REVIEW: AC/DC – For Those About To Rock We Salute You (Atlantic)
This was the first AC/DC record to hit the all important number one spot in the USA which was an amazing feat for a rock band to achieve at the time, although the lads would be the first to agree that the songs (let alone the album sales) pale in comparison to Back In Black which was released the previous year. Then again what would be songs burning on half flame for AC/DC would be a full on pyro massacre for any lesser band.
The overall feel is a little flatter than AC/DC had ever been before. This was partly due to working once again with renowned perfectionist Robert John “Mutt” Lange. His production techniques and the repetitive nature of his recording style is legendry, spending day after day looking for a snare drum sound that sometimes may just never be achievable. Even the best producer on Earth can suck the life out of songs by making bands play them again and again and again. Yet on Breaking The Rules the hours spent detailing the drums paid dividends with Phil Rudd smashing seven shades of crap out of his tubs. It sounds massive. Yet even with long hours and gruelling schedules the relationships within the band didn’t break until the course of recording and the aftermath of the following album, Flick Of The Switch. The bands resolve was still strong, that of a gang, be it a rather wealthy one. The only time during this period the group faltered was when they headlined the Donington Monsters Of Rock Festival a couple of months before the release of the album. From the footage I have seen the band seemed a little under rehearsed and turned in a somewhat lacklustre performance. Not that the crowd minded. They were going completely batshit in parts.
So what makes the album a little flat? Well it isn’t the title track, that’s a stone cold classic rock anthem. It’s just slower than mid-tempo and thuds its way through almost six minutes of groove laden riffs and canon blasts. Putting the song on today and cranking it up is still a bombastic experience when the canons blast during the breakdown part a split second after Brian Johnson yells “Fire!”. It’s guitar crunch heaven. Elsewhere two other tracks keep the bar raised improbably high. Let’s Get It Up could easily find its way on Back In Black’s flawless set of songs and Evil Walks has a rich swagger to it that feels menacing during the chorus and reminiscent of Hells Bells from Black In Black of the verse.
Yet that is where the greatness ends. Snowballed has a cool juxtaposition between the rattling verses and the stop start chorus and Inject The Venom ticks all the right boxes. The riffs are great, the chorus is a belter and the solo is slick but it just seems so half arsed it’s incredibly frustrating for the fan knowing that during this period AC/DC had the chops to be the best band in the world. Night Of The Long Knives is pretty unremarkable except for the fact that the band should have sued the hell out of Motley Crue for nicking the main riff for their Dr. Feelgood opus and as for C.O.D. well, it’s a pile of steaming dung fresh from the butt of a cow with a bad case of food poisoning.
It’s this reviewer’s opinion that this was the first of AC/DC’s records that is not an essential release, it contains some great music as did all of the band’s following records to this day but a after Black In Black there is always simply too much filler.
