STACK #253 November 2025

MUSIC FEATURE

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WE SALUTE YOU Fifty years after their first album, AC/DC remain our greatest rock band.

T he great American record producer Rick Rubin first heard AC/DC when they played Problem Child on the US TV show The Midnight Special in 1979. Sixteen-year-old Rick admits he didn’t know much about rock ’n’ roll. “I only knew that they sounded better than any other band.” Rick would go on to make classic albums with Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Cult, Tom Petty, Johnny Cash, Beastie Boys and many other artists. But when it comes to rock, AC/DC has no peer. “I’ll go on record as saying they’re the greatest rock ’n’ roll band of all time,” Rubin says. “The emotion is all in that groove. And that groove is timeless.” The band’s beating heart remains Angus Young. His famous quote when AC/DC was accused of making the same album: “I’m sick to death of people saying we’ve made 11 albums that sound exactly the same. In fact, we’ve made 12 albums that sound exactly the same.” Yep, many have tried, but no other band sounds quite like AC/ DC. Here are four of the best. HIGH VOLTAGE (1976) Where it all started. Kind of. AC/DC’s debut album was 1975’s High Voltage . But the High Voltage song didn’t appear until their second album, T.N.T , which arrived later the same year. The High Voltage album that’s now available

being a caveman.” If that doesn’t get you in the mood to watch them live across Australia this month, this ripper live package featuring everything you’d want to hear them play certainly will!

blood, sweat and arrogance of the genre.” LIVE AT RIVER PLATE (2012) Angus Young famously said, “When I’m on stage the savage in me is released. It’s like going back to

is a compilation of the best tracks from the first two Aussie albums. Rolling Stone infamously called it an “all-time low” for the hard rock genre.

HIGHWAY TO HELL (1979)

Bon Scott’s farewell. “Probably the most natural-sounding rock record I’ve ever heard,” Rick Rubin reckons. Another classic quote:

Jump on a highway to hell with vinyl and CD belters in store at JB now!

“The fact that there’s a highway to hell and only a stairway to heaven says a lot about anticipated traffic numbers.” BACK IN BLACK (1980) The Bon tribute, released just five months after his passing, became AC/DC’s biggest seller. As the legendary critic David Fricke declared, it was “the first LP since Led Zeppelin II that captures all the

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