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<img alt="Profile" src="http://www.rockdaily.com/media/standard/skin1/rd_content_profile.gif" id="contentTop" width="438" border="0" height="21"><div id="contentHole"><img alt="AC/DC" src="http://www.rockdaily.com/media/art/rd_pro_topart_acdc.gif" class="artRight" width="150" border="0" height="166"><div class="contentHed"> Fire and <i>Ice</i>: <br>An AC/DC Special</div><p><i>Black Ice</i>. Just the name of AC/DC's first new studio album in eight years conjures up images of treacherously slick and diabolically dangerous ground. It's a perfect metaphor for the band's trademark sound and stage presence -- a blast of molten guitar rock, oversexed vocals and a taste for the theatrical that allows iconic 53-year-old guitarist Angus Young to don a schoolboy uniform, hop across the stage like Chuck Berry and drop his drawers to moon the audience. Fans have been craving a shot of AC/DC adrenaline since the turn of the millennium. Besides a handful of one-off events -- including the band's 2003 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame -- the Australian rockers have been pretty much absent from the world's stages since the tour in support of their 2000 album, <i>Stiff Upper Lip</i>.</p>

<p>With the Oct. 20 arrival of <i>Black Ice</i>, the Acca Dacca boys are back and ready to pick up where they left off. The outfit's classic post-Bon Scott lineup -- singer Brian Johnson, the sibling guitar duo of Angus and Malcolm Young, bassist Cliff Williams and drummer Phil Rudd -- is firing on all cylinders with a long-overdue dose of hook-heavy, hooligan-friendly rock. All of AC/DC's best-loved sounds are accounted for on the album: the dueling guitars, the tourniquet-tight rhythms and the gruff vocals. "We just wanted something like, 'Hey, this is gonna be rock &amp; roll,'" Angus <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/22828684/let_there_be_rock_acdc_plan_big_comeback" target="_blank">tells</a> <i>Rolling Stone</i> of the album. First single "Rock 'N' Roll Train" more than fits the bill. Opening with a riff that conjures up the ghost of 1978's overlooked <i>Powerage</i>, the tune gets right down to business with a ferociously taut backbeat and Johnson's pit-bull-from-hell wail. <i>Black Ice</i> does introduce one new variable into the mix -- producer Brendan O'Brien. The knob-turner is perhaps best known for his work with '90s alternative rockers like Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine and Stone Temple Pilots, and he's also manned the boards for Bruce Springsteen's recent studio efforts.</p>

<p>AC/DC have teamed with Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores to be the exclusive retailers for <i>Black Ice</i>, which is being offered at a special price of $11.88. "Wal-Mart is selling 62 percent of our catalog," Williams <a href="http://www.news-press.com/article/20081010/ENT12/310160002/1013/LIFESTYLES" target="_blank">explained</a> to <i>The News-Press</i> about the band's reasoning behind the deal. "They're our biggest outlet. They carry all of our stuff, all of our catalog. It was just a good business move." In a separate Reuters interview, Johnson <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSTRE49C4AS20081013" target="_blank">added</a>, "And they sold AC/DC shirts and pajamas for kids, which we thought was really cool!" Fans also can purchase the disc online at Walmart.com, Samsclub.com and the group's official website. And speaking about the band's website, AC/DC currently are streaming <i>Black Ice</i> in it entirety there -- click <a href="http://www.acdc.com/acdc101/" target="_blank">here</a> for a listen.</p>

<p>As part of the promotional push behind the album, several Internet contests were devised to call AC/DC fandom to action. Winners of several competitions get to travel to a special "dress rehearsal" concert in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., on Oct. 26 -- two days before the official <i>Black Ice</i> tour kickoff in the same city. Another contest offered five lucky AC/DC lovers the chance to attend the same show, as well as be filmed for a documentary titled <i>Rock N Roll Caravan</i> that will focus on events surrounding the gig. If you missed your chance at those opportunities, the <a href="http://www.acdc.com/giveitallyougot/" target="_blank">Give It All You Got video challenge</a> is still going on through Oct. 30. Fans are being asked to submit homemade clips for the "Rock 'N' Roll Train" clip via YouTube, with two autographed guitars up for grabs.</p>

<p><b>Runaway "Train":</b> The North American leg of AC/DC's <a href="http://pollstar.com/tour/searchall.pl?By=Artist&amp;Content=ACDC&amp;PSKey=Y" target="_blank"><i>Black Ice</i> world tour</a> launches Oct. 28 in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and currently is scheduled through a Jan. 31 gig in Nashville. The following month, the band will embark on a European trek that will run until late April. AC/DC also are planning to return to American shores next summer for a stadium outing.</p>

<p><b>For Those About To Walk?!:</b> "People tell me a lot of the young ones like [our music]," Angus tells <i>Rolling Stone</i> of the group's increasingly younger fan base. "As my brother Malcolm used to say, 'We get 'em in the beginning.' Me and Malcolm grew up with cartoons, and a lot of our stuff, we took from things like Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. 'TNT' -- we got that from the Road Runner: He was always getting blown up!"</p>


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<p><b>Shoots To Thrill:</b> Let AC/DC send a chill up your spine and fire through your veins with these three videos from different points in their illustrious career:</p>

<p>Watch the official clip for "Rock 'N' Roll Train" here:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLTJDlQoLao" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.rockdaily.com/media/art/rd_vid_acdc_rnroll.gif" alt="AC/DC" width="240" border="0" height="180"></a></p>


<p>Peep this performance of "Let There Be Rock" from the recently issued director's cut of the <i>No Bull</i> DVD, filmed at a 1996 concert in Madrid, Spain:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QIFyBAtpGE" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.rockdaily.com/media/art/rd_vid_acdc_lettherebrock.gif" alt="AC/DC" width="240" border="0" height="180"></a></p>


<p>Check out this vintage video for the title track from AC/DC's 1980 classic <i>Back in Black</i>:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXaZmY52gHM" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.rockdaily.com/media/art/rd_vid_acdc_blacknblack.gif" alt="AC/DC" width="240" border="0" height="180"></a></p>



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<p><b>Random Facts</b>: The first 18 dates of AC/DC's <i>Black Ice</i> world tour sold out in record time, prompting the band to add additional shows in Chicago, Los Angeles and Oakland, Calif. . . . Vinyl editions of <i>Black Ice</i> will be available from independent retailers across the country, along with a seven-inch record of the album's first single . . . <i>AC/DC Live: Rock Band Track Pack</i> -- an 18-song video-game track pack featuring performances from the 1992 concert album <i>AC/DC Live</i> -- arrives Nov. 2 exclusively from Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores, and via the retailers' websites . . . The 1977 classic cut "Let There Be Rock" appears in the <i>Rock Band 2</i> video game . . . Special AC/DC stores selling all kinds of merchandise related to the band will be open in New York and Los Angeles from Oct. 19 to Jan. 4 . . . A <a href="http://www.aussierock.com.au/index.php?ref=MTYzMw==" target="_blank">bronze statue</a> of late AC/DC singer Bon Scott was unveiled in February and now resides at a fishing boat harbor in Fremantle, Australia