10 Greatest Hard Rock Songs Of The 1980s

For any other band that reached the end of the '70s, AC/DC should have been down for the count at the start of the decade. Although their last album had been a roaring success with Highway to Hell, how the hell were they supposed to follow it up after losing their lead singer Bon Scott to alcohol poisoning? It's never an easy task, and for some reason the Young Brothers made their comeback look easy by looking death square in the face.

Kicking off Back in Black with the toll of a church bell, Hells Bells is probably the closest thing to a ballad that you'd probably expect from AC/DC, having a much slower groove than we were used to. When Brian Johnson comes in with his throat shredding vocals though, there was life after death, with Angus Young turning in one of his most emotional solos to date on this song.

What really won over the fans was the lyrics of this song. Though it may have seemed strange for them to continue on without their former frontman, this is practically a tribute to their fallen friend, with the whole band determined to keep his memory alive through the music. So we got the swagger, the bombast, and even the tolling of the bell? Yeah, this about as close to a hard rock viking funeral that you could ask for.