This is the first real AC/DC album. With one notable exception, the stylistic experiments of High Voltage are gone, and the classic early lineup (Bon Scott singing, Angus Young on lead guitar, Malcolm Young on rhythm guitar, Mark Evans on bass, Phil Rudd on drums) is in place. Released only ten months after their debut, it finds the band fully formed and cranking out a fistful of classic hard rock anthems, riding the aggressive blues groove they could drive harder than anyone on the planet.

Seven of the album’s nine tracks were later included on the US/international album High Voltage, which marked AC/DC’s worldwide debut. Thus, “It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘N’ Roll),” “Rock ‘N’ Roll Singer,” “The Jack,” “Live Wire,” “T.N.T,” “Can I Sit Next To You Girl” and “High Voltage” are all crucial tracks in the band’s catalog, at least half of them still played in concert to this day. Of the remaining two, “Rocker” is every bit as kick-ass as the others. The album-closing cover of Chuck Berry’s “School Days,” on the other hand, is not just weak but inexplicable, and thankfully marks the last cover in AC/DC’s discography. Their own material is so ferocious, bringing in outside songs just dilutes their power.

The album’s opening track, “It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘N’ Roll),” famously features Bon Scott on bagpipes, an instrument he had to learn after producer George Young suggested they be included on the track. The keening sound actually works really well alongside Malcolm Young’s chunking riff, not unlike exquisitely controlled guitar feedback. It’s the first of two songs in a row about the life of a rock band; the second, “Rock ‘N’ Roll Singer,” takes the opposite tack, Scott bragging about his outsider existence and angrily rejecting mainstream society’s values and “all the other shit that they teach to kids in school.” No wonder AC/DC were one of the few hard rock bands to connect with punk audiences when they hit the UK.

Of the other five songs to appear on both T.N.T. and the US version of High Voltage, two are about sex (“The Jack,” which is a labored metaphor for venereal disease, and “Can I Sit Next To You Girl,” a reworked version of a very early single that featured their pre-Bon Scott singer, Dave Evans), and the remainder — “Live Wire,” “T.N.T.” and “High Voltage” — are about being a rock ‘n’ roll badass. But not only is the music more biting and aggressive than almost anything else around at the time, the lyrics have a cruelty and meanness, verging on nihilism, that’s unprecedented, especially when filtered through Scott’s disdainful delivery. And special recognition must be made of Malcolm Young’s backing vocals. His voice is even more frightening than Scott’s; he sounds like a goblin, or like some guy you really don’t want to fuck with shouting along from the bar.