Review Summary: The DJs at my local classic rock station can't get enough of this band, and I know that yours can't either.
Say what you will about Greta Van Fleet, but in fact the musicians that made this album are quite proficient at what they do. The guitarist, for example, is every bit as technically gifted as Jimmy Page. By that, I mean that he could certainly re-create note-for-note every riff and solo that Jimmy Page has ever played in his entire career. The drummer and base players, for their part, also do a pretty impressive job at times, even though their contributions are often lost in the mix thanks to the production which puts a much great emphasis on the guitar and vocals. But in truth, from a technical stand point there's actually a fair bit of fine moments here. The riffs essentially just take all your favorite Led Zeppelin riffs and puts slight alterations on them (When the Curtain Falls has parts that sound vaguely similar to Heartbreaker, while Brave New World sounds very reminiscent to Over the Hills and Far Away), which means that all of them are far from being unlistenable. In fact, the guitarist actually does some pretty neat stuff in Watching Over and Lover, Leaver (Taker, Believer), and the bass player (who doubles as the band's keyboard player, kinda like a certain '70s hard rock act) adds a real sense of drama with his keys on album opener Age of Man. So while none of these guys do anything that you haven't heard countless times over, you can't accuse them of not knowing their way around their respective instruments. In truth, the only member whose technical skill is truly unforgivable is singer Josh Kiszka.
While the other members of this band are only guilty of lacking inspiration (beyond Led Zeppelin and Rush), Josh Kiszka takes an otherwise bland and listenable album and turns it into something truly awful. His vocals on the otherwise impressive Age of Man sound like somebody has grabbed young Geddy Lee by the balls, while his shrill banshee wail on When the Curtain Falls are guaranteed to induce headaches for anybody who listens long enough. And these are just two examples. In truth, there is not a single track that Josh doesn't bring down with either his vocals or his lyrics. On The Cold Wind, an otherwise average song is ruined by his chants of ma-ma ma-ma ma-ma (listening to the lyrics on this album makes one think that this guy has a serious Oedipus complex). Meanwhile, on Anthem he gives his only passable vocal performance, but then ruins it with self righteous lines like "the world is only what the world is made of." Other songs, such as You're the One, talk of "evil" women, while When the Curtain Falls features Josh expressing his superiority over a presumably female fan.
Another problem that this album suffers from is a serious drop in quality in the second half (ironically, this is a very common issue in classic rock). The first half actually has some parts that show a bit of power. Tracks like Age of Man and Lover, Leaver (Taker, Believer) try so hard to be epic that they almost make it believable. But in the second half all we get is lame ballads (You're the One, Anthem) and super generic, by the numbers Led Zeppelin rip-offs (Mountain of the Sun). Of course, the band has themselves so boxed into a corner with the whole "Led Zeppelin revival" thing that they really have no where else to go. If they were to do their own thing then they'd lose the approval of millions of baby-boomers and millennials who were "born in the wrong generation," and so when the band runs out of good Led Zeppelin riffs to copy then they have no choice but to move on to the bland Led Zeppelin riffs. None of this is to say that the band is wrong for trying to revive old genres of music. Bands like Interpol and The Strokes did an excellent job of taking elements from older styles of music and updating them for the modern era, and in doing so they ended up breathing new life into many parts of the rock world. Unfortunately, Greta Van Fleet are such Luddites that they won't even move beyond the production values of '70s rock, let alone its songwriting and lyrics. So in the end, there's really not much for music fans to do but just let these guys have their moment in the sun and let them pass. Hopefully the next big commercial trend will present the world with something more interesting.
