AC/DC Black ice


Well, there been three important releases in recent weeks:
Metallica "Death Magnetic"; Guns N' Roses "Chinese Democracy" and AC/DC "Black Ice".
I posted on the first two, and now just completed my first listen of the "Black Ice".
What a huge difference!!!
The best AC/DC in ages: unmistakable feeling of inspiration and spontaneity, all 15 tracks are done on a single breath, and not a single bad one.
Absolutely impeccable sense of rhytm and melody, if you will.
Music is stripped down to it's bare essentials, as truly great rock supposed to be like, IMHO.
There is nothing there, that detracts from the musical message, not a single slow down, no annoying moments whatsoever.
I have to give it to Angus and Malcolm, who wrote all the tracks- they are some of greatest R&R songwriters ever.
honest and inspired album.
What a stark difference with the other two- Metallica is pretty much unlistenable, very tiresome and calculated.
If I had to sum it up:
Metallica- FINISHED!
Axl is a pompous, pretentious ass
AC/DC- outstanding!
P.S. AC/DC recording quality- miles ahead of the other two
maril555

Showing 3 responses by jswarncke

Sweet. I have good tickets for the ATL show on Dec 16th. I'll buy it this weekend.
The main reason the AC/DC album sounds so good, and uncompressed, is Brendan O'Brien. He is the best hard rock producer and engineer of the last decade - in the sense of having great ears. No one else as consistently makes rock CD's that sound like a live band in a live room - Black Crowes Southern Harmony; Soundgarden Superunknown; all of the Stone Temple Pilots discs; Rage Against the Machine's studio albums; and so on - these Brendan O'Brien produced discs are as close as one can get to "reference quality" hard rock. The only other guy who comes close to me is Jack Joseph Puig, who did Amorica by the Crowes and the Jellyfish Spilt Milk album, among others.
Not sure what happened with Springsteen, but then again I don't really listen to him. The other O'Brien discs are not diminished by one aberrant result.