AC/DC Black ice


Well, there been three important releases in recent weeks:
Metallica "Death Magnetic"; Guns N' Roses "Chinese Democracy" and AC/DC "Black Ice".
I posted on the first two, and now just completed my first listen of the "Black Ice".
What a huge difference!!!
The best AC/DC in ages: unmistakable feeling of inspiration and spontaneity, all 15 tracks are done on a single breath, and not a single bad one.
Absolutely impeccable sense of rhytm and melody, if you will.
Music is stripped down to it's bare essentials, as truly great rock supposed to be like, IMHO.
There is nothing there, that detracts from the musical message, not a single slow down, no annoying moments whatsoever.
I have to give it to Angus and Malcolm, who wrote all the tracks- they are some of greatest R&R songwriters ever.
honest and inspired album.
What a stark difference with the other two- Metallica is pretty much unlistenable, very tiresome and calculated.
If I had to sum it up:
Metallica- FINISHED!
Axl is a pompous, pretentious ass
AC/DC- outstanding!
P.S. AC/DC recording quality- miles ahead of the other two
maril555
The main reason the AC/DC album sounds so good, and uncompressed, is Brendan O'Brien. He is the best hard rock producer and engineer of the last decade - in the sense of having great ears. No one else as consistently makes rock CD's that sound like a live band in a live room - Black Crowes Southern Harmony; Soundgarden Superunknown; all of the Stone Temple Pilots discs; Rage Against the Machine's studio albums; and so on - these Brendan O'Brien produced discs are as close as one can get to "reference quality" hard rock. The only other guy who comes close to me is Jack Joseph Puig, who did Amorica by the Crowes and the Jellyfish Spilt Milk album, among others.
You forgot The Boss. Here is a photo from the Southern Tracks Atlanta Studio where Brendan O'Brien works - notice the custom George Augspurger main speakers top right.
Not sure what happened with Springsteen, but then again I don't really listen to him. The other O'Brien discs are not diminished by one aberrant result.
Ozzy,

Springsteen uses Bob Ludwig for Mastering - Bob uses Eggleston Ivy's (his own custom design) - might that explain it? ;-) Magic was particularly bad. Anyway if you use Egglestons for mastering...just kidding ....but it is true that Bob Ludwig has moved more to the dark side of the loudness wars recently (producers and artists demand it)

I think it is definitely intentional with Springsteen - I would guess he insists on it - it is always over compressed even Born to Run was bad long before compression became a terrible problem in the industry. It is probably because Bruce's mainstream audience are those who drive Ford pickups with huge towing capacity - noisy cabs on rough roads make compressed music the natural choice...