James Justice's Album Reviews
My second review just had to be about my second favorite band of all time - AC/DC.
When I was about 14 years old my dad brought me a copy of "Back in Black" and since that day my life changed drastically: I chose rock 'n' roll as my new religion and AC/DC guided me throughout the years with each album being near perfection of their musicianship.
Their 15th studio effort entitled "Black Ice" came out on October 20th 2008 and I remember how anticipated I was, waiting for their glorious comeback after 8 years of silence since the last album. It peaked at number one in 29 countries, spawned 4 singles and sold over 8 million copies worldwide (2 in the US alone); despite that the album was met with criticism anyhow, mostly because of its length (55 minutes 20 seconds), Allmusic.com rated it only 3.0/5, Rolling Stone - 3.5/5 and what am I thinking about it after all these years?
It's still brilliant.
Sure it does have some weak spots and filler tracks such "Smash 'n' grab", "Wheels" and "Rocking all the way" but the rest of the album sounds exactly what you've grown to love about AC/DC: "Rock 'n' Roll train" kicks off the album perfectly and closes on one of the best songs in many years, album's title track, which contains the most badass riff and solo work by Angus Young. In my opinion, the highlight of the album is Brian Johnson's vocals which improved greatly since two preceding albums - here he sounds fresh and revitalized. Album's rhythm section, in the faces of Phil Rudd's drum machine like but powerful playing, Cliff Williams' minimalistic but creative and at times funky bass lines, and Malcolm Young's fantastic riffs (which sadly turned out to be his last work with the group) is outstanding through and through. When it comes to Angus though, AC/DC's music doesn't revolve around his playing anymore in contrast to their early efforts - now it's all about grooves and rhythms and all of the songs are built around them; guitar solos are still present but they don't stick out as much as they used to and Angus' lead work is merely another crafty tool in the mighty rock 'n' roll machine called AC/DC.
So, my rating for "Black Ice" would be 4.0/5
When I was about 14 years old my dad brought me a copy of "Back in Black" and since that day my life changed drastically: I chose rock 'n' roll as my new religion and AC/DC guided me throughout the years with each album being near perfection of their musicianship.
Their 15th studio effort entitled "Black Ice" came out on October 20th 2008 and I remember how anticipated I was, waiting for their glorious comeback after 8 years of silence since the last album. It peaked at number one in 29 countries, spawned 4 singles and sold over 8 million copies worldwide (2 in the US alone); despite that the album was met with criticism anyhow, mostly because of its length (55 minutes 20 seconds), Allmusic.com rated it only 3.0/5, Rolling Stone - 3.5/5 and what am I thinking about it after all these years?
It's still brilliant.
Sure it does have some weak spots and filler tracks such "Smash 'n' grab", "Wheels" and "Rocking all the way" but the rest of the album sounds exactly what you've grown to love about AC/DC: "Rock 'n' Roll train" kicks off the album perfectly and closes on one of the best songs in many years, album's title track, which contains the most badass riff and solo work by Angus Young. In my opinion, the highlight of the album is Brian Johnson's vocals which improved greatly since two preceding albums - here he sounds fresh and revitalized. Album's rhythm section, in the faces of Phil Rudd's drum machine like but powerful playing, Cliff Williams' minimalistic but creative and at times funky bass lines, and Malcolm Young's fantastic riffs (which sadly turned out to be his last work with the group) is outstanding through and through. When it comes to Angus though, AC/DC's music doesn't revolve around his playing anymore in contrast to their early efforts - now it's all about grooves and rhythms and all of the songs are built around them; guitar solos are still present but they don't stick out as much as they used to and Angus' lead work is merely another crafty tool in the mighty rock 'n' roll machine called AC/DC.
So, my rating for "Black Ice" would be 4.0/5
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