Dust off the bandanna, rediscover that studded leather outfit and demand a mullet from your barber: heavy metal is back, with AC/DC due to top the album charts tomorrow, and Guns N’ Roses announcing the release of their first album in 17 years.

Not since the genre’s heyday in the Eighties has the grinding roar of heavy metal screamed so loudly from the stereo systems of Britain’s youth.

AC/DC, formed by brothers Angus and Malcolm Young in 1973, have this week sold more than twice as many records as their nearest rivals, Kaiser Chiefs. Black Ice, which has sold nearly 5 million copies worldwide, is expected to be at the head of the charts in 19 countries by the end of tomorrow, despite the band refusing to release it for download on iTunes, which they described as “a monster”.

The new album will be AC/DC’s first UK No 1 since Back in Black sold more than 40 million copies worldwide 28 years ago. Despite the fact that all five members are pushing 60, they will begin a world tour on Tuesday.

The heavy metal renaissance began last month when Metallica scored a hit with their ninth album, Death Magnetic. The timing could not be better for Guns N’ Roses, who said that their comeback album, Chinese Democracy, would appear in British shops on November 23.

Axl Rose, the band’s frontman, has spent 17 years making the record, which is thought to have cost $13 million (£8 million). The album’s eponymous first single was released for radio play on Wednesday, to mixed reviews.

Chris Ingham, publisher of Metal Hammer magazine, said: “Metal never went away; it’s just the big boys took a long, long time to make new albums.

“It’s a generational thing, too. You get dads buying it for their sons and daughters, and connecting that way. These bands are far more colourful than all the contemporary stuff around now . . . the rest just don’t have that rock’n’roll spirit.”

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