UMUR "Ballbreaker" is the 13th full-length studio album by Australian hard/heavy rock act AC/DC. The album was released through Atlantic Records in September 1995. A lineup change has occured as original drummer Phil Rudd has returned to the fold after he was fired from the band in 1983.

The music on "Ballbreaker" is in "classic" AC/DC style. Hard rocking bluesy riffing, a driving and pounding rythm section and Brian Johnson´s trademark rusty voice in front. There´s little new under the sun, but that´s how most of the band´s fans prefer it to be. So far... so good. What is always interesting when listening to an AC/DC album is how many standout tracks there are on the album and how many fillers. Granted we are talking quality fillers, but most of the band´s albums contain quite a few of those. "Ballbreaker" proves to be one of the AC/DC albums with a satisfactory amount of standout tracks like "Hard as a Rock", the stripper anthem "Cover You in Oil" and the hard edged closing title track.

I definitely find myself well entertained when listening to the album. The sound production by the legendary Rick Rubin has a "dry" quality to it that I could have lived without, but otherwise the production fits the music well. "Ballbreaker" is no revelation, but it sure is a damn solid hard rock album by the kings of the genre. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "Backtracks" is a box set by Australian hard/heavy rock act AC/DC. The box set was released through Columbia Records in November 2009. "Backtracks" was released in a standard edition featuring two CDs and one DVD. The deluxe edition of the box set features three CDs, two DVDs, one LP, a 164 page hard-back coffee table book and collectible merchandise reproductions all housed in an operating 1 watt guitar amplifier. The latter is of course quite the luxurious fan item. I´m unfortunately not the owner of the latter mentioned.

The first CD contains studio rarities. The tracks originally appeared on Australian only releases, movie soundtracks, 7" and 12" single releases, and CD "tour editions". Basically I´d call most of the tracks on the disc B-side material. There is nothing here I miss on the studio albums. With that said there are still some pretty kickass AC/DC songs on the disc and it´s definitely worth a listen. The most interesting thing I learned from listening to the disc is that AC/DC had actually made a ballad type track in "Love Song". Quite a surprise. The deluxe edition features five additional tracks.

The second CD contains live rarities with recordings with both Bon Scott and Brian Johnson. The sound quality is for the most part decent, but it´s at places pretty raw and unpolished. I guess this is a good representation of how AC/DC sound live. I´m pretty sure there are no overdubs or other studio tricks applied to the recordings. The live disc features "classic" AC/DC tracks like "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap", "Shot Down in Flames", "Back in Black", "Let There Be Rock" and "Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution". The deluxe edition features a full extra CD with additional live rarities.

The DVD featured in the standard edition of "Backtracks" features all promo videos the band have released in the years 1993 - 2008. Among them the video for "Big Gun" from the motion picture "Last Action Hero (1993)". The DVD also features seven "older" videos and the documentaries "The Making of "Hard as a Rock" and "The Making of "Rock 'n' Roll Train". The DVD is definitely a nice collection of videos if you´re interested in that media. The deluxe edition features an extra DVD, which contains a full concert from 2003 called "Live at the Circus Krone". It was filmed at the Circus Krone in Munich, Germany.

In addition to all of the above the deluxe edition also features a rarities 180 Gram LP, which features twelve tracks from disc 1.

"Backtracks" is even in it´s standard edition quite an expansive release, which embraces rarities from both the Bon Scott and the Brian Johnson eras in a decent fashion. I´d mostly call this a fan release though as the more casual listener won´t miss anything by never listening to this release. With that said "Backtracks" is still a pretty strong release deserving a 3.5 star (70%) rating.

UMUR "Black Ice" is the 15th full-length studio album by Australian hard/heavy rock act AC/DC. The album was released through Columbia Records in October 2008. It´s AC/DC´s first album since "Stiff Upper Lip (2000)". The 8 years gap between albums was due to a label shift from Atlantic Records to Sony Music and then a shift within Sony Music from Epic Records to Columbia Records. In addition to all the label fuzz, bassist Cliff Williams suffered an injury to his hand in 2005, and spent 18 months unable to play. So while the band took a break between 2001 and 2003 before resuming band activities again, they didn´t spend 8 years doing nothing. The two Young brothers did however have a lot of time to write and tweak their new written tracks, and by the time AC/DC entered the studio in March 2008 with producer Brendan O'Brien, they were ready to rock.

Commercially "Black Ice" was a very big success and by December 2008 the album had sold around 6 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best selling AC/DC albums, along side classic albums by the band such as "Highway to Hell (1979)" and "Back in Black (1980)".

The album features the usual hard rocking and blues based heavy rock style with Brian Johnson´s rusty voice in front. The band genereally seem a bit more inspired than on the somewhat forgettable "Stiff Upper Lip", which is a nice surprise. But while there are several strong rockers on the album like "Rock 'n' Roll Train", "Skies on Fire", "Big Jack", "War Machine" and the closing title track, "Black Ice" unfortunately also features some of the same fatique that characterized it´s predecessor. The fact that the album features 15 tracks distributed over a 55:37 minutes of playing time (making "Black Ice" the longest running studio album by AC/DC up until then) doesn´t help either. "Black Ice" is simply too long and features too many filler tracks to be a truly excellent album. But less will do because overall it´s still a much stronger and more memorable album than "Stiff Upper Lip" and the strongest tracks on the album fully display why AC/DC are counted among the elite hard/heavy rock acts in the world.

The organic powerful sound production provides the music with just the right authenticity and punch. Another thing lacking on "Stiff Upper Lip".

...so while "Black Ice" isn´t exactly a revelation and not even one of the better albums by AC/DC, it´s still a pretty great album deserving a 3.5 star (70%) rating.

UMUR "Stiff Upper Lip" is the 14th full-length studio album by Australian hard/heavy rock act AC/DC. The album was released through Albert/EastWest Records in February 2000. It´s AC/DC´s first album since "Ballbreaker (1995)". "Stiff Upper Lip" fared pretty well commercially and has today sold more than 1 million copies.

The music on the album is the usual blues based hard/heavy rock with Brian Johnson´s rusty voice in front. The tracks are generally of a decent quality, but I wouldn´t call it the band´s most inspired release. Actually far from, but there are still a couple of noteworthy tracks on the album. Especially the title track gets positive points in my book. Most tracks are unfortunately not as memorable and some even come off as "run of the mill" type material. The compressed, and for AC/DC´s standards, polished sound production doesn´t help on my impression of the album either. The fact that the album was produced by George Young (the brother of guitarists Angus and Malcolm and producer on most seventies releases by the band) is a bit puzzling to me, as this doesn´t sound anything like the seventies releases by the band.

It´s safe to say that "Stiff Upper Lip" hasn´t left the positive impression on me that I had hoped for, but despite this being perhaps the least interesting AC/DC of the lot, a 3 star (60%) rating is still deserved and it speaks loud of the high standards of the band.

UMUR "For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)" is the 8th full-length studio album by Australian hard rock/heavy rock act AC/DC. The album was released through Albert/Atlantic Records in November 1981.

...following up two multi-platinum selling albums like "Highway to Hell (1979)" and "Back in Black (1980)", must have been a daunting task, even for a band of AC/DC´s caliber, and there were in fact a few bumps on the road ahead, but they had nothing to do with the commercial success of the album, which as the first AC/DC album to enter No. 1 on the US Billboard Chart. The problems were linked to the recording of the album. The band and producer John "Mutt" Lange found it difficult to find their sound at the abondoned factory in France they had installed themselves in, and the initial sessions had to be abandoned. The band took some time off to play the Monsters of Rock festival at Donington park in August 1981 and returned revitalized to a new rehearsal/studio location on the outskirts of Paris. And this time things clicked.

While "For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)" doesn´t hold as many "classic" AC/DC tracks as it´s famous predecessor, there are more than a couple of really great tracks featured on the album. The title track is the most famous (a live standard from that day on), but "Let's Get It Up" is usually also considered among the classics. I´d like to mention "C.O.D." as one of my personal favorites.

The music style is the usual blusy hard/heavy rock with lead vocalist Brian Johnson´s irresitable rusty voice in front. So everything is as it´s supposed to be. Never come to an AC/DC album expecting a musical revelation in terms of development, but of course there are little tweaks here and there that makes all albums by the band stand out from each other. Yes they are small, but they are there.

...honestly "For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)" doesn´t quite live up the the extremely high standard of it´s two predecessors, but it´s still a great album by AC/DC and a 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.