Spring Break
AC/DC comeback evident in Black Ice
Justin Pacheco
Issue date: 10/23/08 Section: Entertainment
10/23/08 - Usually when a band as old as AC/DC releases a new album, expectations are lowered for it and pretty much everyone knows it won't be as good as anything from early in its career.
Depending on the band releasing the album, it will either be considered good or terrible. Every new Rolling Stones album that comes out is considered good. So is every new Bob Dylan album. Artists like the Stones or Dylan have basically built up enough pop music credentials to release whatever they want.
I don't think loud, kind-of-dumb rock bands get this same treatment. Nobody thinks any of the Ramones' albums released after Too Tough to Die are very good. No one thinks that Guns and Roses new album Chinese Democracy is going to be any good, whenever it comes out.
So I did not expect AC/DC's Black Ice to be particularly impressive.
However, I came away more than pleasantly surprised and was thoroughly impressed.
This is a good album that does not sound dated, but does not seem out of place in the AC/DC discography. If you had someone who didn't know much about AC/DC (and did not know this was brand new) listen to this, he would know it was AC/DC instantly and probably guess the release date as 1981.
The songs are pure AC/DC. They're songs about rock and roll. Four songs actually have rock in their titles: "Rock 'N Roll Train," "She Likes Rock 'N Roll," "Rock 'N Roll Dream," and "Rocking All The Way."
The songs follow the familiar AC/DC formula, making use of heavy guitar riffs, some solid solos, simple driving beats and chanting choruses.
It's a good formula and it makes it pretty hard to stop from head-banging while listening to the best songs like "War Machine" and "Money Made."
Brian Scott's vocals are the same as usual. The songs feature his trademark nasally singing (that's really borderline screaming) on some tracks. It is abrasive at first, but you get used to it by the end of the album.
It's refreshing to see that AC/DC steadfastly refuses to change. They're good at what they do, and that's providing albums full of fun hard rock. Nobody would want an album that sees them try out death metal or some other genre in an attempt to gain some new fans.
However that refusal to change can be seen as a detriment to the album as a whole. Some of the songs on the album sound a little too similar to one another, but the album is not really that repetitive.
All together AC/DC's Black Ice is a good, fun, if simple, throwback rock and roll album.
Depending on the band releasing the album, it will either be considered good or terrible. Every new Rolling Stones album that comes out is considered good. So is every new Bob Dylan album. Artists like the Stones or Dylan have basically built up enough pop music credentials to release whatever they want.
I don't think loud, kind-of-dumb rock bands get this same treatment. Nobody thinks any of the Ramones' albums released after Too Tough to Die are very good. No one thinks that Guns and Roses new album Chinese Democracy is going to be any good, whenever it comes out.
So I did not expect AC/DC's Black Ice to be particularly impressive.
However, I came away more than pleasantly surprised and was thoroughly impressed.
This is a good album that does not sound dated, but does not seem out of place in the AC/DC discography. If you had someone who didn't know much about AC/DC (and did not know this was brand new) listen to this, he would know it was AC/DC instantly and probably guess the release date as 1981.
The songs are pure AC/DC. They're songs about rock and roll. Four songs actually have rock in their titles: "Rock 'N Roll Train," "She Likes Rock 'N Roll," "Rock 'N Roll Dream," and "Rocking All The Way."
The songs follow the familiar AC/DC formula, making use of heavy guitar riffs, some solid solos, simple driving beats and chanting choruses.
It's a good formula and it makes it pretty hard to stop from head-banging while listening to the best songs like "War Machine" and "Money Made."
Brian Scott's vocals are the same as usual. The songs feature his trademark nasally singing (that's really borderline screaming) on some tracks. It is abrasive at first, but you get used to it by the end of the album.
It's refreshing to see that AC/DC steadfastly refuses to change. They're good at what they do, and that's providing albums full of fun hard rock. Nobody would want an album that sees them try out death metal or some other genre in an attempt to gain some new fans.
However that refusal to change can be seen as a detriment to the album as a whole. Some of the songs on the album sound a little too similar to one another, but the album is not really that repetitive.
All together AC/DC's Black Ice is a good, fun, if simple, throwback rock and roll album.
