Airbourne return with their self-titled sixth album, a full-throttle reminder of why they’ve spent two decades carrying the torch for loud Australian rock and roll.
Nearly 20 years after Runnin’ Wild introduced Airbourne as one of hard rock’s loudest new arrivals, the Australian quartet returns with Airbourne, their sixth studio album and first since 2019’s Boneshaker. The title says plenty about what’s inside: the band boiling everything they love about rock and roll down into 12 songs, with big riffs, bigger choruses, life on the road and absolutely no interest in turning down the volume.
Brothers Joel and Ryan O’Keeffe and company spent years working on the record, writing and rewriting until they felt they had the songs to justify calling it simply Airbourne. Along the way, they even wrote with Mutt Lange and Bryan Adams, with a couple of those collaborations ultimately making the album.
For the sessions, Airbourne reunited with producer Brian Howes, who previously worked on 2013’s Black Dog Barking, and engineer Mike Fraser, whose history with the band includes No Guts. No Glory. and Breakin’ Outta Hell. They recorded at Music Farm Studio outside Byron Bay using the original Neve console from Australia’s legendary Alberts Studios, the same console connected to classic recordings by AC/DC, Rose Tattoo and the Angels. Zakk Cervini handled the mix, with Ted Jensen mastering.
The album kicks off with “Gutsy,” a defiant anthem that first surfaced in 2025, before charging through “Alive After Death (Last Plane Out),” “Here She Comes,” “Kid In A Candy Store” and “Last Man Standing.” “Bogotá” pulls from life on the road, while “Alive After Death” and closing track “Send Me To Rock ‘N’ Roll Heaven” salute the musicians who helped shape Airbourne, including Lemmy, Bon Scott, John Bonham, Little Richard and the Angels’ Doc Neeson.
Lemmy’s presence hangs especially heavy over Airbourne. Joel O’Keeffe announced the album with a letter to his late friend and mentor, recalling the advice Lemmy once gave the band: stay true to yourselves and make music your roadies will like. Airbourne took that advice seriously. Six years of writing eventually produced an album they felt best represented who they are and why they started doing this in the first place.
Calling the album Airbourne makes perfect sense. After two decades of flying the flag for loud, straight-ahead Australian rock and roll, they’ve made a record designed to put their entire identity right there on the cover.