Greta Van Fleet - The Battle at Garden's Gate ALBUM REVIEW
“Oh, I love Led Zeppelin!” ~ Peter Parker, 2023.
If you don’t know the lore behind Greta Van Fleet, you might be pretty confused on why I used a quote from Spider-Man: Far From Home as the intro. When this band here first started off, they were relentlessly compared to legendary rock band Led Zeppelin. There’s nothing wrong with wearing your influences on your sleeves by any means, but this almost felt like a very well-done parody of Robert Plant and company. Even Elton John has called the band out on this after performing with them. With this new album, The Battle at Garden’s Gate, they’re trying to shed away some of those notions while going for more ambitious tracks. How did it go? Let’s find out.
Well, at least they don’t sound like Led Zeppelin anymore. I wanna get out of the way that everyone involved in the band is incredibly talented. Hell, I’d wanna be compared to Led Zeppelin’s music no matter if it’s positive or negative comparisons. It’s just that the ambition they’re going for with songs that are almost 10 minutes, stringing out the runtime for reasons unknown, just don’t work. I can sit here all day and say that ‘Oh, these guys are talented as fuck.’ all day, but there’s one massive issue here, and they still don’t have an identity. Instead of Led Zeppelin, Greta Van Fleet just sounds like Rush on this album. Keep in mind that I think Rush is incredibly overrated too, so that’s not helping. As I said, some of the songs go on here for too long, but for the most part, the performances are actually quite good from each member of the band.
If I’m being totally honest, Greta Van Fleet is in a very unique spot. I don’t think The Battle at Garden’s Gate is a bad album. It’s actually very good on its own, but if you’ve heard Rush or Led Zeppelin, they just seem like borderline copycats, it’s not that great. I’ve thought the same thing about their past projects, but I’ll say this again since this is the first time I’m formally reviewing them. What kneecaps all of their projects is that they’re devoid of any type of identity. I couldn’t tell you what a Greta Van Fleet song sounded like if I couldn’t use the words ‘Led Zeppelin,’ and that’s the issue. While I do appreciate the ambition on this album and the group trying for something new, Greta Van Fleet are in desperate need of something that makes them Greta Van Fleet and not Rush or Led Zeppelin offshoots.
5/10
Listen here
YouTube Music
The Battle at Garden’s Gate is a Republic Records release.
If you don’t know the lore behind Greta Van Fleet, you might be pretty confused on why I used a quote from Spider-Man: Far From Home as the intro. When this band here first started off, they were relentlessly compared to legendary rock band Led Zeppelin. There’s nothing wrong with wearing your influences on your sleeves by any means, but this almost felt like a very well-done parody of Robert Plant and company. Even Elton John has called the band out on this after performing with them. With this new album, The Battle at Garden’s Gate, they’re trying to shed away some of those notions while going for more ambitious tracks. How did it go? Let’s find out.
Well, at least they don’t sound like Led Zeppelin anymore. I wanna get out of the way that everyone involved in the band is incredibly talented. Hell, I’d wanna be compared to Led Zeppelin’s music no matter if it’s positive or negative comparisons. It’s just that the ambition they’re going for with songs that are almost 10 minutes, stringing out the runtime for reasons unknown, just don’t work. I can sit here all day and say that ‘Oh, these guys are talented as fuck.’ all day, but there’s one massive issue here, and they still don’t have an identity. Instead of Led Zeppelin, Greta Van Fleet just sounds like Rush on this album. Keep in mind that I think Rush is incredibly overrated too, so that’s not helping. As I said, some of the songs go on here for too long, but for the most part, the performances are actually quite good from each member of the band.
If I’m being totally honest, Greta Van Fleet is in a very unique spot. I don’t think The Battle at Garden’s Gate is a bad album. It’s actually very good on its own, but if you’ve heard Rush or Led Zeppelin, they just seem like borderline copycats, it’s not that great. I’ve thought the same thing about their past projects, but I’ll say this again since this is the first time I’m formally reviewing them. What kneecaps all of their projects is that they’re devoid of any type of identity. I couldn’t tell you what a Greta Van Fleet song sounded like if I couldn’t use the words ‘Led Zeppelin,’ and that’s the issue. While I do appreciate the ambition on this album and the group trying for something new, Greta Van Fleet are in desperate need of something that makes them Greta Van Fleet and not Rush or Led Zeppelin offshoots.
5/10
Listen here
YouTube Music
The Battle at Garden’s Gate is a Republic Records release.
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