third album. More than most of their songs to date, it captured the seething malevolence of Bon Scott, the sense that he reveled in doing bad things, encouraged by the maniacal riffs of Angus and Malcolm Young who provided him with their most brutish rock ...
On paper, Who Made Who is just a cheap soundtrack to a cheap movie (Stephen King's disastrous Maximum Overdrive), but it's actually much more than that. It serves as a ripping AC/DC retrospective, tearing through such classics as "You Shook Me All Night Long" and "For Those About to Rock," adding the pounding title track to the band's canon, and ...
Although AC/DC's popularity had decreased by the early '90s, the band still had a lot of life left in it. Arguably the Australian headbangers' strongest album in over half a decade, The Razor's Edge is quintessential AC/DC -- rowdy, abrasive, unapologetically fun metal full of blistering power chords, memorable hooks, and testosterone-driven ...
AC/DC was fast becoming one of rock's top live acts by the late '70s. Few others could match the band's electrifying live performances: Angus Young's never-ending energy and wise-ass antics, Bon Scott's whiskey-soaked vocals, and the rest of the band's penchant for nailing simple, yet extremely effective and memorable, riffs and grooves. While ...
Powerage was a first in the sense that it debuted bassist Cliff Williams, but it really is more of a final curtain to the band's early years. It would be the last produced by Vanda & Young, the legendary Australian production team who also helmed hits by the Easybeats, and it was the last before AC/DC became superstars. As such, it's perhaps the ...
Despite longtime AC/DC fans' immediate acceptance of replacement singer Brian Johnson (resulting in one of rock's all-time best sellers, 1980's Back in Black), there was still demand for Bon Scott-era unreleased tracks. Several of their early albums in Australia and Europe (such as T.N.T.) were later combined together for their first U.S. release, ...
Despite the fact that the band's best days were obviously behind them, a live album for AC/DC was all but completely necessary. After all, the group's first live release, If You Want Blood You've Got It, was recorded at a time when AC/DC was nothing more than a cult act that had yet to produce many of its future rock staples. Though recorded well ...
Originally unveiled in December 1975, TNT was the second AC/DC album released in their native Australia, but is often overlooked outside the Land Down Under because its best tracks were later combined with those from the band's first domestic album, High Voltage, for reissue as their international debut from 1976 -- also entitled High Voltage. ...
In over 20 years, AC/DC never changed their minimalist, bone-crunching hard rock. During their first ten years, that wasn't a problem, since they were still finding ways to expand and subvert the pattern, but ever since For Those About to Rock, they had trouble coming up with consistent material. Consequently, their performances tended to be a ...
One of the perennial complaints about AC/DC is that they've never changed -- and if that's true, High Voltage is the blueprint they've followed all their career. Comprised of highlights from their first two Australian albums -- 1975's TNT and its 1976 follow-up, also entitled High Voltage -- the album has every single one of AC/DC's archetypes. ...
Oddly, the legend of Bon Scott never haunted AC/DC. They grieved, certainly, but they were able to move on, releasing Back in Black as a tribute in 1980. The record became their biggest hit and helped them become one of the biggest rock & roll bands in the world. By the late '90s, the group remained popular, and a strange phenomenon had happened - ...
Stiff Upper Lip, AC/DC's 15th studio album, may not reach the heights of Back in Black or Highway to Hell, but it delivers strongly and satisfyingly. It's the record that the highly touted, Rick Rubin-produced Ballbreaker should have been: a simple, addictive, hard album, bursting with bold riffs and bolstered by a crunching, thrillingly visceral ...
Of course, Highway to Hell is the final album AC/DC recorded with Bon Scott, the lead singer who provided the group with a fair share of its signature sleaze. Just months after its release, Scott literally partied himself to death, dying of alcohol poisoning after a night of drinking, a rock & roll fatality that took no imagination to predict. In ...
Let There Be Rock, the fourth AC/DC album -- and first to see simultaneous international release -- is as lean and mean as the original lineup ever got. Shaved down to the bone -- there are only eight tracks, giving this a lethal efficiency even with a couple of meandering jams -- this is a high-voltage, brutal record, filled with "Bad Boy Boogie. ...
AC/DC remained a popular concert draw throughout the '80s, although such albums as Flick of the Switch and Fly on the Wall failed to replicate their mass U.S. commercial success of 1980-1981 (Back in Black, For Those About to Rock, a reissue of Dirty Deeds). But the successful soundtrack for Stephen King's lackluster movie Maximum Overdrive, ...
AC/DC's hot streak began to draw to a close with For Those About to Rock We Salute You. While Back in Black was infused with the energy and spirit of paying tribute to Bon Scott, it became apparent on the follow-up that the group really did miss Scott more than it initially indicated. Brian Johnson's lyrics started to seem more calculated and a ...
For Flick of the Switch, AC/DC jettisoned producer Mutt Lange in an attempt to recapture the rawness and simplicity of their early records. They more or less succeed in terms of the record's sound (although the music itself is rather underdeveloped and unmemorable), and show more energy than on the preceding For Those About to Rock We Salute You. ...
This could be the perfect gift for that young relative itching to get a good overview of vintage rock history; Atlantic, being one of the original titans of the stuff, is certainly not a bad place to start. Roughly covering a period from the late '60s to the late '80s, this three-disc set offers most of the usual suspects (Led Zeppelin, the ...
On Fly on the Wall, the leering humor of AC/DC's past glories seems forced, the music is somewhat underdeveloped, and Brian Johnson's vocals are mixed far in the background, but -- as with nearly every AC/DC album -- there are a few good songs, notably "Shake Your Foundations" and "Sink the Pink." ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide
AC/DC Live captures a fine performance by the heavy metal titans, as they run through their biggest hits with fire and energy. Featuring two discs of prime material, the "Special Collector's Edition" is actually preferable to the regular version, simply because it adds more first-rate music to an already worthwhile album. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine ...
Unlike any other band of their stature, AC/DC truly don't care about the world at large. They see no triumph in their longevity, they long ago dismissed not only the idea of artistic statements but the very notion of artistic growth: they aren't good or bad, they simply are . They have nothing left to prove, so perhaps it shouldn't be a surprise ...
Stiff Upper Lip, AC/DC's 15th studio album, may not reach the heights of Back in Black or Highway to Hell, but it delivers strongly and satisfyingly. It's the record that the highly touted, Rick Rubin-produced Ballbreaker should have been: a simple, addictive, hard album, bursting with bold riffs and bolstered by a crunching, thrillingly visceral ...
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