Greta Van Fleet, Worth The Praise Or A Fleeting Moment?

greta-van-fleet-led-zeppelin 750

greta-van-fleet-led-zeppelin

It’s official — Greta Van Fleet are a hit. With a couple of Number 1 singles in the U.S. and a retro rock revival sound, they are all anyone seems to talk about these days. Too bad they are completely unoriginal and totally uninspired.

Fine, they sound good enough, and it’s great that they are helping to revitalize a bygone rock era, it’s great that they’re bringing some much needed attention to the rock genre, and nobody is questioning their musical talent, but why, why oh fucking why is everyone stroking their cocks about how great they are?

As a blatant Led Zeppelin clone, not once has any member of Greta Van Fleet named the legendary band as an influence. Why? Is it because it’s too obvious? To that end, anyone who has heard Greta Van Fleet comes to the Zeppelin conclusion. So, if Zeppelin comes immediately to mind when listening to Greta, why would anyone even buy a Greta album or single? Won’t that just lead to a desire to listen to the real thing, and ultimately to playing something from Zeppelin?

Yes, Greta Van Fleet is fresh and new, so it’s understandable for people to be drawn to them right now, like a car crash we want to see what’s going on. But how can people even entertain the notion that these youngsters are “better” than Zeppelin? To say that Josh Kiszka is a better singer than Plant fringes on blasphemy, and we won’t comment further on any comparisons made between Jake Kiszka and Page or Danny Wagner and Bonham. It’s new, that’s all, and it’s preposterous to suggest that it’s better or otherwise.

Led Zeppelin released their first album in 1969, that’s 50 years of love and praise that has been bestowed upon them. For decades people have been citing Zeppelin as one of the greatest rock bands of all time. Now, all of a sudden there’s a band that sounds reminiscent of Zep and some people are flapping that useless skin around that big hole in their faces to say that Greta might be better! Are you kidding me? Are you all a bunch of turncoats?

It’s true that Led Zeppelin’s early work might not have been wholly original, but it was founded in blues standards. And Zeppelin with their unique blend of innovative playing and original style brought those standards to new heights as well as to the masses. What it wasn’t was a carbon copy of another band.

There have been better bands to hit the scene between Zeppelin and Greta, such as The Tea Party, who’ve used Zeppelin and others as sources of inspiration to create something new and original. As it stands, Greta Van Fleet have great potential and they might be worthy of the high praise they’re currently enjoying if they were performing at a high school talent show.

But if this is all they’ve got, they won’t last any longer than the sense of nostalgia that they bring.

Rock Hard \m/

More Articles Like This

Have Your Say Leave A Comment