Black Ice (album)

Black Ice (album)

Black Ice is the Grammy-award winning 16th Australian and 15th international studio album by the Australian hard rock band AC/DC. It was produced by Brendan O'Brien and released internationally on 17 October 2008. Guitarists Angus Young and Malcolm Young met in London in 2003 to start composing tracks. The album's development was delayed because bass guitarist Cliff Williams sustained an injury and the band's change of labels from Atlantic Records to Sony Music.

The album was recorded during March and April 2008 at The Warehouse Studio in Vancouver, Canada, where the band's previous album Stiff Upper Lip had been recorded. The eight-year gap between Black Ice and Stiff Upper Lip is their longest between AC/DC's successive studio albums. O'Brien tried to recapture the rock sound of the band's early work, as opposed to the blues orientation of Ballbreaker and Stiff Upper Lip; he suggested adding "soul crooning" to Brian Johnson's singing. The songs were mostly recorded live in the studio; engineer Mike Fraser used only sparse overdubs and effects to keep the tracks as close to the originals as possible. Black Ice has the longest running time of any AC/DC studio album.

Black Ice was released exclusively in physical formats, as the group did not sell its music digitally at the time. Walmart got exclusive rights to distribute the album in North America. Its release was promoted with an extensive marketing campaign, which included displays of AC/DC memorabilia. Three singles were issued, "Rock 'n' Roll Train", "Big Jack" and "Anything Goes". Black Ice peaked at number one in 29 countries, including Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. It was the second best-selling record of 2008, behind Coldplay's Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends and had shipped 6 million copies worldwide by December. Critical reviews were generally positive, praising the music and its resemblance to the classic AC/DC sound, although some critics found the work too long and inconsistent. The track "War Machine" won the Best Hard Rock Performance category at the Grammys. 'Black Ice' was also nominated for many awards, including the Grammy, Brit, Juno and ARIA Music Awards; and was supported by a world tour between 2008 and 2010.