AC/DC, 'Black Ice'

The buzz: In the eight years since their last effort, the lackluster “Stiff Upper Lip,” AC/DC’s stock has only gone up, thanks to imitators like Jet keeping their name on the map, the re-emergence of guitar-based music courtesy of video games like “Guitar Hero” and “Rock Band” (neither of which, so far, has actually featured the band), and the always-present adolescent desire to, well, rock.

The verdict: If it’s rock you want, it’s rock you’ll get: the record kicks off with the predictably riffy “Rock ‘n Roll Train,” (one of three tracks with the words “Rock ‘n Roll” in the title) and from that first cut there’s no question that AC/DC is still following the same format that made “Back in Black” and “Highway to Hell” among the most classic of classic rock—one part wailing vocals, one part simple-to-a-fault-drums, one part heavy-but-not-too-heavy riffage, all parts boyish good timing. What’s amazing about AC/DC is how there’s nothing about “Black Ice” that would sound out of place in the band’s classic records from the ‘70s and ‘80s; unlike contemporaries from the Rolling Stones to Metallica, there’s no desire for reinvention, only consistency.

Did you know? AC/DC will finally break the video game barrier: on Nov. 2, they’ll release a standalone disc of 18 songs for “Rock Band.”

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