Maps of Music

Black Ice (2008)

Where the lyrics of Black Ice take you, and where it was really made.

Black Ice was recorded at the same Vancouver studio where the band's previous album, Stiff Upper Lip, was made.

Key places

Recording at The Warehouse Studio (2008)

Recording site Warehouse Studios — Recording started at The Warehouse Studio in Vancouver on 3 March 2008 and lasted eight weeks. Stiff Upper Lip had also been recorded at this studio. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Black Ice: fifteenth studio album by the Australian rock band AC/DC
• First released in Europe on 17 October 2008, international release on 20 October 2008
• Produced by Brendan O'Brien
• First original recordings since Stiff Upper Lip (2000)
• Eight-year gap, the longest between AC/DC's successive studio albums
• Final studio release featuring founding rhythm guitarist Malcolm Young
• Malcolm left the band in September 2014 after a dementia diagnosis and died three years later

Background

• Development delayed by an injury to bass guitarist Cliff Williams and a label change from Elektra Records to Sony Music
• Angus and Malcolm Young first composed in London in 2003
• O'Brien aimed to recapture the rock sound of the band's early work, unlike the blues orientation of Stiff Upper Lip
• Runaway Train was the first title considered, but it was rejected because many musicians had used it
• Black Ice was chosen because it refers to gigs played during winter in Scotland

Recording

• Recording took place in March and April 2008 at The Warehouse Studio in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
• Recording started on 3 March 2008 and lasted eight weeks
• Songs were recorded in batches of three to keep the sessions interesting
• Most songs were recorded live in the studio, with sparse overdubs and effects from engineer Mike Fraser
• Performances were first captured on analogue equipment, then digitised for mixing and overdubs

Cover

• Cover art drawn by Joshua Marc Levy, art director for Columbia and a longtime fan of the band
• Four covers exist: the standard edition has a red logo, the deluxe edition a blue logo, and two variants have yellow or white logos

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• AC/DC are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in November 1973 by brothers Malcolm and Angus Young.
• The band name comes from the AC/DC symbol on the adapter of their sister Margaret's sewing machine.
• Their music has been described as hard rock, blues rock and heavy metal, though the band calls itself simply a rock and roll band.
• Their early sound was rooted in Australian pub rock.

Members

• Angus Young (lead guitar) and Malcolm Young (rhythm guitar) were the founding core of the band until Malcolm retired in 2014.
• Bon Scott was lead vocalist until his death in February 1980.
• Brian Johnson became lead vocalist in 1980.
• Phil Rudd, Cliff Williams and Stevie Young have also played key roles.

Career

• Their 1980 album Back in Black became one of the best-selling albums of all time.
• The band has sold an estimated 200 million records worldwide.
• They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Metacritic: 69 out of 100 based on 24 mainstream critic reviews
• Classic Rock: 7 out of 10, praising a stronger sense of purpose than Stiff Upper Lip and catchier hooks
• The Village Voice (Richard Bienstock): O'Brien's production restored a sonority closer to the 1970s albums
• The A.V. Club (Aaron Burgess): the most inspired AC/DC album since The Razors Edge
• Most critics praised the music and its resemblance to the classic AC/DC sound

Reappraisal

• Some critics found the album inconsistent, overly long or formulaic
• Entertainment Weekly (Clark Collis): less varied than the monochromatic Stiff Upper Lip
• Rolling Stone (Brian Hiatt): felt longer than its running time because of a stretch of throwaway rockers
• AllMusic (Stephen Thomas Erlewine): the tracks after Big Jack settled into a too-comfortable groove
• Many critics complained about the lack of variation, made worse by the long track list

Records

• Debuted at number one on album charts in 29 countries
• Second best-selling album worldwide in 2008, behind Coldplay's Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends
• Shipped six million copies worldwide by December 2008
• US: sold 1.915 million copies by 31 December 2008 (Nielsen SoundScan), certified 2× Platinum by the RIAA
• Canada: number one for three consecutive weeks, with sales over 200,000 copies
• Germany: sales of 1 million copies and 5× platinum certification
• 52nd Grammy Awards: War Machine won Best Hard Rock Performance
• ARIA Music Awards 2009: won Best Rock Album and Highest Selling Album
• Rolling Stone's Top 50 Albums of 2008: 41st place

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Recording sessions were split into batches of three songs to keep things interesting and avoid overextended sessions.
• Malcolm first suggested a photograph of the 1895 Montparnasse derailment for the cover, but dropped the idea after finding that Mr. Big had used it for Lean Into It.
• An unknown number of vinyl copies were pressed incorrectly, with side 1B carrying tracks from The Clash's Live at Shea Stadium.
• The album was not sold digitally at release; it reached iTunes along with the rest of the catalogue on 19 November 2012.
• The entire album leaked online one week before its official release.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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