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.