Band : AC/DC

Album Title : Rock N Roll Train

Label : Columbia Records

Distributor : Sony - BMG

Release Date : 03/10/2008

Release : CDS

This is without a doubt the best single of AC/DC since “Thunderstruck”. This first single from their new album “Black Ice” opens like “Highway to Hell” but without the rhythmic interest. You hear Angus alone and with a snare hit on four the drums enter. The chorus is painted by numbers and the refrain “you know she’s just like a runaway train” sounds very amazing. For the first time in decades the Young brothers have a guitar sound that stands alongside their previous work. The drums are full and sharp, Malcolm is in the right channel, Angus is in the left and Brian Johnson has lost an octave and a half without missing a step. Of course it’s still gleefully campy idiot-rock with nonsensical lyrics vaguely detailing a misogynist stereotype but AC/DC’s brand of bad rock is inimitable. But this is an AC/DC more vigorous and present in the world than any of its contemporaries. Whether it’s Angus Young’s self-overcoming will that did it, it doesn’t matter. It’s awesome and great that this band is back with a world conquering ambition and with nothing to prove.

75/100

Guido Claes.