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71 of 77 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
I expected mediocrity but was pleasantly surprised, October 23, 2008
It's a good album, folks. Mind you, I'm totally easy to please when it comes to AC/DC. I embrace their all-sound-same style and just look for relatively solid execution. But Black Ice is probably their best release since Fly on the Wall (which is under rated, IMHO). Let me expound. The production on Black Ice is everything a hard rock record should have. Every instrument sounds through the mix clearly. The snare sounds awesome. The guitars sound awesome, which power amp distortion that gets gritty when they push it, but cleans up when they play lightly. Seriously, it has less "distortion" than pretty much any album in the Brian Johnson era but still sounds heavy. The mix is NOT brick wall limited at all, and you can hear/feel the dynamics in the guitar playing so that when they back off, your ears get the break they need just like a live performance. Also, they showed enough restraint in the low end EQ that even when I crank my stock car stereo up the bass doesn't flub out. And after listening to ten songs cranked way up, my ears aren't worn out by loudness-wars pummel like on so many records today. It's probably mixed "loud" relative to '70's records, but shows a lot more dynamics than nearly any heavy music coming out nowadays.
And Brian Johnson sounds really good! Really good. Probably the best since Flick of the Switch, once again. I don't know what physical work he's done on his voice, but he's lost the about-to-die strain I could hear on Stiff Upper Lip. They keep him in the middle of the mix rather than out front, but that works well. He's not buried in the mix like on Fly on the Wall.
Angus plays slide on one tune, which I first thought would be gimmicky when I read about it, but really works great. Sounds awesome. Williams and Rudd sound great, per usual, with Williams bass given a slightly more prominent role. He plays eighth note pumps on virtually every tune, over Rudd's straigh on 4/4 beats. The rhythms are very much allsoundsame, however, if you're looking for something to criticize. The beats, tempos, and that eigth note bass line are pretty predictable. But it's AC/DC after all.
There really aren't any filler tunes on the album either. Every song rocks really well. And unlike their last five albums or so, Johnson's voice doesn't grate on me after listening to five or six songs straight through. Every song is about a seven, eight or nine on a ten scale. On the flip side, I'm not sure which song is a ten on a ten scale, making the choice of radio single less than obvious. But, again, all the songs are at least a seven, so there's no point in the album where the energy gets sucked out. The band is incredibly tight. I know it's a studio album so maybe that's a "duh" statement. But they play together so tightly throughout, which is part of their signature sound. It also makes their sound really predictable, along with the predictable rhythms as mentioned above.
Lyrically, there's not much going on here. Most of the sexual innuendo of their '70's and '80's albums is gone now, which is probably a good thing after tunes like "Cover You in Oil" and "Stiff Upper Lip" made it seem to me that they were trying too damned hard (no pun). The songs are mostly about rocking or about being loud or whatever. Often it's "Whatever" as I'm not sure I could pass a content test about the lyrical content at this point. The Young brothers wrote the lyrics again, as they have done the past several albums. I will say that they haven't written any really stupid lyrics on Black Ice, which is a nice change from the last few albums which all had a couple songs that made you think "WTF?" about the lyrics.
In summary, there's no new ground broken here, which won't surprise anyone. But the production is absolutely awesome, Johnson sounds better than he has a right to, and the band is playing tight as a drum. I may be a dinosaur, but AC/DC still has a unique sound to me that I'm not getting from a lot of new groups. In fact, with so many bands like The Sword copying Black Sabbath so faithfully, I wonder why there aren't more bands stealing from the AC/DC formula. You have Buck Cherry and a couple others, but still no band sounds like AC/DC. I expected this album to sound like Stiff Upper Lip, which was ok but not great. But Black Ice sounds way better than Stiff Upper Lip.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Black Ice is Red Hot, October 20, 2008
AC/DC have finally released new material after eight years of waiting, not to mention the three or so years that they teased us, releasing statements for that long about how new material was being written and recorded. If I were less faithful, I would've said that the new album would become the next Chinese Democracy, having its release date pushed back X amount of times until everyone lost interest. Yet here's the new album, Black Ice, as promised. I must say, it was worth the wait.
The lead single, "Rock N Roll Train", was released onto radio about a month ago, and it silenced the critics right away (and if they were still saying negative things, you wouldn't be able to hear it over the sheer volume of the track!). All of the classic AC/DC components are here: Ang and Mal's chunky guitar chords, Cliff's driving eighth note bass, Phil's mechanically consistent drums, and of course, Brian's lethal shriek. I was left slack-jawed when I first heard "Train" on the radio, and thankfully, the rest of the album lives up to the track.
Upon the first listen of the album as a whole, I noticed a shift toward more melodic chord progressions, yet instead of another Stiff Upper Lip, the songs stay heavy; some songs ("Anything Goes" in particular) sound like the the more melodic side of The Razor's Edge, to give you an idea of what I'm talking about. There are also a fair amount of songs that pay homage to AC/DC's '80-'85 era ("Money Made"). Over all, fans of AC/DC should not be disappointed with Black Ice, as everything that the band is known and loved for is contained right here; at the same time, those who do not like AC/DC should steer clear of this album as well, despite the amazing rock 'n roll you'd be missing.
One thing I was really looking forward to was hearing extended and ripping guitar solos from Angus á la "Whole Lotta Rosie". Of course, there are solos on Black Ice, but on a lot of songs they seem a bit restrained, and just when I start rocking out, the chorus seems to cut off what Angus was trying to say. Also, the song structures don't seem as varied as previous albums (yes, even by AC/DC's standards). While this is truly not a make-or-break point on this album, it would've been cool to hear some real barn-burners like "Landslide" off of Flick Of The Switch, or "Let There Be Rock".
At the same time, the boys actually try new things; there's slide guitar work on "Stormy May Day", and a calm intro riff on "Rock N Roll Dream" which contrasts well with the heavy chords of the chorus in the same song.
AC/DC really brought out the rock 'n roll with this album, and the large amount of times the words "rock" and "rock 'n roll" appear in the lyrics only reflects this fact. The album clocks in at around 56 minutes, and it seemed like it was finished in half that time, which for me, makes an enjoyable, if not, great album. Black Ice compares favorably to any Brian Johnson-era AC/DC; it is an absolute return to form after the mildly disappointing Stiff Upper Lip. This comes close to the absolute best that I believe AC/DC are capable of producing at this stage in their career, and for these reasons, I rate this 4.5 stars.
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27 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Better Than Expected, October 20, 2008
To call the music on "Black Ice", AC/DC's first CD in eight years, redundant would be stating the obvious. Then again, AC/DC has never been known for experimenting with their music. However, with songs such as "Rock N Roll Train", "She Likes Rock N Roll", "Rock N Roll Dream", and "Rocking All The Way" it's obvious that AC/DC is not interested in breaking new ground. Even titles such as "Big Jack" and "Money Made" bring flashbacks to previous song titles. Complains aside "Black Ice" is a vast improvement over the last two AC/DC releases, "Ballbreaker" and "Stiff Upper Lip". The songs stick in the memory banks much easier this time out. For the most part I liked what I heard, however, I couldn't give this CD a five star review. A five star review should be reserved for classics such as "Back In Black", "Highway To Hell", and "Let There Be Rock". While "Black Ice" isn't a terrible release at all it doesn't compare to previous releases. Still, it's recommended.
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