AC/DC returns after eight years of silence

Whenever we speak about hard rock legends we cannot but remember the Australians AC/DC. The collective that exists over thirty years now is known to the whole world and its live performances are still quite impressive, with the guitarist jumping along the stage wearing school uniform. There have been several changes in the band’s line-up the first to occur in 1980 when the first vocalist Bon Scott deceased and Brian Johnson came to remain with AC/DC for good. Brothers Angus and Malcolm Young, both guitarists and back vocalists, formed the band bassist Cliff Williams and drummer Phil Rudd playing with them today. The band released its most successful album Back in Black in 1980 and it seemed that it would never record another album like that again. Releasing Stiff Upper Lip in 2000 AC/DC performed some time in various countries and then there was no news from it for a long time. At last this autumn its fifteenth studio album Black Ice sees the light of the day and judging by everything it is going to be a sensation for a second breath is obviously open to AC/DC the work being a real return to the past and even a better form.

A splendid rock adventure Black Ice

This may seem unbelievable but although Johnson’s vocals on the latest AC/DC works has become definitely worse (which is quite clear considering the age and a typical rocker’s life style) we hear his great voice on Black Ice, that very voice that made the band one of the best selling in the USA. Some think that the vocalist has managed to use the changes in the vocal chords’ work to his benefit, others even presume that the age and the voice have finally come to terms. Whatever it is the fact remains. Probably the other members inspired by that have remembered their younger years, too, and provided their best playing in the last fifteen or even twenty years. Listen to the first single Rock N' Roll Train and you will understand what a second breath really means. This song as actually all the others on the album sounds as a greeting from the past and is still wonderfully appropriate today. A faultless solo on Skies On Fire and amazing guitar riffs on Big Jack can compete only with the dash of Anything Goes while an ominous War Machine and a most powerful Spoilin' For A Fight boast a drum work smashing all your doubts about AC/DC still able to rock. As for the album highlights one should definitely name Wheels, reminding of 1979 work Highway To Hell, quite a contagious track She Likes Rock N' Roll, a changeable Rock N' Roll Dream and of course the final title composition Black Ice which has become a real climax of this splendid rock adventure the never aging AC/DC has given us.

The best work in two decades

Whatever you may say but another band like AC/DC will probably never appear again no matter how hard the young beginning collectives try to be like them. Brian Johnson’s manner of performance is so unique and recognizable that all the attempts to copy it simply fail. If somebody thought that the old guys’ best times are left in the past then Black Ice is an album that will make these people change their minds cardinally. Of course the success of Back in Black will be hardly repeated but the fact that the new work proves to be the best in two decades is completely undeniable. Every instrumental part on the album is performed in such a way that many contemporary musicians should learn from them. Among the 15 tracks of this record you will find no failures although it does have some weak points but they are so insignificant that derogate its merits by no means. Recorded in Vancouver as the previous album featuring producer Brendan O'Brien Black Ice is released just in time and the eight years of waiting have been definitely worth it.

Alexandra Zachernovskaya
22.10.2008