For eight years, the Australian band AC/DC had released no original studio album — the longest silence in their history. Then, in the autumn of 2008, they returned with Black Ice, their fifteenth studio record, and turned that absence into their biggest commercial moment. AC/DC released Black Ice on October 20, 2008.
Then, in the autumn of 2008, they returned with Black Ice, their fifteenth studio record, and turned that absence into their biggest commercial moment.
Eight years and a stalled project
The gap stretched back to Stiff Upper Lip, the album they had put out in 2000. After that, the band changed labels, moving from Elektra Records to Sony Music, and inside Sony from Epic Records to Columbia Records. Fans had reason to wonder whether the machine had stalled for good. The wait was not planned. The Young brothers had begun writing songs in London back in 2003, but the project stalled when bassist Cliff Williams injured his arm two years later. That accident pushed the album further into the future and left the band's next move uncertain for a long time. The delay had a very human cause. In 2005, bassist Cliff Williams hurt his arm, and that injury put the recording plans on hold for a long stretch.
The new album was built on a deliberate shift in sound. Producer Brendan O'Brien wanted to recapture the hard rock energy of the band's early work and move away from the bluesier feel of Stiff Upper Lip. Most of the songs were recorded live in the studio, with the musicians playing together rather than assembling parts layer by layer.
Malcolm Young's final studio album
Black Ice also marked the end of an era. It was the last studio album to feature rhythm guitarist Malcolm Young, who left the group in 2014. His playing is all over the fifteen tracks, and the record runs longer than any AC/DC studio album before it — more than 55 minutes of music.
The title itself came from a warning about black ice on northern roads, the kind announced on the radio, and from the band's memories of winter concerts in Scotland. Malcolm Young had first considered using a photograph of a train wreck at the Montparnasse station in Paris from 1895 for the cover, but dropped the idea when he learned another band had already used it. One of the album's songs, "Wheels", grew out of Brian Johnson's love of cars. It gave the record a personal touch beyond the usual hard-rock themes.
Physical-only release and Wal-Mart deal
The release strategy was unusual. The album appeared only in physical formats, because AC/DC did not sell their music digitally at the time. In North America, the retail chain Wal-Mart held exclusive distribution rights. Even so, the record topped charts in 29 countries, including Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States.
By December 2008, Black Ice had sold six million copies worldwide. For that year, only Coldplay's Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends sold more. The four singles — "Rock 'n' Roll Train", "Big Jack", "Anything Goes" and "Money Made" — kept the band on rock radio through the following months. The record also earned serious recognition. In 2010, Black Ice was nominated for a Grammy as Best Rock Album, while the song "War Machine" won the award for Best Hard Rock Performance. The vinyl edition came in a gatefold sleeve, with the music spread across two 180-gram discs.
The tour behind the album began on 28 October 2008 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. At the centre of the stage stood a locomotive model weighing 3500 kilograms. The Black Ice World Tour became the most successful in AC/DC's history, earning 441 million dollars across 168 concerts.
Even the vinyl release had a strange twist. Part of the pressing was mistakenly printed with tracks by The Clash from Live at Shea Stadium on side 1B. It was a fittingly odd detail for an album that had already leaked online a week before its official release and still managed to outsell nearly everything else that year.