Thrash metal at its most insane. The band seriously sounds like the undead come to life - they're playing too fast to be human! The singer screams in the hysterical voice of a person about to murdered. And this weird reverb over everything makes it sound like they're playing in a tomb. The Accused indeed often sound like the undead come back to life to hunt you down, kill you -- and LAUGH about it. This is not morbid death metal to make you feel bad; it's moronically fast hyperspeed thrashcore ... read more

The only reason that Black Ice doesn't deserve an 8 is because it is far too long (15 songs, 55 minutes) and nearly every song is performed at the same medium tempo. However, a 7 is a no-brainer because when I sit down and listen carefully to each song - on its own, as an individual track - I honestly love 2/3rds of them, and even the lesser tracks all have at least one aspect that makes me happy, gets my rocks off, leaves me torn and frayed, rips this joint, shakes my hips, lets it loose, ... read more

A WONDERFULLY SURPRISING NEAR-COMEBACK. To think I spent the last five years worrying that AC/DC was all washed up. Sheesh! No no no. This isn't loud, dynamic and kickass as their classic records, but it's honestly GOOD.
So what's the deal? Why's it so good when Ballbreaker was so the opposite of good? Several reasons. First of all, the Young brothers bothered writing RIFFS this time around, rather than just playing four chords in varying orders like on the last record. The guitar playing on ... read more

Imagine coming home and finding a pile of dog waste resting on your turntable. Jesus Christ. This is horrible! The former greatest hard rock band of all time has regressed into a sickeningly derivative three-chord crap machine. They call it "a return to our roots"; I call it an energy-free embarrassment made by a bunch of washed-up old bags. It has ONE great song. ONE. "Hard As A Rock" is a gorgeous pop guitar anthem. The rest is pathetic. It sounds like they went into the ... read more

I originally gave this album FIVE out of ten, (which explaineth all the hatemail), but I was totally off. I don't know what the hell I was thinking. Part of the problem, I think, is that Brian Johnson sounds absolutely abysmal. They've removed the reverb mask, so it's painfully clear exactly how much his voice has deteriorated. Quite frankly, he sounds like a dying old fat guy shouting from his wheelchair. It hurts. It hurts me personally. In the penis.
But here's the thing -- Angus and Malcolm ... read more

This is a really good, underrated album. They seem genuinely smart again. The guitar lines overlap into some of the most clever they've ever attempted to write, and even the poppier songs are performed in an interesting manner. "Heatseeker" was the hit, but the rest are just as deserving of "hit" status. "Meanstreak" actually has a distinctive bass line!!!! Plus, "Some Sin For Nuthin," "Nick of Time," "Kissin' Dynamite," and ... read more

Disappointing, but only because the rest of their albums were so darn great. This one is perfectly enjoyable, but much less consistent than the past decade of nonstop kickass acdcrnr.
So what happened? Well, first of all, they replaced their drummer, leaving the Young brothers as the only original members. Did this have an effect on the band? Possibly, yes. Also, the Young brothers mixed the record poorly. Thirdly then, their singer has started to lose his voice. They try to mask his condition ... read more

Basically Back In Black Part 3. Same voice. Same sound. Same style. They produced it themselves this time, but still, nobody wanted to hear it. Too bad. I think it "rules," as the kids say. It's also faster and much more hook-driven than the slower, bluesier For Those About To Rock.
You know what, in life? This would be a good time to address the popular notion that AC/DC just keep writing the same songs over and over and over again. This is simply NOT TRUE (and/or a lie)! Flick Of ... read more

Awfully good album title. Of course, everyone was bound to be disappointed with this record, because there was no way that AC/DC was going to be able to top Back In Black, but this is still a terrific album. Truly. I promise. It's a bit slower and more demonic than their previous material, but Brian's still ripping it up, Mutt Lange is still producing it up and Malcolm is still using song titles like "Let's Get It Up." The slow bluesy mean-as-nails trudge feel of several tracks might ... read more

If you don't own Back In Black, you're wrong. If you don't like Back In Black, you're a fucking idiot. That should be the end of my review, but I suppose I could go on.
This is where AC/DC picked up a new singer - Brian Johnson of Geordie "fame" - who turned out to be (in my own opinion, of course) the greatest heavy metal singer of all time...until he lost his voice around 1984. But man, for those few fleeting years when he was the greatest heavy metal singer of all time, AC/DC were, ... read more

Wow! AC/DC do a pop album! Yeah, they were sorta poppy already, but never so sheer and sleek! The producer, Robert John Lange, taking a cue from whoever had produced the Ramones's Rocket To Russia a couple years earlier, cleaned up their sound in an attempt to bring out the pop elements from behind the wall of guitar racket. You know how it is. Everyone wants a hit at some point. And AC/DC got it. The title track, though slower than a huge pile of melting horsepoop, was a minor smash. And it is ... read more

Oh my dear. Another absolutely heavenly AC/DC album. They replaced the bass player before they made this one, but, as you might expect, nothing changed. The lean mean guitar sound approaches tinniness at some points (especially in "Rock And Roll Damnation," which may very well not have a bass guitar in it at all, as far as I can hear), but the songs are terrific.
In fact, "Down Payment Blues" is one of my favorite songs in the world. There's nothing really to it, but I just ... read more

Rocks like fookin' ais, but I'm tempted to drop its grade back to an 8 because there's not enough songs! Eight songs? Why not nine? Aaaah, still...the title track nearly out-Ramoneses the Ramones (especially that opening riff - but even after that goes away, the drums still book along like a terribly speedy automobile), "Overdose" is as hypnotic as you might hope, and "Go Down" (which could be about...oh....anything!!! Who can tell what a band this SUBTLE could possibly be ... read more

This is when they REALLY started to kick ass, beginning with the amazing opening riff of the classic title track (you can just hear the guitars growling "ass... KICK ass... KICK ass.... KICK ass..."); unfortunately, then it goes away. But it comes back at the end of the song to kick your ass some more (plus Angus hammers some more - still two years before Van Halen's debut!). Oh, but there's much more to this album than the title track. Decades more. Well, not decades more, but more ... read more

Pretty much T.N.T. (so they called it High Voltage), but they replaced "Rocker" and "School Days" with "She's Got Balls" and "Little Lover," two of the weaker tracks from the Australian debut. Whatever.

Aside from a slight overreliance on that cliched blues-rock riffs, this is an all-around terrific 70's rock album. It kicks off with a pop rocker called "It's A Long Way To The Top If You Wanna Rock'N'Roll" that utilizes bagpipes in a wonderful harmonious melodic manner that to this day could bring a tear to the eye of even the most cynical jaded post-modern Squirmbo fan. Next comes the great "Rock'N'Roll Singer," with its inspired Tennessee Williams-esque couplet, ... read more

A damn impressive debut. The raw distorted electric guitars are louder than a jacket, and I can't tell you how much I love it when an album has one guitar in the left speaker and the other in the right. With this stuff, in fact, most of the time, it sounds like your speakers are just a pair of guitar amps and the rest of the band is playing inside your stereo - an actual possibility, considering the spatial dinkiness of this particular incarnation of the band (Bon Scott, vocals, 5'6" / ... read more

Hear those sweet blues licks emanating through my front door? That's AC/DC's first single! With original lead vocalist Dave Evans! The guitar tones are much more traditionally '70sy blues-rocky than they would be by the time the band sat down (or standed, depending on chairs or not) to record High Voltage (Australian Version). The music itself therefore sounds more traditional too (though that feverish up-and-down lead lick of "Can I Sit Next To You Girl" will always stand apart from ... read more

Perhaps a bit fed up with touring endlessly to no profitable end, the 40 Grit slices of home went a bit more commercial on their eponymous second Metal Blade debut, entitled Nothing But Cucumbers. The dark side of this development is that the riffs aren't anywhere near as novel as those on album A; the corresponding light side of this yin-yang "glass half-empty/glass half-full" battle between good and evil, Scylla and Charybdis, irresistible object and unmoveable thingy, is that the ... read more

Not to gross you out right off the bat here, but I've got a new pet complaint I need to air, lest it tear a rift between me and the rest of the world. Please forgive the grotesque language I'm about to use, but the only thesaurus I own is A Hundred And One Horse Jokes:

Who the hell decided that it's okay to fart at the urinal? The urinal is for quietly draining your kidneys of urine; if you have to make stupid "BRAAP!" noises and stink up the joint, have the common sense to lock ... read more