BY ISAAC MCKEITHEN / Opinions Staff

Remember the AC/DC of 1975 that made strutting around in shorts famous and sang about dynamite and about rock ‘n’ roll at its pure, uncontrollable essence?

That band sounds just like the AC/DC of 2008, and their 15th studio album, “Black Ice,” is proof that while the band hasn’t really evolved in more than 30 years in operation, who the hell cares?

This is AC/DC. This is rock.

So what could be more identifiable with the Australian pioneers of metal than a vicious riff from Angus Young and a thunderous clamoring from Phil Rudd’s drums opening the first track, “Rock ‘n’ Roll Train”?

How about lyrics that spin tales of “your mind on the fantasy” and “livin’ on the ecstasy” and a chorus featuring Brian Johnson screaming, “Runaway train!” with the rest of the band following, “runnin’ right off the track!” in synchronous harmony?

It’s these kind of shallow, yet immediately iconic passages backed by overly vivacious guitar work and loud drum smashes that made this band so popular decades ago, and almost every track on “Black Ice,” AC/DC’s longest studio album to date, feature the sounds serious fans have come to know.

Cliff Williams gets the spotlight in “War Machine” as his bass guitar hums steadily along a simple eighth note line in the song’s opening moments.

Soon enough, however, the band starts piling on the sounds as the snare soups up the tempo higher and higher with dual electric guitars exchanging pulsing phrases back and forth, leading to a thriving verse of “Push your foot to the floor” evoking the sound of musical war.

“Wheels” is all about rocking “around the town” and it really takes advantage of stereo speakers, stretching the soundstage so it sounds like there’s a perfect setup of a lead guitar for each ear, allowing for distinguishable entrances and engulfing licks.

The title track, “Black Ice” closes out the record and does so with the swagger heard from the finale of a concert with a noticeable pause after the first verse and a constant barrage of all instrumental elements available to the band.

For close to an hour, AC/DC destroys the listener’s hearing and the pace does not slack from the first riff to the last, showing that, if anything, this is their most tiring album ever.

Unfortunately, those not overly familiar with the band’s extensive work, past the obvious greatest hits, might not find the album very inviting.

The lack of variety in both writing and arrangement along with an aged style from the ’70s and ’80s will have some ignoring this album and understandably so.

However, for those wanting an absolute head-banging, carnivorous thrashing of the most basic elements of metal rock with songs that will undoubtedly leave car speakers everywhere in need of repair, look no further.