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AC/DC - Back In Black review



Reviewer:
9.0

1114 users:
8.89
Band: AC/DC
Album: Back In Black
Release date: July 1980


01. Hells Bells
02. Shoot To Thrill
03. What Do You Do For Money Honey
04. Given The Dog A Bone
05. Let Me Put My Love Into You
06. Back In Black
07. You Shook Me All Night Long
08. Have A Drink On Me
09. Shake A Leg
10. Rock And Roll Ain't Noise Pollution

Now before I start this review I have to admit, on hearing this album for the first time I thought Brian Johnson's vocals were way to shrieky and high pitched in places and this almost immediately turned me off the album. However on second listen I realsied just how good a vocalist this guy was, how EFFECTIVE a vocalist he is and actually focused on the songs; boy was I blown away. I had listened to "perfect" (or as close to "perfect" as any album can really get) albums before, but even so, the quality and sheer power of this album stunned me, as I am sure it will continue to do for many more people out there.

Why is it good? Well, for starters, the guitars are tremendous; they are both heavy and commercial, catchy yet awe-inspiring, and this album includes some of hard-rock's all time greatest riffs (see hells bells, Let Me Put my Love into You and Rock and Roll Pollution for the absolute best). Then there is the vocals which I have come to sincerely admire. Brian Johnson's vocals here are everything a bluesy hard rock type of band should be: powerful and sleazy in equal measures. Seriously, some (most) of the vocal instances he contributes for the band in this album are spine-chilling in how utterly powerful and iconic they sound. And then there are the songs themselves, and it IS the songs that really make or break an album. The song quality here is magnificent: Every song just oozes quality, all sounding as if the band put everything they had into them to make them the catchiest, most iconic sounding bunch of hard rock tunes ever committed to the music world. Let Me Put My Love Into You has a fantastic laid back introductory riff, whilst others What Do You For Money and Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution have some of my most adored AC/DC choruses. So, I have listed what I thought of most of the aspects of the album, but how does it work as a whole? How does it jell together? Perfectly. The drums and the guitars and the bass and the vocals all contribute to make this a stunning album, all performances are stunning and couple that together with the momentous production and song quality, and do you know what you have? A near perfect hard-rock album.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 9
Songwriting: 9
Originality: 8
Production: 10

Written by stratorock666 | 12.01.2007




Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.

Guest review by
Gorey
Rating:
10
" He is unique, we don't want someone that would just be a Bon wannabe". These were the words -with the present tense- Angus Young used for his friend Bon Scott during a press conference in 1980.The whole world was learning the death of the legendary and brilliant singer Ronald Belford Scott, 33 years old, by suffocation. Dismay was ib the place, and yet Angus, Malcolm, Cliff and Phil decided to continue the trip ACDC, encouraged by the parents of the defucnt singer.But how can one go on when he's just lost a friend, a brother? The answer was brought up by a kid from Newcastle. Brian Johnson, who was until then the lead singer in Geordie, quickly integrated the bandthat came back to work and released the same year Back In Black, their balck album.

Read more ››
published 07.06.2004 | Comments (9)


Comments

Comments: 11   Visited by: 65 users
26.01.2007 - 07:42
Rating: 8
Doc G.
Full Grown Hoser
Great introduction of the Brian Johnson era, not a weak track on the album.
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"I got a lot of really good ideas, problem is, most of them suck."
- George Carlin
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26.01.2007 - 15:53
stratorock666

yup, not quite as raw as the previous "era", but just as good in my opinion, with such brilliant albums like Flick of the switch and stiff upper lip: two VERY udnerated albums in my opinion. as is the razors edge, lvoed that one as well.
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30.01.2007 - 17:02
Rating: 9
Xtreme Jax
Psycroptipath
One of THE many great releases from them. One of the first albums I can remember listening too as a little kid actually. Dad said I liked listening to it back in 1995 and still love it now.

I like how Brian Johnson keeps the little double meanings to the songs like Bon Scott did, with the example of the track 'Given The Dog A Bone'.

BTW, you wrote BON Johnson in the second paragraph. Not BRIAN Johnson... great proof reading
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Hellcunt Smurf
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13.05.2007 - 04:11
ThrashMetal_Rulz
Account deleted
Angus Young was at the top of his game in this album, every single track was good and I really like the album cover, though it is plain I love that the members of AC/DC dedicated it to Bon Scott, R.I.P.
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13.10.2007 - 09:10
Rating: 10
BurbotsRevenge
Foetal Butchery
3 more votes till its in top 100!!!
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Dark death metal from Sydney: https://www.facebook.com/GolgothanRemains
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13.10.2007 - 21:19
Rating: 8
BloodTears
ANA-thema
Well, what a fun album. Brilliant.
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Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29

Like you could kiss my ass.


My Instagram
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14.10.2007 - 18:58
Harmonic
Account deleted
Ranks up there with the best of them. Over 21 million albums sold to date. That makes Back in Black the 5th best-selling album of all time. Definitely worthy of being in the Top 10 here on Metal Storm. This stuff is so good it's almost better than metal.

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23.11.2009 - 17:49
Rating: 9
Boxcar Willy
yr a kook
I don't think it desevres a 10 in preformance it is a little scratchy some times but still a great album
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14:22 - Marcel Hubregtse
I do your mum

DESTROY DRUM TRIGGERS
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23.11.2009 - 17:56
Marcel Hubregtse
Grumpy Old Fuck
Written by Boxcar Willy on 23.11.2009 at 17:49

I don't think it desevres a 10 in preformance it is a little scratchy some times but still a great album


He didn't give it a 10 in performance but in production
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Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal

Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight
Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.)
05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996

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23.11.2009 - 18:02
Rating: 9
Boxcar Willy
yr a kook
Oops sorry
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14:22 - Marcel Hubregtse
I do your mum

DESTROY DRUM TRIGGERS
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18.02.2016 - 21:32
Bad English
Tage Westerlund
I think this is best bands album so far
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Life is to short for LOVE, there is many great things to do online !!!

Stormtroopers of Death - ''Speak English or Die''
apos;'
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I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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