 Critical reviews of Black Ice were generally favourable according to Metacritic , which provided a normalised rating of 69 out of 100 based on 24 reviews from mainstream critics . Most reviewers complimented the album 's sound , with The Village Voice 's Richard Bienstock considering that Brendan O 'Brien 's production restored a sonority closer to the Vanda and Young produced 1970s albums and effective choruses like those with " Mutt " Lange , and Aaron Burgess of The A.V. Club finding Black Ice the most inspired AC / DC album since The Razors Edge while sounding " harder , hungrier , and more relevant than anything on contemporary radio . " A common argument was that Black Ice succeeded because AC / DC did not want to change the style that succeeded in previous albums , with Bernard Zuel of The Sydney Morning Herald declaring that given " almost all of [ the tracklist ] could have appeared on any AC / DC album of the past 28 years " , and Chris Jones of BBC saying that the band 's " almost platonic form of rock ' n ' boogie that was hand built to last " remains because they " have no reason to tinker with a formula that was well @-@ nigh perfect to begin with . " Writers such as Spin 's David Marchese and The Observer 's Peter Kimpton complimented the band 's attempts at " some new sonic tricks " , such as the slide guitar of " Stormy May Day " and the quieter " Decibel " . 
