The album's development was delayed because bass guitarist Cliff Williams sustained an injury and the band changed labels from Elektra Records to Sony Music Entertainment. The first composing sessions between guitarists/brothers Angus and Malcolm Young were in London in 2003. Recording happened during March and April 2008 at The Warehouse Studio in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. O'Brien tried to recapture the rock sound of the band's early work, as opposed to the blues orientation of Ballbreaker and Stiff Upper Lip, with suggestions such as adding "soul crooning" to Brian Johnson's singing. The songs were mostly recorded live in the studio; engineer Mike Fraser used only sparse overdubs and effects to keep the tracks as close to the originals as possible.
Black Ice was released exclusively in physical formats, as the group did not sell its music digitally at the time. Walmart got exclusive rights to distribute the album in North America. Its release was promoted with an extensive marketing campaign, which included displays of AC/DC memorabilia. The four singles issued from the album were, "Rock 'N' Roll Train", "Big Jack", "Anything Goes", and "Money Made". Black Ice peaked at number one in 29 countries, including Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. It was the second best-selling record of 2008, behind Coldplay's Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends and had shipped 6 million copies worldwide by December. Critical reviews were generally positive, praising the music and its resemblance to the classic AC/DC sound, although some critics found the work too long and inconsistent. The track "War Machine" won the Best Hard Rock Performance category at the Grammys. The album itself was nominated for many awards, including the Grammy, Brit, Juno and ARIA Music Awards; and was supported by a world tour between 2008 and 2010.
Black Ice is the final album to feature the Back In Black era lineup of the band, with founding rhythm guitarist Malcolm Young leaving the band in September 2014 after being diagnosed with dementia, eventually dying from the illness in 2017.
Black Ice is AC/DC's fifteenth studio album release in Australia and their fourteenth international release. The band took a break after finishing the Stiff Upper Lip World Tour in 2001, and resumed performing in 2003, with eight presentations that included AC/DC's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and they opened three concerts for The Rolling Stones' Licks Tour. During those two years, guitarists Angus Young and Malcolm Young wrote music separately, then met in a London studio to work on new songs.
The production of Black Ice was delayed for several reasons. AC/DC left their label Atlantic Records, signed a deal with Sony Music and changed labels within Sony from Epic Records to Columbia Records. Bass guitarist Cliff Williams suffered an injury to his hand in 2005 and was unable to play for 18 months. While Williams was recovering, the Young brothers perfected the songs they had written. Angus revealed that there was no pressure from Sony for the band to release a new album, as the label was releasing DVDs and remasters of the AC/DC catalogue, and thus the group "could afford to sit back and say we'll do another album when we think we've got all the goods." In a 2004 interview, vocalist Brian Johnson said that Angus had written harder riffs than those on Stiff Upper Lip and that he would be writing song lyrics for the first time since the band's 1988 album Blow Up Your Video, but his input would end up minimal, with all tracks on Black Ice credited to the Youngs. Johnson explained that the brothers had done most of the lyrical job, and his collaboration was that he "helped with melody and just filling in gaps that I thought needed filling in".
While producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange expressed an interest in working again with AC/DC, his schedule did not allow this. When the Young brothers called Columbia Records' president Steve Barnett to announce the making of a new album, Barnett recommended producer Brendan O'Brien. Angus said the band had considered talking to O'Brien since the 1990s, as "he seemed to us a very competent professional" and because he and the band would benefit from working with a producer they had not worked with before.
On 3 March 2008, recording started at The Warehouse Studio in Vancouver, where Stiff Upper Lip was recorded, and lasted for eight weeks. Engineer Mike Fraser, who has mixed all AC/DC albums since The Razors Edge, said they recorded in batches of three songs to "keep things interesting" and to avoid overextended sessions. According to Fraser, the band had not rehearsed the songs before entering the studio. Despite "a couple of tweaks in the writing, sparkling up the choruses a bit better" during the recording, the compositions were mostly complete. Still, the Young brothers had new ideas during production, including the song "Anything Goes", which was written when the studio sessions were nearly finished. The songs were mostly recorded live in the studio; the instruments and backing vocals were recorded in the live room and the vocals at both the control room and an overdubbing booth. The performances were first recorded with analogue equipment, as Fraser considers that tape conveys "the sound of rock & roll", and then digitised for mixing and overdubs. Fraser tried to not alter the original recordings – "I used Pro-Tools purely as a tape machine" – with no effects on the bass and rhythm guitar, sparse delay and reverb effects on the vocals and other instruments and overdubs were only used for the lead guitar and vocals.
The first title considered for the album was Runaway Train. Malcolm suggested using a photograph of a famous 1895 derailment for the cover, but reconsidered after he found that Mr. Big had used it for their album Lean into It. According to Angus, Runaway Train was rejected because it had been used by many musicians, including Elton John, Tom Petty and Eric Clapton, and he "wanted something unique, new, different". So he suggested Black Ice, which refers to gigs played during winter in Scotland. He said, "it rolled off the tongue" and it reminded him of "radio warnings up north of black ice." Angus was inspired to write the eponymous song by a similar warning heard on his car radio during production.
The cover art of Black Ice was drawn by Joshua Marc Levy, art director for Columbia and a longtime fan of the band who volunteered for the project among "many people at Sony who desired to work on it". There are four different covers, the standard edition has a red logo, the deluxe edition has a blue logo and two variants to the regular design include yellow or white logos. Angus said the options were not to deliver the message that fans would need to purchase all covers. He said, "We know most people will only purchase the record once, in their colour of choice. For me, it's not relevant. What matters is that fans enjoy it. Music is the essence."
After working with the cover for the album, provisionally titled Runaway Train, Levy went on vacation and travelled with Pearl Jam on their 2008 tour. After a concert in Washington D.C., Levy came up with the idea "to do it all graphic black on black" and sketched what would become the yellow artwork. The record company liked it and requested he do two more in the same style, which became the red and white versions. During the promotional photography sessions, Levy made the deluxe edition art. The tracks on the album did not have much influence on the artwork as Levy had heard "maybe 5 songs at that point", but he found it curious that his artwork fit the title track "Black Ice", which was not among the tracks he had heard. Levy said that since the album had many similarities with Back in Black – "Black" in the title, dark covers, and AC/DC resurfacing with a sound based on the band's early work – the art was "like a time travel, which is why there are so many psychedelic drawings". The artwork's resemblance to a train, echoing lead single "Rock N' Roll Train", was a coincidence, given Levy "never thought of it that way". Atop the image there is a cog with an image of Angus with his fist in the air resembling the statue on Stiff Upper Lip, because Levy "just thought it was great as a continuing icon." The photographs for the booklet and promotional photography were taken by music photographer Guido Karp, in August 2008 in London.
Black Ice made history by debuting at number one on album charts of 29 countries, and is Columbia Records' biggest debut album since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales data for Billboard in March 1991. Black Ice was the second best-selling album worldwide in 2008, behind Coldplay's Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends. As of December 2008, it had shipped 6 million copies worldwide, and earned sales certifications in 24 countries, with multi-platinum status in eight, platinum in twelve more, and gold in the four remaining.
On the first day of its US release, 20 October 2008, Black Ice sold over 193,000 units. By 28 October, Black Ice debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 albums chart, selling over 784,000 copies in its first week, the second highest one-week sales of an album in the US of 2008, behind Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III. It was AC/DC's second release to top the US charts, after For Those About to Rock We Salute You (1981) and became the biggest debut ever by a mainstream hard rock album. As of 31 December 2008, the album had sold 1.915 million copies in the US, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and was certified 2x Platinum by the RIAA. Black Ice also debuted at number one on the ARIA Album Charts, selling over 90,000 units, and the UK Album charts, with 110,000 copies sold. It was their first number one in the UK since Back in Black (1980). In Canada, Black Ice debuted at number one and sold 119,000 copies in its first week, making it the best-selling album debut in Canada in 2008. The album held the top spot in Canada for three consecutive weeks, with sales of over 200,000 copies. In Germany, Black Ice became the 14th best-selling album of the 2000s, with sales of 1 million copies and being certified 5 times platinum.
To promote Black Ice, AC/DC launched the Black Ice World Tour on 28 October 2008 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Two days earlier; they had held a dress rehearsal in the same city. The tour lasted for 168 shows in 11 legs, with the last in Bilbao, Spain, on 28 June 2010.
Mark Fisher, who had worked on the Stiff Upper Lip World Tour, designed the stage. The set's centrepiece was a full size locomotive, weighing 3500 kg, that was inspired by the working title Runaway Train and the track "Rock 'n' Roll Train". Five songs from Black Ice were included on the tour's set list; "Rock 'n' Roll Train", "Big Jack", "Black Ice", "War Machine", and "Anything Goes".
The Black Ice World Tour was AC/DC's most successful, grossing $441.6 million, making it the fourth highest-grossing concert tour of all-time. Three concerts in December 2009 at the River Plate Stadium in Buenos Aires were released as the DVD Live at River Plate on 10 May 2011. A limited edition photo book of the tour, AC/DC Black Ice World Tour 2008–2010, by Matteo Abruzzo, was published in Italy in October 2010.
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