AC/DC - Power Up review: Roaring back from the brink of extinction

Unexpected return: AC/DC are back together again after a period of turmoil
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David Smyth13 November 2020

It’s all here, ready to be ticked off: the AC/DC checklist, including Brian Johnson’s mighty screech, the hurricane notes flying from the lead guitar of 65-year-old school uniform-wearer Angus Young, and lyrics that cover the vocabulary of heavy rock in its entirety, from fire and explosions to wild women and booze. 

It feels strange to claim that you can rely on AC/DC after a spell of unprecedented turmoil for the band, who formed in Sydney in 1973 and went on to see their Back in Black album become the world’s biggest seller after Thriller. 

The existence of this 17th album seemed highly unlikely as recently as 2016. That year, drummer Phil Rudd was in the middle of eight months of home detention after pleading guilty to drugs charges and “threatening to kill”. AC/DC were finishing their Rock or Bust world tour with Axl Rose of Guns N’ Roses on vocals, as Johnson had become too deaf to perform. 

Then bassist Cliff Williams announced his retirement after 40 years in the band. Young’s older brother Malcolm had already been forced to quit due to dementia and died in 2017, less than a month after a third brother, early AC/DC producer George.

Rudd, Williams and Johnson are all now back at work, the latter thanks to a miracle experimental hearing aid. Shot in the Dark, the single, boasts the greatest riff among many, Demon Fire is as wild and ridiculous as its title suggests, and the bullish intro of No Man’s Land is one of many moments that will make the listener long for the opportunity to see these resurrected rockers play live one more time. Don’t bet against it.

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