Nothing To Prove EP
Rock Sector Records
AC/DC’s founding lead singer is back with a blistering EP that shows he has no interest in trading on past glories.
Naming the release Nothing To Prove is as much a statement of intent as it is a challenge to himself: you can be damn sure if the music wasn’t up to scratch that he would be cut down to size instantly.
Put Up Or Shut Up is a similarly aggressive challenge to the naysayers and bullshitters. Written with Absolva’s Chris Appleton, it features some of the raunchiest guitar work this side of heavy metal.
I Believe is an anthem the likes of which they just don’t write any more. Full of melody and fist-pumping, chest-beating self-belief, Evans tips the cap to Slade’s glam stompers as much as metal’s stadium rock on this future live favourite.
Big Joe Williams’ blues standard Baby Please Don’t Go, which Evans has been playing since his year-long tenure with AC/DC around 1974, is similar to AC/DC’s version, but perhaps showing what the song was like before Bon Scott tried it on for size and features some searing guitar playing again from Appleton.
Nothing To Prove is an excellent EP from a man who was there when hard rock evolved, and credit must be given not only for his role in that, but also that he is still here 40 years later making original music that is not in debt to his former band.
SHANE PINNEGAR
