Review Summary: How Greta Van Fleet got titled as “the saviours of rock” in the music media, being indistinguishable from the sea of Led Zeppelin-inspired bands, remains one of the many great mysteries of the world.
Not a lot of rock groups have arrived to the charts with the same swiftness and bang as the Michigan’s own Greta Van Fleet. Scoring impressive sales figures after the release of their debut single “Highway Tune”, Greta Van Fleet were immediately hailed as the successors of Led Zeppelin, even prompting Robert Plant to comment on the band. The band’s young age was also mentioned numerous times by the music press, adding to the praise over the band’s unabashedly retro sound heard throughout the debut album From the Fires.
The cons far outweigh the pros, however. The band lacks any kind of uniqueness or character that would help it stand out artistically, with the rhythm trio backing the vocals offering the most insipid, rehashed rock clichés imaginable. Lead singer Josh Kiszka’s vocal prowess is rather undeniable as far as his technique goes but the same conundrum exists in his singing: Kiszka’s voice is such an accurate imitation of Robert Plant that he oftentimes ends up being totally indistinguishable from his inspiration, sounding more like a tribute act than an artist with something to say. Even when the consideration of the blatant imitation is set aside for a second, the listener can’t help but feel that the songs on the album don’t offer anything particularly noteworthy as far as songwriting goes.
From the Fires is an exhaustive listen you can’t help but feel you’ve heard a hundred times before. The most memorable, yet simultaneously the most drainingly annoying songs are offered right at the start, with Kiszka constantly showcasing his rehearsed, powerful wails to the point where even the vocal performances start considerably dragging. “Safari Song”, “Edge of Darkness” and “Highway Tune” all offer predictable, unimpressive instrumental writing that zones out and doesn’t register, with only Kiszka’s singing offering any kind of direction throughout the flow of the 32-minute album. The band also add a compulsory, yet absolutely forgettable slower cut “Flower Power”, as well as the unnecessarily Zeppelin-ified “A Change Is Gonna Come” to their arsenal, the latter bordering on parody at points. The final cuts of the album are less overbearing - more calculatedly mature - but this comes with a cost: the album’s finale is a different kind of a dud, not aggressively insulting but rather sleep-inducing.
All of this raises forth an important question: how do you distinguish a band like Greta Van Fleet from groups like Wolfmother? Like Kiszka, the Wolfmother frontman Andrew Stockdale possesses impressively Plant-ified pipes that would work perfectly for recapturing the sound of the original Led Zeppelin records yet works amazingly much against the original material and its originality. If age wasn’t a question, would Rival Sons instead be the (more interesting) torch-bearers of what Greta Van Fleet currently represent? Are Greta Van Fleet over time able to find that tinge of uniqueness in a musical field - largely contaminated by retro fetishism - that could help them stick out as something truly new and unique (think Jack White) or are they destined to end up as yet another novelty nostalgia act like the bands before them (think Wolfmother or Jet). Only time will tell, although the beginning looks absolutely tragic.
From the Fires is an incredibly mediocre, predictable release that has been heard before enough times to foresee every kernel it offers to the musical realm as a fresh artistic statement. As far as your daily dose of modern Zeppelin imitation goes, there are more worthwhile bands remaining both underground and in the marginal spotlight. Hint, Rival Sons.
