Review Summary: The blueprint of Hard Rock music as we know it.
This album is truly legendary and for all the right reasons. This is definitely part of their peak, there's not a single bad song on here despite a couple of weaker tracks, and every part adds to the whole as a Hard Rock experience and a blueprint that many bands in the 70's would follow and expand upon throughout the decade. Jimmy Page is on fire here delivering some of the greatest riffs ever on songs like "When The Levee Breaks", "Rock and Roll", "Four Sticks", "The Battle of Evermore", "Stairway To Heaven", and "Black Dog", and Bonzo's drumming has reached godly levels. Each time I listen to any song on the album, I swear his drumming makes me ascend to a higher plane, especially on the very first track I mentioned, where he is recorded via mics in the lobby of the Headley Grange from a flight of stairs to give the song its unique echo-and-splash drum sound.
This album is not only heavy, but also artistic. The chord progression on "Stairway To Heaven" is complex yet beautiful, "Four Sticks" takes use of a unique time signature shift and Bonzo using four drumsticks makes a very memorable sound while "The Battle of Evermore" is wonderful and sadly the only duet that the band ever did, I wish they did more because it's actually one of my favorite songs of all time. This is also the most obviously Tolkien influenced they got, with the lyrics describing an actual battle in "The Lord of the Rings". Really, it's quite a fun journey and gets the multiple emotions of war across, including grief, wonder, and courage.
This is the pivotal Hard Rock album, and is one of the best collections of songs in music history. The band only stops on their heavy stomps of traversing through melodies and chords to reflect on simpler, and deeply personal lyrics on "Going to California". That song is the one of the only weak points I find, as it only allows for acoustic guitar with Robert's voice and while it is beautiful, it's not as memorable as the other songs it is sandwiched between, while "Misty Mountain Hop" which has an eerie and boring chromatic melody that especially falls flat on the harmonies that sound almost like an ascending Shepard tone.
It's incredible to think that a band could manage to pull off so many fantastic albums one year after the other, and not suffer from losing their touch on a single one. Despite this not having an official title per the bands request, it still topped the charts in the U.K. and the U.S.A., showing just how high and mighty of the rock royalty pedestal the band had climbed to during this period.
Track by Track:
Black Dog: ★★★★★
Rock and Roll: ★★★★★
The Battle of Evermore: ★★★★★
Stairway To Heaven: ★★★★★
Misty Mountain Hop: ★★★
Four Sticks: ★★★★★ 🎖️
Going to California: ★★★
When The Levee Breaks: ★★★★★
