Rock band AC/DC. Photo / AP
Guns? Knitting? It's still as hard as it always to find a sticking-to phrase that describes the adhesive power of AC/DC when it comes to being glued to their old ways.
Sure, what with dementia diagnosis for departed guitarist and band backbone Malcolm Young (and the legal troubles of New
Zealand-based drummer Phil Rudd) this could easily be seen as their second triumph over adversity album, having pulled off that trick with their 1980 classic, Back in Black, after the death of original singer Bon Scott and his replacement by the iron-lunged, blowtorch-throated Brian Johnson.
But apart from a dedication in the liner notes and a poignant pic of the Young brothers' signature guitars, there's not much in the songs that acknowledge the band's troubles.
Rock the Blues Away is about going to the pub to play pool and "drink the night away/til the break of day". Likewise, Hard Times may mention the word "misery" but it ain't exactly group therapy as Angus Young pulls off yet another string-straining solo.
Still, as a latter-day AC/DC album it has some advantages over its predecessors, like 2008's Black Ice. It's a tight 11-song 35 minutes for one thing. And producer Brendan O'Brien has helped the band find the space in its riffs, especially on the title track, which gets the set off to such a cool start, and Rock The House, possibly the closest AC/DC have come to the slippery fluidity of Led Zeppelin.
