AC/DC, the review of "Highway To Hell"

AC/DC, the review of “Highway To Hell”

AC/DC

Highway To Hell

Columbia Records/Legacy Recordings

AC/DC's first “era” reaches its climax with their sixth studio album: Highway To Hell (1979). For the occasion, the band is supported by the producer “Mutt” Lange: a wizard of the console and of the arrangements who helps Angus & co to unleash all their power, also taking advantage of some refined tricks of a consummate professional that makes the album a masterpiece. And, in fact, despite the cascade of hard rock contained in the songs, the album even manages to calm the now evident nervousness of the record company (still worried about the angularity of their sound, always judged not “marketable” enough: where are the hits that smash the charts?) obtaining a very honorable placement in the US Top 20: 17th place in the ranking drawn up by Billboard.

The title track already makes the mood clear: explosive, but irresistibly pandering at the same time… a textbook piece, which is instantly engraved in the history of rock (the now legendary title, moreover, is the stuff of Angus' sack which, at the Asked by a reporter to describe the grueling 1978 tour, he replied, “It was a fucking highway to hell.”) And then on the B side there is none other than the furiosa If You Want Blood: the liberating scream of AC/DC when, as true rock'n'roll gladiators, they take to the stage – and which, in 1978, had already given the title to the group's first live album.

The great success of the LP was pure fuel for AC/DC who, exhilarated and very excited, at the beginning of 1980 already set to work to follow it up and sort out the ideas for new songs that they already had in hand. Unfortunately, as is known, Highway To Hell it will be the last work with Bon Scott on vocals. The singer died in London, on a freezing night in February 1980.

Columbia Records/Legacy Recordings, on the occasion of the band's 50th anniversary, reissues the entire AC/DC catalog on gold vinyl. All LPs – in limited edition – are accompanied by a 12″x12″ print, different for each album, to collect and frame.

Tracklist:

Highway To Hell

Girls Got Rhythm

Walk All Over You

Touch Too Much

Beating Around The Bush

Shot Down In Flames

Get It Hot

If You Want Blood (You've Got It)

Love Hungry Man

Night Prowler