CD Review: Big Ball, “Hotter Than Hell”

Over the past few years, Airbourne has gotten a lot of recognition by pretty much making music that sounds just like AC/DC. However, they sound downright pedestrian compared to Big Ball. Obviously taking its name from the 1976 classic AC/DC track ”Big Balls,” there is no doubt as to which altar the band worships at.

Airbourne kind of sounds like the slicked up little brother of AC/DC, while Big Ball might as well be them — Hotter Than Hell is vintage Brian Johnson-era rock, right down to the vocals. In fact, I would bet any amount of money that if I approached someone that had never heard AC/DC’s Back in Black before and gave them a remastered version of half the original album and half Big Ball, they wouldn’t have any fucking clue it wasn’t all by the same band.

Most of the time bands try to break free from those comparisons to other bands that pigeonhole them into places they may never be able to get out of, but Big Ball have no doubt what camp they roll with. They’ve come right out and said that if you hate AC/DC then you will hate them as well. The one difference you do notice though is that while AC/DC had innuendo everywhere, Big Ball come right out and say what they mean in tracks like ”Porna Lisa” and ”Hell Whores & High Heels.”

I could point out stand out tracks and try to break it down a little more, but again just like AC/DC, every song pretty much sounds the same, rocks your nuts off and makes you want to jump around the room like Angus. The only really sad part about the whole thing is that the clones are making better music than the original band at this point.