Power Up (2020)
1. Realize
2. Rejection
3. Shot in the Dark
4. Through the Mists of Time
5. Kick You When You're Down
6. Witch's Spell
7. Demon Fire
8. Wild Reputation
9. No Man's Land
10.Systems Down
11.Money Shot
12.Code Red
By the time Power Up roared into life, few would have blamed AC/DC for bowing out. The rock behemoth had weathered a storm of losses and internal breakdowns that would have sunk lesser bands. Malcolm Young, rhythm guitarist and co-founder, had tragically passed away after a lengthy battle with dementia. Brian Johnson, the stalwart frontman, was ejected from a world tour due to hearing damage. Phil Rudd's legal battles became tabloid fodder. Even Cliff Williams, long the anchor at bass, packed it in. Angus Young found himself the last man standing, still in schoolboy garb, still with a Gibson SG slung over his shoulder.
Yet, against all odds, Power Up emerged—an album as faithful to the band’s roots as any since Back in Black, and arguably the most potent full-length they’d released in over three decades. Critics and fans alike championed it as a return to form, and while that may say more about the fallow periods that preceded it, there’s no denying that Power Up is a thunderous, swaggering reaffirmation of AC/DC’s immutable formula.
Make no mistake—this is not a reinvention. It doesn’t need to be. The band’s essence has always been simplicity honed to perfection: colossal riffs, muscular rhythm, and choruses that beg to be shouted in stadiums. What Power Up offers is not innovation, but invigoration. It sounds alive in a way that Black Ice and Rock or Bust only hinted at.
Opener Realize stomps in with authority—a textbook AC/DC riff delivered with precision and grit. It’s the kind of song that feels like it’s been in the band’s setlist for decades, even though it’s brand new. Shot in the Dark follows close behind and might be the catchiest single the band has delivered since Thunderstruck. It struts and snarls with all the confidence you’d expect from a band who know exactly what they’re doing.
But the real gem, the track that genuinely surprises, is Through the Mists of Time. For a band known for raw power rather than reflection, it feels unusually wistful. The chugging guitars are still there, but they serve a melody that’s positively elegiac. There’s something almost tender in the way it unfolds—still unmistakably AC/DC, but touched with a depth rarely glimpsed in their catalogue. It’s the sound of looking back without slowing down.
Demon Fire brings the grit back with a vengeance, snarling its way through spoken verses and a chorus that hits like a steel boot. Meanwhile, Systems Down is a glorious, grinding slab of groove-heavy rock, while Witch’s Spell and Kick You When You’re Down uphold the tradition of riff worship with aplomb.
Is there filler? Perhaps. But even the lesser tracks are executed with such fire and confidence that they never drag. Power Up doesn’t break the mold. It doesn’t want to. Instead, it serves as a reminder—loud, proud, and gloriously unrefined—that AC/DC still matter. Not because they’ve changed, but because they haven’t.
In a year of global upheaval, Power Up was a defiant shout from a band who refuse to be counted out. A blast of pure rock ‘n’ roll catharsis from survivors who, somehow, sound as vital as ever.
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