It’s been said Friday the 13th is an unlucky day for some, even more so in the year 2020.

That’s not the case for AC/DC fans.

On the darkest day circled in the calendar, the Aussie rock legends break the drought with Power Up, their first album in six years.

Their 17th full-length LP reunites Angus Young and Co. with producer Brendan O’Brien, who was behind the boards for 2008’s Black Ice and their most recent, 2014’s Rock or Bust, which peaked at No. 3 in the U.S. and U.K. and No. 1 in Australia.

Power Up welcomes the return of British singer Brian Johnson, who stepped aside in 2016 on doctor’s orders due to hearing-loss issues, and sees drummer Phil Rudd reunite with the group after a stint in rehab.

The band’s current line-up also features the late Malcolm Young’s nephew, Stevie Young, slotting in on rhythm guitar.

AC/DC have a knack for returning precisely when the world needs them. With a pandemic raging around the globe, that time is now.

“I think we waited until the world hit a misery level,” Johnson told Zane Lowe on Apple Music, “a limit of misery with this thing, and just said, ‘Right, time to cheer it up.’”

In the same interview, Angus Young talked about the process of making new music with AC/DC, something many fans figured would never happen.
“I get very excited with doing something new and going, ‘Well, it’s AC/DC, but it’s got a little bit of a different angle on it.’ That’s always, for me, the big puzzle, finding something that’s AC/DC, but it’s something you’ve not heard AC/DC done before,” he explained.

“You try to look for new ways of doing riffs and you experiment a little bit with those, but then when you get something, you go, ‘That’s definitely AC/DC,’ and you know that you’ve cracked the puzzle there.”

Judging by the early reaction to the solid-as-a-boulder cuts “Shot In The Dark” and “Realize,” Young and his bandmates aced that puzzle.

Power Up spans 12 tracks and can be streamed in full below.

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