The first American release from the sneering and swaggering AC/DC was a torn together pastiche of two Australian albums with a new cover, but that doesn't stop "High Voltage" from giving serious zap power. AC/Dc had already figured out exactly what route (Highway to Hell, maybe) they were taking and began to blast their way to the top. Even with the heavy dose of filler that's on this CD, there's still no way to deny the visceral force of the best songs here.

There's the statement of purpose in "It's a Long Way To The Top," the rock- as-street-gang chant with "TNT" and the dirty joke as blues number when Bon Scott sneers "She got The Jack." Behind it all is Angus Young's volume blasting but deceptively dexterous guitars and one of rock's best rhythm keepers, drummer Phil Rudd. (Bassist Mark Evans would split by the time Let There Be Rock came out.) Above the fray, Scott wailed like a banshee thug, becoming one of those rare rock singers who didn't just overwhelm, he actually seemed like a true threat to the mortals of society. It made the standout tracks hit with such brute force that "High Voltage" was impossible to ignore.

"High Voltage" did suffer from the filer tracks and (like the early Kiss albums) non-beefy production. However, the band improved past the juvenile postures fast. By the time they hit Powerage, AC/DC had mastered their outrageous power and were cutting classic albums. And much like Kiss, AC/DC were Hell-Bent on world domination, making no bones about the fact that they were going to be rock-stars, and you'd better stay out of their way.

This album is virtually the same as the Australian version of the TNT album. Around this time, 1975, AC/DC in Melbourne Australia had a very big skinhead following. They`d come to their shows wanting loud and tough rock`n`roll, and AC/DC would deliver all the time. That`s why, i think, this album has a very loud and tough sound. There`s nothing nice and fluffy about this album, it`s just loud guitars and loud vocals. I personally think this could be their best album. The vander and young production is fantastic and they really captured the AC/DC live pub sound on this record. I never saw AC/DC in Australia in the seventies as i was too young but many older people here that i`ve met have told me that this album TNT/High Voltage sounds very similar to what they sounded live in Melbourne pubs. TNT is probably my favorite song on the album. It`s only 3 chords and it works brilliantly. AC/DC were the first band to chant Oi Oi Oi in this song and they were the first rock band to use bagpipes in a rock song (long way to the top), 20 years before great bands like Dropkick Murphys tried it. I don`t know why bagpipes aren`t used more in rock music. They sound heaps better than trumpets or saxaphones. This album helped introduce AC/DC to British and European audiences who loved it as much, maybe more, than Australians.

This record's original title was NOT High Voltage. It's title was TNT. Somewhere somebody decided to change it. High Voltage had a red cover with a dog urinated up against a transformer behind a barbed wire fence and contained that classic, drunken sing along song: 'Big Balls'. I think High Voltage has been renamed Jailbreak '74 (they took Jailbreak off Dirty Deeds, where it was the last song. and put it on High Voltage and renamed High Voltage). It's not good to tamper with these thing!

Personally I would consider one of AC/DC's best albums- the stand out tune is 'Long way to the shop (if you wanna sausage roll)' (as it is known to old school australian AC/DC fans). Even the old school video of them driving down some street in Melbourne(?) on an old Bedford flatbed rocking out to this song (including bagpipe players in full highland gear) is supreme. TNT and High Voltage are also fantastic tracks. Other highlghts include Rocker and The Jack. Seriously good fun!

TNT was traditionally, so it seemed in Australia to me, the second AC/DC record new fans bought after Back In Back as it highlighted AC/DC in a very accessible way through their powerful, tight and catchy riffs. It's hard to find a tune on this record that isn't good. Probably school days is the worst. If I not mistaken, it also contains a re-recording of AC/DC's first recorded song with original singer George Evans (who I met backstage one Saturday night in '89- needless to say he didn't seem to like Angus much): Can I sit next to you girl.

SO buy it, crank it up, raise your first and shout 'oi' and appreciate music that sounds as good now as it did back in 1975. Maybe even better...

AC/DC is a true power rock band. Every song on there electrifying debut is rocking all with the same basic rock beat and cool guitar riffs. Starting off with Its A Long Way To The Top it just goes from there every song on here is rocking(well except maybe the bluesy Little Lover) But still the album is AC/DC when they were young as it says in the booklet. Lock up your daughters because this album is a non stop rock thriller and is perfect for any person who loves basic rock n roll and not concept albums.

Being a rock guitar freak of two decades' standing, it is with acute embarrassment that I confess to only having heard this record right through for the first time in my 39th year.

Clearly I went to the wrong school and hung out with the wrong, self conscious types, and stupidly we looked askance at this bogan rock. More fool us.

What a remarkable, single minded, self-assured, exuberant record this is, and what a master stroke for a bunch of scot-inflected teenaged Aussies to have settled on such a perceptively observed formula and executed on it so flawlessly (and stuck with it for the thirty years since!). All of rock's evolved extravagant frippery is discarded or reduced down to its elements. The drums mark out a thumping 4/4 on-beat; stereo guitars crank out a primordial syncopated boogie. Bon Scott wails talentedly and indulgently - even cretinously, as the Amazon reviewer puts it - about rogering everything that moves and getting the clap.

All of rock's anachronistic knowingness is jettisoned and in its place the sort of smutty wailings you'd expect from a bunch of teenage dirtbags. The result: a hilarious, ecstatic, and utterly irresistable rock record.

Olly Buxton