Debate: Which is the better album? Highway To Hell or Back In Black?

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By ( Classic Rock, Metal Hammer ) Contributions from published

AC/DC's last album with Bon faces off against their first with Brian

Bon Scott and Brian Johnson onstage (composite image)
(Image credit: Bon Scott: Rob Verhorst/Redferns | Brian Johnson: Paul Natkin/Getty Images)

Two years, two singers, two enormous albums. But which is better? Bon Scott’s last stand, or Brian Johnson’s best-selling debut?

As every AC/DC fan knows, Highway To Hell was a triumph rescued from the jaws of disaster, an album with so much commercial expectation riding upon it that Atlantic Records originally attempted to bully the band into covering The Spencer Davis Group’s 1966 hit Gimme Some Lovin’ in a desperate bid for chart action.

Mindful that the pressure was on, Malcolm Young (and the group’s new hot-shot manager Peter Mensch) fired original producer Eddie Kramer, hired in Robert ‘Mutt’ Lange, and forced his band to knuckle down for three months’ solid graft in the studio. The result was the most polished, professional and powerful album of the quintet’s career…and subsequently their first million-selling disc in America.

Mutt Lange’s genius was to translate all the blood, sweat and tears squeezed out of his charges in London’s Roundhouse Studio into an album that sounds effortless, care-free and spontaneous. And then, of course, he did it all over again.

What AC/DC pulled off with Back In Black was the most amazing comeback in the entire history of rock’n’roll. The band found in Johnson a singer with the voice and the no-bullshit persona to replace the seemingly irreplaceable. And out of tragedy, they achieved their greatest triumph.

The most famous songs on Back In Black are deathless rock anthems: Hells Bells, Shoot To Thrill, You Shook Me All Night Long, Rock And Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution, and the title track. But on this album, every song is brilliant.

Even those that might be considered fillers – such as Have A Drink On Me and What Do You For Money Honey – are better than most other bands’ best songs. Hells Bells is the greatest opening track ever. Rock And Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution is the perfect finale – and they knocked that out in an hour.

Highway To Hell versus Back In Black. What's your favourite, and why? Let us know in the comments below.

Paul Brannigan
Paul Brannigan
Contributing Editor, Louder

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.

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