Greta Van Fleet’s second album was highly anticipated when it arrived on 16 April 2021. The band had seen an incredible success trajectory since their humble beginnings in 2012. A lot of people will say it’s fully deserved, given their skilful and enthusiastic performances that are rooted in classic rock values. At the same time, they have also become one of those bands that people either seem to love or hate.
Let’s just mention the L-word right away. For several years people have taken to social media to write them off as Led Zeppelin clones, primarily based on their early EPs with arguably had songs with striking similarities. Their first full album Anthem of the Peaceful Army (2018) was already moving away from that, and as we’ll get to in a minute, the second one even more so. The Zeppelin comments still just keep coming. Is it just a gag reflex at this point?
It doesn’t stop there. People will ridicule their appearance, their dress sense, and their stage movements – the latter to such an extent that videos mocking frontman Josh Kiszka’s stage mannerisms became a TikTok trend.
The question is if new music is going to change people’s minds. Those who are not on board with them probably don’t care what the new album sounds like. The insults that were used in 2017 may not really be valid in 2021, but why let facts get in the way as long as it’s fun?
It’s honestly people’s own loss, because Greta Van Fleet have just produced an amazing album. Obviously, a lot of people like it – even love it – while others seem to listen primarily to feed their prejudices. It is what it is.
The band do a good job of ignoring their detractors. Still, their second album was always going to be their answer to all of that. It has actually been a long time coming, as the band started writing material for it almost directly after finishing Anthem of the Peaceful Army.
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The album sessions started in earnest with a few months of concentrated recording around mid-2019 with Greg Kurstin producing. He most recently worked with Foo Fighters on Concrete and Gold (2017) and Medicine at Midnight (2021). They would get back to it in periods between live shows, but eventually the pandemic led them to postpone the release until live shows were on the horizon again.
They revealed the album name The Battle At Garden’s Gate in late 2020, as well as expanding on the lyrical themes. While they confirmed that the title definitely was a biblical reference, the album was said to expand well beyond that, into the idea of ancient civilizations and parallel universes. The band explores the human experience on this album, and how religion and war affect it. The album was described as more dark, cinematic, and complicated than their prior album. Seeing dark instances of poverty and famine while touring inspired its more dire sound.
The Battle At Garden’s Gate has turned out to be an amazing effort which develops their sound further. This was done consciously, with early 2019 commentary from the band signalling that it would have a ‘more worldly’ feel than their prior work, as the band had been seeing the world as they toured it in support of their first album. They also made no secret of the desire to evolve their sound after all the commentary their previous work had received about sounding like Led Zeppelin.
The most pleasing thing in that regard is that whatever changes they have implemented on the new album don’t sound forced. It very much feels like an organic follow-up to the first album, with the music coming from the same source but perhaps being distilled a little bit differently.
One key addition is the sound of organ, played by bass player Sam Kiszka (who frequently switches between these instruments or does double duty with organ/bass pedals in live settings). There was organ on the first album as well, but it is often more prominently featured on The Battle At Garden’s Gate, adding to the sound rather than dominating it.
The album opener Heat Above immediately benefits from this, as the organ contributes a gentle opening, allowing the song to arrive with the same feel as a sunrise coming over the horizon. The song is a gentle, yet energising way of starting things, with the chorus exploding with a sunburst energy.
The song is a unifying call for peace and love. “There’s plenty of love left in this world, even though it may not seem like it,” said Sam Kiszka. “And that’s what Heat Above is about, rising to the stars together.”
The second track on the album was the first single, and My Way, Soon is a great (and more direct) rock song with a cool riff. The band hits an amazing groove here, with vocalist Josh Kiszka adding a lovely vocal countermelody to what the band is playing. The chorus is catchy as truck, and a big part of the reason this song has been an earworm of giant proportions.
The song came directly out of the experience of the band touring the world for three years, and is a reflection on their experiences and seeing this diversity.
“My Way, Soon was inspired by what three years of touring did by opening so many doorways,” Josh Kiszka told NME in October 2020. “This is my truth, how I feel about all of our travels, but I know it echoes the experiences and changes of perspectives for Jake, Sam, and Danny as well. We’ve seen how people live in different parts of the world and we’ve developed intrinsic respect for different cultures and people. We’ve gone from driving down a highway to a show and seeing endless miles of shantytowns in Sao Paulo, to playing some of the richest places on earth.”
“We realized that while growing up, we had been shielded by a lot of things,” drummer Danny Wagner told Rolling Stone Magazine. “And then we were thrown out into this huge world, and it was a bit of a culture shock at first.”
I’ve seen many people, there are so many people
Some are much younger people and some are so old
I’ve seen many places, there are so many places
And where are the people going? Will they choose the road?
I’ve packed my bags and I’ve got my freedom
I’ve sacked the rules so I don’t have to heed them
I’ll bet on a chance if I’ve just got one
I’ll throw out the plans and live with no burden
The album features several different styles. Broken Bells takes us into ballad territory, with the band delivering a poignant and lovely song that they performed live with a chamber orchestra in a YouTube session. Built By Nations sees them firing up a bluesy hard rock track with stylistic shades of Lover, Leaver from the first album. Tears of Rain sees them bring out the acoustic guitars and piano for a heartfelt folk ballad touching on climate change, filled with drama and several musical build-ups and pull-backs.
Age of Machine is the first epic on the album. At nearly seven minutes, it is the first look into a more epic and cinematic style compared to the band’s previous work. “We wanted to do something on the scale of a film score,” Josh Kiszka told Rolling Stone Magazine.
The song’s title can be seen as a reference to Age of Man, the opening track from the band’s first album Anthem of the Peaceful Army. Coincidentally or not, Age of Man happens to be the track that resembles this more epic approach the most on that first album.
The lyrics filled with grandiose metaphor seem to tackle humanity’s dependency on technology and a desire to be free from it. There are warnings of man becoming the machines themselves, and of those machine qualities being worshiped but actually turning out to be evil. It also ties into a theme of technology’s negative impact in war.
“There’s reoccurring themes in my work,” Josh Kiszka told Rolling Stone Magazine. “Constantly, there’s war… Sometimes there’s this idea that it’s for religious reasons, but then there’s industry – the war industry, I suppose.”
Perfect child plugged in since the womb
Prophet of the dune in this electric tomb
Man has made an omnipresent force
Heading on a course for interstellar shores
God machine malfunctioned as it grew
And the circuits blew falling down on you
Now you’re free, unplug from the source
No more underscores, open up the doors
Stardust Chords is important thematically, as it references the album title and highlights a central theme of rebirth. The track describes the aftermath of the battle at garden’s gate, mentioning “Roses in the bush / Cut down at the garden’s gate” as well as sounding the broken bells to bring in seeds to rebuild. Humanity is seeking to recapture aspects of the garden elsewhere.
This is also an interesting song musically with many different passages and movements. It establishes a groovy verse, with the chorus exploding into different rhythms one of the most amazing vocal deliveries on the album. It is constantly bending, twisting, and turning to find somewhere interesting to go.
At this point, the album has already revealed itself to be a confident mixture of various influences. The band draw on several sources, a lot of them coming from a 1970s-inspired toolbox. Classic rock with groove and panache, acoustic and folk numbers, and progressive, epic sounds with conceptual themes… they are trying to reach a high bar, playing a diverse range of styles and still trying to fit them into a whole. This is the art of creating a complete album where the listening experience is the sum of all its parts rather than chasing individual flashes of hits. Light My Love is adds more sunshine in the shape of a heartfelt tribute with a huge arrangement. The Barbarians features mellotron and vintage sounds, and is a sharp anti-war song that refers to generals and politicians as “Children with their toys of war”.
One of the more intriguing songs on the album is Caravel, which was a small-highly manoeuvrable sailing ship developed in the 15th century by the Portuguese. They’re specially famous for being used by Cristopher Columbus during the ‘Age of Discovery’ – which is rephrased ‘the age of the caravel’ in the song.
The song is played with a dramatic riff, as is befitting a song of dramatic exploration with a potential life and death outcome, with Josh providing a lot of lyric-less vocals as spice.
With the caravel especially famous for its use by the Columbus expedition, the “sail to the end of the world” lyric likely stands for the actual discovery of the land, and “death or glory” for the turbulent consequences of the arrival of European men in America.
The band also described this song as “a testament to the exploratory nature of man and the quest of curiosity.” They said: “it seems like we will stop at nothing to know everything.” In this light, the “sail to the end of the world” could represent man and his will to go beyond limits in order to gain more knowledge, and “death and glory” the prize of this knowledge.
Crash against wave upon wave to strange horizons
Heel to the mist and the wind, you wake the movement
As you can tell this was the age of the Caravel
As you can tell these are the times you’ll remember well
Sail to the end of the world for death or glory
Bow with your face to the sky, we are the movement
Trip the Light Fantastic is another song with a strong vocal melody, the band themselves describing it as being “about spiritualism on the highest level. It is a reminder that we are not bound to our earthly beings.” It features several mantras, primarily “Ram” which is usually repeated as a way to show bhakti (devotion) and commitment to acting justly, with wisdom and compassion for all.
The album ends on an epic note with The Weight of Dreams. The longest track by far at nearly nine minutes, it is a commentary on capitalism and materialism in America. It looks at people’s dreams of riches and material items, and how that can ruin the human experience that should be focused on appreciating nature and becoming “a peaceful army.” The satisfaction that people get from money and materials has blinded us to the beauty of humanity and this world.
All across the west we travelled wayward for
To find the weight of dreams in gold
Heaven sent us here to meet the hallowed shore
To claim the wealth that we had sold
Gold mines melting men in the sunshine
Spoiled wine tastes so sweet we have gone blind
Gold mines melting men in the sunshine
Spoiled wine tastes so sweet we have gone blind
The band first started playing this song live in 2019, at which point it used to be called Black Flag Exposition. That version of the song used lyrics from Lay Down by Melanie Safka. When they recorded it for the album, they had come up with a different set of lyrics which led them to rename the track.
The band make good use of the song’s length, allowing it to start a bit quieter and slowly grow throughout. After showing a lot of tasteful guitar riffage and cool licks throughout, on this track Joshua Kiszka finally gets to let loose towards the end as he tears into an epic, wailing guitar solo as the song reaches its plateau. But there is room for afterthought as well, and the song ends on a nice, acoustic note.
With The Battle At Garden’s Gate, Greta Van Fleet has delivered exactly the album they said they would do. It is hard to imagine the pressure they have been under, but it must have been massive. They had a lot of points to make and things to prove, in addition to showing that they could cope with the ‘second album syndrome.’ The album is amazing, displaying musical evolution, a wide range of musical ideas, and the solidifying of their own sound that is uniquely their own.
It might not be everybody’s cup of tea, but I’ll have another cup, please.
Svein Børge Hjorthaug
Norway, August 2021
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