AC/DC - Black Ice

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2 Sides. 1 Disc. Unlimited Possibilities.

The Back In Black DualDisc features AC/DC's Back In Black CD album (including "You Shook Me All Night Long" and "Hells Bells") on one side, and the OTHER SIDE is a DVD featuring the entire album in enhanced LPCM Stereo, the film The Story of Back in Black, featuring interviews with the band, archival footage, and in-studio performances of "Hells Bells", "You Shook Me All Night Long," "Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution," "Shoot to Thrill", and more! It hits stores February 8th!

Available via Amazon USA

see also www.acdcrocks.com

Review of the new Sony release "Back in Black" DualDisc which was initially released in 2004 in the test markets of Boston and Seattle. Below is a review by Adam Pickerill

Packaging:
The Packaging is the first thing that will stick out to you, as it is somewhat different from a standard cd. In fact, much the disc itself, the case strikes me as a hybrid between a DVD case and a standard cd case, with a button on the right side of the case that you push to open the case. It is very solid and I really liked it. The size is still standard CD, so it should fit into any cases/racks you may have. The right side of the case is slightly different where the button is, curving out a bit instead of the straight lines were all used to.

Inside the case you’ll find practically the same booklet that came with the remastered cd, with the back 2 pages altered a bit to include the DVD info. Also, and this is nitpicking, but I noticed that the printing of the booklet has been moved just a tiny bit, moved up maybe a quarter of an inch. The DualDisc is clearly marked on both sides and looks pretty cool for the minimal amount of printing they could do, since, of course, both sides are pressed with information. Under the CD you’ll find a reworking of the original album sleeve artwork. Instead of having the huge Angus picture, it has been moved to the same size as the rest and put in with them, and it works quite well.

Overall the package is very cool, and feels different from the remastered cd. For all you collectors, the catalog number is EN 90828.

CD Side:
This one is pretty simple…it’s the remastered CD that sounds just as great as the other one. It should be noted that some of my players HATED the CD side, most notably my Playstation 2 and the dvd drive in the computer, both of course not standard cd players, but that can play them. The PS2 refused to read the CD side, and the DVD+RW drive kept skipping n doing weird things. Standard CD players were ok with it though. The computer and the PS2 played the DVD just fine.

DVD Side:
The DVD has 3 main parts, so I’ll break them down individually.

The Video Documentary:

I should preface this by saying I never saw that ‘ultimate album’ show on BIB on VH1, so some of the stuff I think is new may not be…

This is, in my opinion, very well done. A narrator does the first part of the video, with (new) interview clips of the boys spliced in. At first it is basic, recounting the tales we’ve all heard a million times, from Bon’s death to Brian telling the ‘Rock goes to college’ story for the millionth time. But then it takes a turn for the better, the interview clips start driving the video, not the narrator, and we learn some cool stuff, some of the stories are the first time I’ve heard them, and I consider myself fairly well read on the boys. They also make an attempt to ground any rumors around the whole ridiculous ‘Bon wrote the whole thing’ theory without coming right out and addressing it, esp. in the bit of the video about RRANP. They take several songs on individually and explain them more than I’ve heard. For instance, Brian talks about writing Shoot to Thrill, and basing it on the over prescription of Valium to housewives in England, and the boys tell a funny story about how Mutt wanted YSMANL to be much slower, and then Ang and Mal actually play and sing it the way he wanted for a couple of lines, before cracking up about how silly and folk it sounded. I won’t ruin it for you, but several times Brian is at the top of his game story telling wise on this, telling a great story about the phone call he received to invite him to an audition. The parts where they talk about the individual songs often has the Mal and Ang performing the songs a studio, and cuts them in with the studio versions of the songs (played over archive concert video). It works fairly well, sometimes better than others.

The video itself is fairly cool, tho there aren’t any rare video clips or that many pictures used that I haven’t seen. The narrator is also fairly annoying, but not so much that it becomes distracting. Very highly recommended.

The DVD Audio:

I watched the video first, and I thought it would be the highlight of the whole package. I was dead wrong. The new album has a crispness to it that has to be heard, and its overall warmth and depth will make the most stringent vinyl nut take notice. There is a marked difference, and it be comes even more apparent when going back the plain old cd remastered. I had both playing on different feeds for this review, and kept switching back and forth, and it will really make you take notice. With that said, you’ll have to be pretty hardcore of a fan to get really excited about this, but then again, I’m sorta assuming we all are. My parents, who like AC/DC quite a bit, I’m willing to bet won’t get very excited about it. Also, and I guess this goes without saying, but you really have to have the DVD player hooked up to a nice stereo/surround receiver to tell a difference. If you have your DVD player hooked up straight to your TV, this part of the disc isn’t really for you, and prepared to be under-whelmed. With all that said, it sounds awesome on the right setup, and for an album that came out when I was only 3 months old, it sounds unbelievable.

The Discography:

Cool but very disappointing that it was the fantastic discography included with the Live At Donington DVD. There are no Ang and Mal commentary tracks like there were in that DVD. Then again I guess they figured we already owned that.

Wrap UP:
All in all, it made this fan very very happy. While the DVD audio isn’t ‘true’ DVD-Audio, or even Sony’s beloved SACD format, it sounds great. The extras like the film and such are very well produced and you can tell some work went into then, they aren’t just slapped together. This is one fan that’s ready to buy the entire catalog all over again (would make my 5th go round) if they wanted to release the rest of the albums with this much care.

This is just my opinion, but it seems like every release from Sony is a love letter to AC/DC fans after the years of crap we’ve put up with.

Review by Adam Pickerill (ayenet)

The CD is a bit cleaner in its sound and on the original BIB some tracks did'nt seem to kick as hard as they should even when you turn up the volume. but this disc seems ot have just that little edge on the bass.

The DVD side is in my opinion exelent with again the full album and the visual side is as you would expect with todays tech. lots of interviews and snippets that most ACDC fans havn't seen and there is most likely room on the disc for much more. But as its in its infantcy and not sure if the DualDisc will take over from regular CD's and DVD's I think its just enough to wet your appitite. A few years down the line will awnser that and if it is so then wrap up all your old CD's and DVD's cos in 25 years time thay might be worth something. In my opinion, I think its a nice package and at the moment a good collectors item. If you have one, then you cant loose either way becouse if it dosn't take off then you got a real ACDC rarity and if Dual disc does hit the stores in a few years, then you got one of the first ones I think the bar code will prove that.

Review by Lee Cutler