Such are the near-generational gaps between latter-day AC/DC albums that it's always tempting to hail the arrival of a new one as a return to form. Black Ice arrives a whopping eight years after the band's last offering, Stiff Upper Lip, but one chorus into "Rock N Roll Train", the wise man would conclude that any evolution here is as slow and incremental as, well, evolution. A ...
Manufacturer: sonyBMG
Manufacturer: Roadrunner Records
Manufacturer: Polydor
The death of the lead singer would spell the end of most bands. But most bands aren't AC/DC. After Bon Scott's overindulgence in alcohol lead to his undignified end, lead guitarist Angus Young and Co. simply found a singer that sounded exactly the same and carried on. The result: Back In Black, the most successful album of their lengthy career. Like every other AC/DC album, it doesn't ...
Manufacturer: Sony
Nickleback haven't made it this far by throwing their audience difficult curveballs, and All The Right Reasons--the Canadian quartet's fourth full-length--continues their run of uncomplicated, testosterone-soaked hard-rock albums without a wobble. Frontman Chad Kroeger still approaches the act of songcraft like he's chopping wood, grunting and sweating under the weight of gritted-teeth ...
Manufacturer: Roadrunner
Manufacturer: SonyBMG
What Highway to Hell has that Back in Black doesn't is Bon Scott, AC / DC's original lead singer who died just months after this album was released. Scott had a rusty, raspy, scream of a voice, like he might break into a coughing fit at any moment. In other words, on crunchy, hook-heavy metal classics like the title track and on "Get It Hot" which is more roadhouse rock than metal, ...
As many of their early fans would agree, Danish-Californian quartet Metallica seemed to lose it around the mid 90s. Dropping the hard-nosed, blue-collar appeal they had cultivated with their initial slew of albums, the band began to pander to a more commercial audience with diluted outings such as Load, Re-Load, Garage Inc.--not to mention 2003's risible St Anger. ...
Manufacturer: Mercury Records
What once seemed Queen's greatest liabilities--a preening flamboyance and pompous, overwrought theatricality--have ironically become their most enduring charms in a grey, postmodern pop-music landscape. While it eschews the glammy, pre-punk hard rock of live faves such as "Stone Cold Crazy" and "Tie Your Mother Down" for the band's more quirky club-beat string of latter-day hits , this 51-track ...
Manufacturer: Parlophone/EMI
If time is the true test, then Guns N' Roses' Greatest Hits confirms that they really were one of the greatest rock & roll bands in the world. While, in retrospect, fellow graduates of the class of 1987 are about as cool as poodle perms and spandex, the LA bad boys still rock like gods. Listening to the sun-drenched chords of "Paradise City" and the ensuing stadium-sized swagger is enough ...
Manufacturer: Polydor Group
