Black Ice (album)

Black Ice
Studio album by
Publication (s)	October 17, 2008
admission	March - April 2008
Label (s)	Columbia Records
Format (s)	CD, LP
Genre (s)	Hard rock , blues rock
Title (number)	15th
running time	56:34
occupation	Singing : Brian Johnson Lead guitar : Angus Young Rhythm guitar : Malcolm Young Bass : Cliff Williams Drums : Phil Rudd
production	Brendan O'Brien
Studio (s)	The Warehouse Studio, Vancouver (Canada)
chronology Stiff Upper Lip (2000) Black Ice Backtracks (2009)

Black Ice ( Engl. "Ice") is the 14th international studio album of the Australian hard rock band AC / DC . In Australia it is already the 15th studio album of the group. It was released on October 17th, 2008, more than eight years after Stiff Upper Lip , resulting in the longest period between two AC / DC albums to date. The album was produced by Brendan O'Brien and recorded and mixed by Mike Fraser at Warehouse Studio in Vancouver, Canada. At 56 minutes and 34 seconds, it is AC / DC's longest studio album to date.

The first single with the song Rock 'n' Roll Train was released on August 28, 2008.

Black Ice is the last album with rhythm guitarist and co-founder Malcolm Young , who was unable to take part in the recording of the follow-up album for health reasons.

background

production

In January 2006 it was announced that the band had started work on new songs. At that time, however, the band did not set a release date to avoid deadline pressure during production. As on all AC / DC albums since The Razors Edge from 1990, only the Young brothers were involved in the writing of the new song material, although singer Brian Johnson said in an interview two years earlier that he was also working on new songs with the Brothers would write. On August 15th, two months before Black Ice was released, the group shot a music video for the first single Rock 'n' Roll Train in London , and three days later the band announced the release date of the new album on their homepage.

Musical style

Musically there are some special features on Black Ice . In the song Stormy May Day , Angus Young uses a bottleneck for the first time on a studio recording . Brian Johnson's vocal lines show unusual melodies, especially on Anything Goes . Furthermore, AC / DC are increasingly using percussion instruments such as Shaker ( Big Jack ) or Tambourine ( Anything Goes ). They had often used sounds like this on tracks from their first albums (e.g. It's a Long Way to the Top ). Anything Goes has keyboard-like guitar sequences as a further special feature.

publication

In June 2008 it was announced that the album would only be available in the US through Wal-Mart. In order to cope with the onslaught, the Walmart group, which is the only one selling the album, has opened its own small Black Ice shops in its branches. Four different versions of this album were released, three of which contained different colored lettering (red, yellow and gray), while the fourth version is a special edition with light blue lettering, an extended booklet and lyrics. The video for the single Rock 'n' Roll Train was the first ever to be programmed in an Excel macro and made available. This makes it possible to watch the video in a normal Excel file.

Track list

All music and lyrics are by Angus Young and Malcolm Young.

1. Rock 'n' Roll Train - 4:21
2. Skies on Fire - 3:34
3. Big Jack - 3:57
4. Anything Goes - 3:22
5. War Machine - 3:09
6. Smash 'n' Grab - 4:06
7. Spoilin 'for a fight - 3:17
8. Wheels - 3:28
9. Decibel - 3:34
10. Stormy May Day - 3:10
11. She Likes Rock 'n' Roll - 3:53
12. Money Made - 4:15
13. Rock 'n' Roll Dream - 4:41
14. Rocking All the Way - 3:22
15. Black Ice - 3:25

reception

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Albums

Black Ice   DE 1 03/11/2008 (55 weeks)   AT 1 10/31/2008 (71 weeks)   CH 1 11/02/2008 (44 weeks)   UK 1 11/01/2008 (25 weeks)   US 1 11/08/2008 (35 weeks)   AU 1 11/02/2008 (38 weeks)

Sales successes and awards

During the first two days, over 170,000 copies of the album were sold across Europe. It replaced Metallica's Death Magnetic as the record holder for the best sales launch in 2008. In the US, Black Ice sold over 193,000 times on the first day of sales. On October 20, 2008, the album was number 3 on the Australian album charts after it was sold there a day before the official release date (October 18, 2008).

Although Black Ice was not available via iTunes or similar music platforms at the time of release , the album made it straight to number 1 on the British , American , Swiss , Austrian and German album charts. In addition to Black Ice , the albums Back in Black , Live , the live DVD No Bull released a few weeks before Black Ice and the DVD box Plug Me In entered the German album charts in October 2008 . Previously, Elvis Presley had last succeeded in 1977 in placing five albums in the charts at the same time. In Germany, Black Ice ranks 14th among the most successful albums in the decade between 2000 and 2009, with over a million copies sold and five platinum awards. In the German annual charts in 2008, the album was number 7, in 2009 it was still number 13 in the same charts. At the Grammy Awards 2010, the group was nominated in the category Best Rock Album , but lost to Green Days 21st Century Breakdown . For this, the band won an award for the best hard rock performance for the song War Machine at the same ceremony . To date, Black Ice has sold over seven million copies worldwide, making it one of the group's most successful albums to be released after Back in Black .

Country / Region	Award	Sales
Awards for music sales (country / region, Award, Sales)
Argentina (CAPIF)	Platinum (Original) + 2 × Platinum (Deluxe)	120,000
Australia (ARIA)	5 × platinum	350,000
Belgium (BEA)	2 × platinum	60,000
Brazil (PMB)	gold	30,000
Denmark (IFPI)	platinum	30,000
Germany (BVMI)	5 × platinum	1,000,000
Europe (IFPI)	2 × platinum	(2,000,000)
Finland (IFPI)	2 × platinum	49,660
France (SNEP)	2 × platinum	400,000
Greece (IFPI)	platinum	20,000
Ireland (IRMA)	2 × platinum	30,000
Italy (FIMI)	gold	30,000
Canada (MC)	5 × platinum	500,000
New Zealand (RMNZ)	2 × platinum	30,000
Netherlands (NVPI)	platinum	60,000
Austria (IFPI)	3 × platinum	90,000
Poland (ZPAV)	2 × platinum	40,000
Portugal (AFP)	gold	10,000
Russia (NFPF)	platinum	20,000
Sweden (IFPI)	2 × platinum	80,000
Switzerland (IFPI)	4 × platinum	120,000
Spain (Promusicae)	platinum	40,000
Hungary (MAHASZ)	2 × platinum	12,000
United States (RIAA)	2 × platinum	2,000,000
United Kingdom (BPI)	platinum	300,000
All in all	3 × gold 50 × platinum	5,401,660

Main article: AC / DC / Music Sales Awards

Reviews

Michael Pilz saw Black Ice in the online edition of the world in the tradition of the classic albums Highway to Hell and Back in Black . Regarding typical elements of the AC / DC style, he wrote:

“Everything is there: the carefully selected one-chord riffs and the bass pumping on the root. The screeching chants about the proverbial conflagrations, playing cards and trains. "

- Michael Pilz, Welt Online

Christian Schachinger from the Austrian standard also described the new album as what one is used to from AC / DC by describing the music as "exciting as well as familiar". He further wrote:

“Something like gentleness of old age may creep in in choral movements and a slower pace. That music was always here. It is and remains: unteachable! Rocking All the Way. "

- Christian Schachinger, Der Standard

Andreas Himmelstein from the rock-hard magazine awarded 8.5 out of ten possible points in their "Dynamit" section and came to the following conclusion:

“When one of the most reliable constants in the rock'n'roll circus has a new album about to start, it's actually not about what will be released, but when it will be released. There is no question that AC / DC will no longer release a classic in the style of Back in Black or Highway to Hell - hardly anyone should expect such an album. So let's confine ourselves to comparisons with the band's last studio albums, and this is where Black Ice has the edge. The guitar work is more traditional, Brian's voice sounds much stronger, the sound is a bit warmer and more earthy - and in my opinion Black Ice has a more typical AC / DC groove than Ballbreaker or Stiff Upper Lip . For my taste, the guys could have unpacked the slide guitar more often, like in Stormy May Day , and the lower pitches at the beginning of Rocking All the Way go really well with Brian Johnson. Together with the rose-tattoo-like and catchy Anything Goes , surprisingly something like little surprise moments can be found. "

- Andreas Himmelstein, rock hard

Chart history

German album charts from Media Control
week	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th	18th	19th	20th	21st	22nd	23	24	25th	26th	27	28	29	30th
position	1	1	1	1	2	3	2	3	3	3	6th	7th	8th	8th	10	9	9	12	14th	14th	14th	17th	20th	20th	18th	20th	22nd	29	28	27
week	31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38	39	40	41	42	43	44	45	46	47	48	49	50	51	52	53	54	55	56	57	58	59	60
position	19th	29	27	24	34	49	57	60	39	32	36	36	40	36	33	41	50	51	47	55	64	54	62	81	95	-	-	-	-	-

tour

AC / DC live in 2009 at a concert in Tacoma, Washington (USA)

The Black Ice World Tour began on October 28, 2008 in North America with around 50 concerts, which the band completed through January 31, 2009. After a three-week break, the tour continued in Europe. In 2010, further concerts followed in Japan, Australia and, for the third time, major stadium and festival concerts in Europe.

Up to the final on June 28, 2010, 168 concerts were played within just under two years. AC / DC set several world records. Not only in Germany, but also in Australia, the available tickets were sold out in record time. With revenues of 441.6 million US dollars, it was the most successful in the band's history and the third most successful tour by a band at all, only surpassed by the Rolling Stones ( A Bigger Bang , 2005–2007) and U2 ( U2 360 ° , 2009– 2011).

In addition to the first single from the new album Rock 'n' Roll Train , they also played Big Jack , Anything Goes , War Machine and the title track from the album Black Ice live during the tour. Classics such as Hells Bells , Dog Eat Dog and TNT were also played.

See also

• List of the best-selling music albums certified by BVMI in Germany

Web links

• Black Ice at Allmusic (English)
• Review on rollingstone.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Dictionary entries on Black Ice on Dict.cc [1]
2. ↑ Reuters : AC / DC to sell new album through Wal-Mart: paper June 8, 2008
3. ↑ Musikmarkt.de USA: Record sales for a new AC / DC album ( Memento of the original from May 31, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ↑ AC / DC Pre-Order Shop AC / DC Pre-Order Black Ice
5. ↑ 20minuten.ch: AC / DC bring first Excel video
6. ↑ Charts DE Charts AT Charts CH Charts UK Charts US Charts AU
7. ↑ SONY BMG:CD sales record on the first weekend! ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
8. ↑ undercover.com.au AC / DC Debuts at Number 3 in Australia ( Memento of the original from October 23, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
9. ↑ Presseportal.de AC / DC rush to the top of the album charts
10. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated February 13, 2019 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
11. ↑ Michael Pilz: Kulturelle Großtat - The 15th album by AC / DC. welt.de, accessed on October 20, 2008 . 
12. ↑ Christian Schachinger: Old and unteachable. Der Standard , 18./19. October 2008
13. ↑ Rock Hard Review on AC / DC's Black Ice
14. ↑ 20minuten.ch: AC / DC Black Ice in the German album charts on Musicline.de ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.