FOR FANS OF: The Black Keys, Grateful Dead, Rush
Greta Van Fleet's sophomore album, The Battle At Garden's Gate, is finally here. It’s over a year in the making, presumably written throughout their constant 2019 touring schedule, while fully formed and recorded during 2020 - the year of very little live music.
Greta Van Fleet aren’t unfamiliar to the music industry, as this is their sophomore record, but they’re still a young band, if only in age. The band is a foursome - three brothers and their friend. Sam Kiszka, on bass & keys, is just 22 years old. So is Danny Wagner, their friend - best friend to Sam - on drums. Josh and Jake Kiszka make up the rest of the band, twin brothers, age 24, soon to be 25, with Josh on vocals and Jake on guitar. What makes this band so captivating to me is the brothers’ background. They grew up in a home filled with music and books, not unordinary on the surface, but when you dig deeper and find out that the music was vinyl records (as the band themselves have put it, a “vinyl playground”) ranging across decades, from Jimi Hendrix, to Bob Dylan, to The Beatles, and to more legendary classic rock and folk artists, it starts to get interesting. The books, largely philosophy such as the works of Friedrich Nietzsche, Jean-Paul Sartre, and more, authors that were advanced for young children, but the brothers read them anyway. The Kiszka brothers weren’t ever ones to keep up with the popular youth culture of the time they were growing up in, but rather preferred to immerse themselves in the music and books loved & created by young and wise people of the past. In sum, the Kiszka brothers grew up well-read and high in musical knowledge, which they’ve passed to their friend Danny, and have used both to create the music that they make, which is seen on The Battle at Garden's Gate stronger than in previous releases.
I found Greta Van Fleet in January 2019, and for me, having grown up on a diet of Disney rock, early 00’s rock, boybands, and pop punk, they were unlike anything new that I’ve ever heard before. I didn't know that anyone still made that style of rock, nor would I have thought they'd be my age. The summer before that January, I had gotten into classic rock encompassingly, starting with The Rolling Stones in July, then The Beach Boys in August, Jimi Hendrix in September, The Doors in October, and so forth in the remaining months of 2018. I was entranced with all of the people who made this world of classic rock that I had begun my journey into, and I desperately wished I could have experienced something that sounded like the music these classic rock artists I so deeply loved made. I clichély felt as if I was born too late to see any of the bands who made such earth-shattering, magic-filled, guitar driven rock music, as if just like Lester Bangs said to Will in Almost Famous (2000), I “...missed out on rock and roll.” and that I “...got here just in time for the death rattle, the last gasp, the last grope.”
I can’t say that Greta Van Fleet are the only ones in recent years playing rock ‘n roll - AKA bluesy, guitar driven rock, but they’re one of the biggest bands doing so at the moment, and at the time when I found them, I didn’t know of any other bands who were making music in the same style. It was my ignorance combined with my dream of being in 60’s and 70’s rock scenes that made their track, “Highway Tune,” something very powerful and exciting for me, as with the rest of their music did, as I found it following that initial track, and The Battle at The Garden’s Gate still fosters those same feelings in me. As a whole piece of work, it’s a record that is certainly unordinary among our time, much like the Kiszka brothers' childhoods. If you’re a classic rock listener, you’ll hear traces of bands like Rush and Free in this record. If you’re not, you’ll just hear Greta Van Fleet.
The Battle at The Garden’s Gate is impressive for many reasons - their youth, their musical style, their playing, the fact that many songs on it go for longer than 3 minutes in a time when the music industry runs on a method of short tracks, as to get more replays & therefore more streaming royalties, and the lyrics on it that range on the simple but spiritual & powerful. “Heat Above,” “My Way Soon,” “Broken Bells,” and “Age of Machine,” were released as singles ahead of the full album release, and despite what usually happens in the streaming age of oversaturated music releases spoiling the full record, they make for a familiar and welcoming playback. “Heat Above'' is about ascending to a higher state of being, one filled with light and love. “My Way Soon,” is the most personal track on the album - one about what they’ve learned on the road in recent years, a message saying that they’ve learned much, but know that they still have so much more to learn. “Broken Bells'' is a song about holding onto hope even in the darkest of times. “Built By Nations'' is the first new track you encounter - that is, if you have been keeping up with all of the band’s previous singles from this record, one that narrates the feelings of a man in the middle of a war, a very Rush-esque track. “Age of Machine,” is commentary on the recent rise of electronics invading every aspect of our life, some even as soon as people are first resting in the womb. “Tears of Rain” is another solemn track thematically, about the rising heat levels of the Earth and prayers for relief of the cool air of night, of rain.
“Stardust Chords” is about a relief from the war they’re fighting, a breaking of light in the darkness of the storm clouds. It is a moment of peace, of healing, a breath of fresh air for our wounded world. “Light My Love” is a track that is a reassurance of love existing deep in every person, a message that everything will be okay, that love will win and hate will lose. “Caravel” is a track about sailing, about moving towards the end of the world as we know it and therefore to the start of a new world. “The Barbarians” is possibly the most classic rock sounding song on this record, both in sound and in theme. It speaks of babylon, which means “a contemptuous or dismissive term for aspects of a society seen as degenerate or oppressive,” which you’ll also find the term used in reference to the scenes that the rock music of the 60’s and 70’s fostered. “Are we prisoners or renegades?” Josh asks on this track, asking if we’re being kept by babylon or if we’ve escaped it and found peace. “Trip to The Light Fantastic,” mentions dharma, which refers to the teachings of Buddhism and the realization of enlightenment - the latter is what this song is about. It’s about reaching enlightenment, of finding a better world, one that is truly and wholly peaceful. The final track on the record, “The Weight of Dreams,” is a very near 9 minutes long, capping at 8 minutes and 51 seconds, half of the track is instrumental which makes for an experience for your ears. It’s reminiscent to me of the book The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho which features a young man who travels to search for treasure beyond what he could ever imagine, and encounters many people and challenges on the way, learning that ultimately, it is best to do what your heart desires, and blessings will come as they belong to you naturally, in return for doing genuine, selfless good. “The Weight of Dreams,” however, is reminiscent of that story but not completely about it- it is a surrender, a giving up on dreams when faced with adversary rather than learning and working through it, which is against the lessons of The Alchemist, and is a more nihilist look on life.
Overall, thematically, The Battle at Garden’s Gate is a lot to unpack and ponder on. It’s a massive personal commentary on the world around them, speaking in both metaphors and the literal in an attempt to capture some of the world’s current pain and darkness, but also to give hope & voice their well-wishes and prayers of healing for us all. It is a powerful, profound record, especially when you remember that these boys are just that: boys, who are just between the ages of 22 and 24, boys who are my age, those who I can relate to in feelings of wanting better for this planet, of wanting peace for all. It is one thing to wish you were alive when Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin were in their heydays, it is another thing to acknowledge the specialness of a band in front of you who has that very same effect and sound that I yearn desperately for, who are the same age as me, who are intelligent and mature, who are extremely skilled at making the music that they do, who are here to stay for the long run. I believe Greta Van Fleet is that band.
The Battle at Garden’s Gate is a record you’ll do best for yourself to light a candle that smells like the forest, brew some tea to drink while listening to it, and really give yourself over to the musical experience Greta Van Fleet has given you. It is not a memorable album in the way that there’s nothing sonically or lyrically groundbreaking about it, but regardless, it is a good album, a beautiful album, a classically Greta Van Fleet album, a fully formed example of who they are and what they’re about, what they believe in. I can only hope that in following records they experiment with their sound, that they shake things up, but for now, The Battle at Garden’s Gate is a fine addition to their discography.
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