For Those About to Rock

For Those About to Rock is the eighth album on which AC/DC pushed its most basic strength out in an even larger sonic picture. Inheriting the momentum of the hugely successful Back in Black, the riffs of Angus and Malcolm Young need no decoration, and Phil Rudd’s unshaking beat and Brian Johnson’s shout carry the songs straight forward. The grandeur of the stately title track “For Those About to Rock (We Salute You),” known too for its cannon staging live, is symbolic, but at the album’s core is short, thick, straight rock and roll like “Let’s Get It Up” and “Evil Walks,” while cuts like “I Put the Finger on You” and “Inject the Venom” fully convey the band’s drive. Its appeal is that overwhelming force suited to a huge stadium stage and AC/DC’s concise, waste-free writing coexist naturally. A clean-handed choice to win on the strength of the riffs alone, without relying on flashy tricks, is intact in this period too. It is a powerful, dignified rock-and-roll record showing the band’s fullness in the early 1980s.