AC/DC: Let There Be Rock (HARD ROCK): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

After 2 albums (3 with the Australian versions) of an excellent quality and intensive tours (sometimes several concerts in the same evening), AC/DC is beginning to get some kind of acknowledgement. Everything will change with this album, a real concentrate of powerful and energetic hard-rock. While the early masters of the genre (Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple...) were in serious difficulty facing the rise of the punk movement, the Young Co. turned up to make everyone agree and impose themselves in the pantheon of high voltage electric music.

The production takes on a higher dimension and the sound becomes titanically powerful, especially on the side of Angus who is perpetually on the edge of distortion and who serves us a real tidal wave of solos where 220 volts seem to run through his fingers. The rhythmic, a real reinforced concrete foundation, is of a fearsome and snarling power. It should be noted that this is the last album with Mark Evans, who will not be able to withstand the pressure inherent in the success that will follow this record. As for Bon Scott, he takes the role of preacher of the good metal word and his hoarse, warm and powerful voice comes to bewitch us between each of the explosions released by Angus.

And the tracks, you might say? 8 cluster bombs that carry everything away in their path, with 2 monuments that stand out from the others. The eponymous track first of all, where for a little more than 6 minutes, Pastor Scott and his choir deliver the history of rock'n'roll reviewed and corrected in the Australian way. While the good word of the verses is delivered on the sole support of the bass and drums at a euphoric rhythm, the choruses lead to scathing solos that come out at the speed of a dragster at full throttle. The other essential track is the gravelly "Whole Lotta Rosie" inspired by a gorgeous Tasmanian groupie and which raises the tension to its paroxysm with alternating slamming riffs and brief silences to better surprise us with real explosions. Also to be noted is the passage before the solo where Angus Young and the rhythm section fight in a duel worthy of the greatest duels of the Far-West.

The other tracks also deserve their place on the Olympus of hard rock. "Go Down" opens the hostilities with its bouncy tempo like a big kangaroo on amphetamines, but it doesn't stop us from getting into the swing of things with a particularly snarling rhythm section. "Dog Eat Dog" continues to clean up with its V8-like drumming before the explosion of "Let There Be Rock". The vicious 'Bad Boy Boogie' follows with its slightly syncopated riff and the underlying sneers of a Bon Scott on the verge of provocation, followed by its little brother 'Problem Child', already present on 'Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap' and which replaces the excellent 'Crabsody In Blues' present on the original Australian edition. "Overdose' begins with a series of arpeggios before tachycardia with a frenetic boogie. Finally, 'Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be' explodes from the very first notes and then continues with a particularly blistering riff, before our beloved 'Rosie' concludes this journey into the heart of this hard rock monument.

Such a masterpiece will unfortunately not go unnoticed and will give AC/DC its letters of nobility by putting the British and European market at its feet and by opening the doors of the US market. The machine was launched and nothing can't stop it. - Official website

AC/DC

LET THERE BE ROCK

ATLANTIC RECORDS

HARD ROCK