Flick of the Switch

With Flick of the Switch, the Australian mega-bar-band AC/DC has now made the same album nine times, surely a record even in heavy-metal circles. Intellectually, it’s a dubious achievement, of course. But there is still something perversely reassuring about the brute, Godzilla-like stomp of AC/DC’s rhythm section, the industrial guitar crunch of Angus and Malcolm Young and the macho bark of singer Brian Johnson.

Produced by the band, Flick of the Switch isn’t quite the monster blowout that 1980’s Back in Black was, and the Young’s retooling of old riffs for new hits also teeters on self-plagiarism at times. But how can you argue with a Molotovcocktail hour that incudes such crass fun as “This House Is on Fire” and the whiplash rocker “Brain Shake”? Sure, if you’ve heard one AC/DC album, you’ve heard them all. Flick of the Switch makes for one hell of a crash course, though.