AC/DC - Black Ice

I got a burned copy of this album because of how I felt towards the first single, "Rock N' Roll Train". If you haven't read it yet, please do so and come back. Click here.

As I was driving around I gave the album a listen and quite frankly, I was wrong. It's such a good feeling to say it this time. I still don't really care for the single, but the rest of the album is exactly what I wanted from AC/DC. A change of pace.

Each song offers a little something different that hasn't been heard all too often from them, if ever. I heard a lot of guitar work going on in a lot of songs. There weren't just two tracks of guitar in most cases, sometimes three and four. Even Cliff Williams drops some interesting bass lines in a few songs which is good to hear considering most of his bass lines are one note strummed to the rhythm of the song for the duration of the song.

Behind the drums, Phil Rudd kept the tempo just as he always does and I'm sure nobody is as good as he is at keeping tempo. However, there were a few spots where he came out of that shell and threw down some fills and solo's. Nice.

The ice breaker here (pardon the pun) is Brian Johnson, belting out some songs in ways that quite frankly, he's never done. The fourth track, "Anything Goes" has Brian singing... SINGING the song. This track is by far my favorite off of the album. Angus tears up an awesome solo and again, Brian's singing! I know he always "sings" but this time it's not just his high pitched growl saying the lyrics. He shows in this that there's some talent behind his mic. It's a shame it took this long to hear it in this way. I hope he keeps it up in the future, but for the album this isn't the only time he really gets into it although this is the best song for it.

Overall I must say, I was wrong about the album. This just proves that you shouldn't judge a book by it's single... uh, you shouldn't judge an album by it's cover... damnit, you know what I mean. "Rock N' Roll Train" didn't do this album justice, much like the first single Metallica dropped for "Death Magnetic" didn't do that album justice, although that album doesn't rock nearly as hard as "Black Ice".

If you want a great AC/DC album with something new to hear, pick this one up. I will be soon so that I have an official copy. I really need to anyway since I have every other album they've done.


9/10

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PS - Apparently there was an alternate album cover that I happened to come across online. I don't know if this is a real cover they had thought of or if someone else did it up and said it was official, but it's still pretty awesome. Check it out. Click here.