Back in 1985, on the evidence of Fly On The Wall, AC/DC was a band in stasis. Previous album Flick Of The Switch had been co-produced by the band and engineer Tony Platt, but this follow-up was self-produced (with assistance from engineer Mark Dearnley) over in Switzerland. A nice place to be for sure, but a dangerous place for bands to play at the best of times – witness the arse-up Motörhead made of Iron Fist, for example. It didn’t help that Malcolm and Angus Young’s closeness to the material rendered all sonic objectivity somewhat absent.
In addition, Brian Johnson’s voice was markedly starting to sound weaker: the album throughout is muddied by enormous amounts of heavy reverb to try and add some power to the vocalist’s tortured larynx. Married to a guitar-heavy, vocal-low mix, the result is an LP from which much of the usual sparkle and exuberant forcefulness is sucked – and the often ostensibly heavier blues-based material is noticeably weakened as a direct consequence.
