The liner notes to Back in Black, written by some journalist, say "Heavy metal nation knows these riffs by heart." True, Metalheads everywhere were at one point eager to point to the #2 biggest selling album of all time and say "Yes, that's a metal album." Who wouldn't?
Anyway, let's take a look at some of the things that define metal:
1) Satan (or Cthulhu). Unless you think "Highway to Hell" and "Hell Ain't A Bad Place to Be" are meant to be taken literally, the Prince of Darkness is rather absent from the AC/DC canon. Oh, he's mentioned in "Hells Bells," true. But come on, "The Number of the Beast" is more satanic than "Hells Bells," and "Beast" is about a Nathaniel Hawthorne story.
2) Leather. Big no (Bon had a leather outfit in the early days, but that was gone by Let There Be Rock). Angus Young has somehow managed to look more dignified in a school suit than anybody who man wore leather pants, with the possible exception of Jim Morrison.
3) Lyrics: AC/DC have never written a song that wasn't about sex, drugs, or rock & roll except for the few that are about Bon's death. That's not to say that metal bands can't cover those topics, but those that do tend to wear leather. See entry #2 on this list.
3a) Songs about war or violence: Er, aside from "War Machine" on their latest album, I'm going with zero. "Hells Bells" is a maybe.
4) Technical perfection. Going back to Back in Black for a moment, the second-biggest-selling album of all time, listen carefully to Malcolm's guitar during the intro to "Hells Bells" and Angus flubbing the very first note of "Shoot to Thrill." No metal band (especially no metal band hinging their entire career on that album) would leave those mistakes in.
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