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album review
Encompassing heavy metal, folk, pure rock & roll, and blues, Led Zeppelin's untitled fourth album is a monolithic record, defining not only Led Zeppelin but the sound and style of '70s hard rock. Expanding on the breakthroughs of III, Zeppelin fuse their majestic hard rock with a mystical, rural English folk that gives the record an epic scope. Even at its most basic -- the muscular, traditionalist "Rock and Roll" -- the album has a grand sense of drama, which is only deepened by Robert Plant's burgeoning obsession with mythology, religion, and the occult. Plant's mysticism comes to a head on the eerie folk ballad "The Battle of Evermore," a mandolin-driven song with haunting vocals from Sandy Denny, and on the epic "Stairway to Heaven." Of all of Zeppelin's songs, "Stairway to Heaven" is the most famous, and not unjustly. Building from a simple fingerpicked acoustic guitar to a storming torrent of guitar riffs and solos, it encapsulates the entire album in one song. Which, of course, isn't discounting the rest of the album. "Going to California" is the group's best folk song, and the rockers are endlessly inventive, whether it's the complex, multi-layered "Black Dog," the pounding hippie satire "Misty Mountain Hop," or the funky riffs of "Four Sticks." But the closer, "When the Levee Breaks," is the one song truly equal to "Stairway," helping give IV the feeling of an epic. An apocalyptic slice of urban blues, "When the Levee Breaks" is as forceful and frightening as Zeppelin ever got, and its seismic rhythms and layered dynamics illustrate why none of their imitators could ever equal them. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
more albums by this artist
See all-
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- Early Days: The Best of Led Zeppelin, Vol. 1
- Released 1999
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- Mothership
- Released 2009
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- Led Zeppelin II
- Released 1969
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- Houses Of The Holy
- Released 1973
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listener reviews
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GREATEST BAND EVER
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- By ZEPFAN17
- 3/21/2009 12:44:11
- LED ZEPPELIN WAS A MYSTICAL BAND THAT BLEW ROCK AND ROLL OUT OF THE WATER. THEY WERE SO FAR AHEAD OF THIER TIME EVERY ALBUM TOOK ON ITS OWN LIFE AND MEANING THERE WILL NEVER BE A GROUP LIKE THAT ASSEMBLED AGAIN WITH THE PAGE AND PLANT COMBO WITH BONZO ONTHE DRUMS AND JOHN PAUL ON THE KEYS
- 8 out of 10 people
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Greatest band of all time
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- By time3294
- 9/10/2008 23:09:17
- This is the gretest band of all time by far in my opinion
- 7 out of 8 people
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Get ur facts straight Stephen
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- By HOB0 JOE
- 8/6/2008 07:45:48
- Jimmy Page was the one most obsessed with mythology and the occult NOT Robert Plant. If your going to mention that kind of stuff about the band at least do a little bit of research first.
- 5 out of 10 people
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