Style: heavy metal, blues-rock
Label: Columbia
Year: 2014
Home: Australia
Members: Angus Young ~ lead guitar
Brian Johnson ~ lead vocals
Stevie Young ~ rhythm guitar/b. vocals
Cliff Williams ~ bass/b. vocals
Phil Rudd ~ drums
The title track opens the album with a simple guitar riff lasting a couple bars. Its nothing crazy, or interesting like "Thunderstuck" or "Hell's Bells." Just a basic groove soon joined by bass, drums, vocals. Lead guitar lines are thrown in sparsely until a frantic solo closes the song at 3 minutes. Its stripped back & bare bones. Its AC/DC like you haven't heard in years. Being a lean blues-rock machine is the name of the game here. Its their shortest album of 35 minutes, but its a solid 35 minutes that holds up as well as any other album. This is their 15th album, yet somehow take the very basic blues-rock template which they've done without variation & make it feel fresh. They strip it down, simplify it & had me hooked from start to finish. There's a lot of breathing room on the album. Its hard to really describe, other than saying its the opposite of the commercial The Razor's Edge. That's my fave album, but sounds so slick & stuffed compared to this. Check out the gritty blues of "Hard Times" & the bluesy swagger of "Got Some Rock'n'Roll Thunder." I can't remember them have such bluesy grit in awhile, just pure traditional blues. I have to mention "Rock The Blues Away" which sounded like AC/DC does country music a la Kansas. Not what I was expecting. Since originally drafting this a month ago I've come back to this album to listen again & recommended it to a few. I'm pretty much calling it my second fave album & its a must hear. I'd even recommend this over Power Up!.
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