Greta Van Fleet – The Battle at Garden’s Gate
Rock – Released April 16, 2021 – 12 songs, 64 mins
REID’s album drop:
My selection this week is very straight forward. A band we’ve all enjoyed to some degree with a new release. Let’s see what Greta Van Fleet’s The Battle at Garden’s Gate has to offer.
REID
First off, I want to say a big ‘Fuck off’ to those who hate Greta Van Fleet because of their resemblance to Zeppelin. Oh yeah, it’s sooooo terrible to have a sound similar to one of the best rock bands of all time. We have ten Nickelbacks and 20 grunge bands but Zeppelin is off limits? Go pound sand. Now with that off my chest, let’s see if GVF can return to the magic of their debut album, From the Fires.
The album starts off with a beauty in Heat Above. This song boasts all the elements that makes GVF appealing to me. The next song, My Way, Soon, begins a pattern that is consistent for me throughout The Battle at Garden’s Gate. I really enjoy parts of the song while others fall completely flat. This song has a fun pace overall and gives me first album vibes but the lyrics are very bad and it’s hard to get past. Broken Bells does nothing for me. Too long and the vocals border on annoying. Built by Nations continues the pattern. The musical sections (introduction and solo) are very Zeppelin-esque and enjoyable but the rest of the song leaves much to be desired. Age of Machine is a pretty epic track, I dig the chorus in this one. I see it as a great one to see and singalong with live. Tears of Rain – more like Tears of PAIN (am I right?) - NEXXT. The next four songs (Stardust Chords, Light My Love, Caravel and The Barbarians) continue the aforementioned trend. Trip the Light Fantastic is a jam, think it’d be another fun song to see live. GVF end things with the 8+ minute, The Weight of Dreams. Pretty decent track overall.
This was an interesting listen for me. I do enjoy a lot of elements in the album but other than 2-3 tracks, the songwriting falls flat for me. I think there’s a good album in there but my version would involve eliminating 3-4 songs entirely (shortening the duration) and improving certain elements in songs that fall flat. It’s worth noting my musical taste has transitioned from Greta Van Fleet’s style over the years so that certainly plays a part in my ranking.
Overall Rating – 6.9/10
Favourite Song – Heat Above
ROZ
This week's pick is really out of my wheelhouse so I won’t attempt to get too in-depth when it comes to the details. Greta Van Fleet has been chastised in the mainstream media for being alleged copycats of legendary rock bands such as Led Zeppelin, and I’ll admit that I believe that statement as a half-truth. I wouldn’t use the word copycat myself, but “influenced strongly” would work in this situation for sure. Now I’m not a Led Zeppelin fan in the slightest so I didn’t go into this with a salty or snobby attitude - I took the music itself at face value and created my own opinion from scratch.
First of all, I heard more Rush in this album than anything (the second Heat Above kicked in, all I could picture was Canadian icon Geddy Lee). The way that the lead singer can hit those high notes is super impressive and pretty mesmerizing, the guy has pipes. This is amplified by the fact that these guys are what, in their early twenties? I mean I know that for this genre they’re standing on the shoulders of giants and a lot of the heavy lifting was already done, but it’s hard to take away the fact that their overall sound is great. I’ve been to enough blues rock and hard rock bars to know that I wouldn’t have a bad time if I was front row at a festival seeing these guys.
This album was completely homogenized; hard rock through and through. Broken Bells stood out for me, a slower tempo jam with a deadly vocal performance by Josh Kiszka and a fantastic guitar solo by his brother Jake. Tears of Rain was another standout track as I found myself gravitating towards the slower, more acoustic tracks on the album - I really felt something within that combination of rock vocals stretched over a piano and slow drum break. That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy some of the heavier songs as well, as Stardust Chords was on the top of my list as well. The voice, the organ, the guitar, the heavy kick drum - it all meshed together perfectly and really had me floating around in my seat.
The album itself is very long and they could have done with leaving a few tracks on the cutting board (particularly in the second half). While I can understand why some critics may scoff at the similarities between Greta and their favorite bands from back in the day, the talent of these guys is undeniable. If anything, they should think of Greta as a band bringing back the sounds of their glory days and have the hope that these guys will usher in a new wave of rock fans in today’s generation. After all, isn't that what music is all about?
Overall Rating – 7.5/10
Favourite Song – Tears of Rain
LUNDI
After a few weeks in Australia the Too Sweet crew heads to England to check out Led Zepp... ahhhh wait I mean to America to check out new age Rock group Greta Van Fleet with their sophomore album The Battle at Garden’s Gate. What I expected to be a flop heading in turned out to be my hardest review to date.
Now this is a damn rock album. Let’s get that out of the way first. The sprawling solo’s, shrieking lead vocals, booming drums, and in your face intensity immediately hit you hard, arguably like no band is doing today. The question is though, is it good?
Unlike their debut album and previous two LP’s (which I listened to this week to compare) GVF emerge with their own sound on Garden’s Gate. It still draws on music made famous by the bands of the 60s/70s but it’s influenced rather than ripped off. Songs such as Age of Machine and Heat Above are a vast departure from their previous works as they’ve partially developed their own unique sound and greatly improved their song writing chops.
But for all the good that’s here, the substantial amount of effort they put in leads to some bad. They go for gold on every single song and it leads to an album that is a bit too long and could easily have had a song or two cut. Tears of Rain is just bad and I’m not sure how it ever made it on the album. I’m also not sure there’s much here in terms of creativity but I know I’d sure as hell listen to this 10 out of 10 times when it’s put up against the Foo Fighters latest.
Rock culture is dying. Very few bands manage to crack into popular culture with the mould of GVF. It’s incredible and admirable what they’ve done when compared to their earlier works but at the end of the day it’s just a pretty typical rock album.
Overall Rating – 7.3/10
Favourite Song – Age of Machine