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Album review: Greta Van Fleet – The Battle At Garden’s Gate Michigan rock heroes Greta Van Fleet soar to epic new heights on sweeping second album, The Battle At Garden’s Gate Words: Sam Law Greta Van Fleet’s first three releases struck like bolts from the classic rock blue. Arriving across 18 months between April 2017 and October 2018, the Black Smoke Rising and From the Fires EPs, both paving the way for their sublime debut album Anthem Of The Peaceful Army, saw the quartet emerge from out of nowhere (well, Frankenmuth, Michigan) boasting a brand of timelessly bluesy guitar music that snatched mainstream interest with an immediacy that hadn’t been seen since the genre’s hazy heyday. There were naysayers aplenty, of course, lobbing accusations of algorithm-driven inauthenticity, boomer-music fetishism and downright plagiarism, but the tide of stadium-ready swagger and old-school soul could not be quelled. ....
Whither goest thou, Greta Van Fleet, into the inky night? The Michigan band are often the subject of derision, yet for all the negative reviews, slightly cruel memes, and the endless, endless Hobbit comparisons still they survive, and still they thrive. Album No. 2 is bigger, broader, and heavier than before, the work of a group of musicians who long ago swore to an idea, and certainly don’t see any sense in backing down now that the stadiums are set to re-open. Said idea – and it’s admittedly preposterous – is that twin-bedfellows punk and synth pop never happened, and the clock remains firmly fixed at the year 1974. Often compared to Led Zeppelin for their flowing robes, outlandish guitar solos, wailing vocals, and epic gong use – yes, we said gong – the palette draws on early to mid 70s arena rock, and as a result there’s a fair chunk of The Who in there, too. ....
Brotherhood, burnout and belief: How Greta Van Fleet took on the world – and won Greta Van Fleet’s rise to rock’s big leagues felt, to its four young members, like “being shot out of a cannon”. So when burnout and a global pandemic brought them back down to Earth, how did they not only keep the train on the tracks, but return with an album of epic proportions and ambition? Josh and Sam Kiszka take us inside The Battle At Garden’s Gate, and the fight to block out the world… Words: Nick Ruskell Photos: Alysse Gafkjen Here’s how much Greta Van Fleet need to lead a life on the road: last summer, they packed themselves into a motor home and headed west on a 2,000-mile drive from Nashville to Los Angeles. Half a year after the curtain fell on their last show on December 30, 2019, the closing gig of a three-night run at Detroit’s Fox Theatre, and with a season of broken festival appointments to no longer look forward to, even if they couldn’t ....