Crossfade Reviews: Greta Van Fleet "The Battle at Garden's Gate"

 by Karl W.

Greta Van Fleet "The Battle at Garden's Gate"
[Lava/Republic]
Hard Rock

    There's a part of me that feels a little bad for Greta Van Fleet. They got ravaged pretty hard back during the release of their debut album "Anthem of the Peaceful Army" dropped. They were a band that wore their influences on their sleeves, if those sleeves were long enough to reach the floor, and the comparisons to Led Zeppelin in their sound were apparent and obvious. Their debut and the EP that made them famous to begin with had their fans, to be sure, but as many detractors that would call them copies of something that had already been done perfectly well over 40 years ago. They were a tribute band that made their own music, essentially, and I wouldn't have had a problem with that if the uncanny nature of all didn't put me off of that first album. Though, at the end of it all, they were still a new band at the time (one that broke fairly early in their career as well), and I did hope that they would shed the marker of being a Led Zeppelin soundalike and go forward with improving their sound in the future, which is why I decided to listen to this new album. I wanted to know if they would improve and make something more original, or double down on the hard rock influence.

    Well, it's a bit of both, but more of the latter, to be honest. This time, they aren't so much of a Led Zeppelin ripoff, thankfully, though the influences are still pretty apparent, namely towards Rush and a bit of Pink Floyd in some songs. Lead singer Josh Kiszka often got most of the flack from critics for his Robert Plant-soundalike voice, though now his vocals seem to be a touch more distinct (though he does sound a bit like Rush's Geddy Lee at some points). At times though, I felt as if his vocals stretched themselves a bit too far and could get a bit grating. This isn't to say that any of the members of the band are untalented at their craft, but I do have trouble differentiating between interesting riffs or mixes on a handful of these songs. The longer runtime to this album also means this album has its fair share of bloat, not to mention the rather compressed production across the project as a whole. That said, there is a more grandiose feeling to this album as exemplified on songs like the opening and closing tracks here, the closing song being a nearly 9 minute closer that has a handful of different parts to it to make it sound intriguing all throughout. The album is definitely a step up from their last, not having as many embarrassing moments on that album and having a few songs on here that I truly admire. However, I'm not sure I would revisit another Greta Van Fleet album after this. They seem to have planted themselves into the 70s-80s prog rock/hard rock worship groups in the same vein as Wolfmother. Technically not bad, but not a lot going for it to make it truly stand out. The fans will like this one, but everyone else can take or leave it.

Best Songs: "Heat Above", "Broken Bells", "The Weight of Dreams"
Worst Songs: "Tears of Rain", "Caravel"

5/10 (Average)