This review requires you to think for a moment.

Whether society is getting desensitized is for Tool to discuss within their own music, but Satanism, in plain form, is still a strong topic, and if you hit it obtusely enough, you’re guaranteed to offend some people. Slayer knows this. Deicide knows this.

Now ponder this: could you name, or even make, an album that seems both pretty listenable and marketable enough just to listen to, but looking deeper all the paths point towards the devil? Slayer can’t. Deicide can’t. Neither could I... until I spent some time excavating Led Zeppelin’s IV.

You see, unlike Guns n Roses, whose screeching vocal bravado is thin and transparent, Robert Plant’s falsetto is wholesome and commanding, setting the perfect stage for the creepy tales and misty mountains on their fourth outing. People probably go to it first in the Zeppelin catalog because it’s got ‘Stairway to Heaven’ on it. It’s a good bet as an album for starters to be sure: who else could wind down after seven and a half minutes of pure build, build, build with this overwhelming moan:

And

she’s buuuy-ing

the

Stairway

to Heaven...

It might be the one big seller in the history of music I don’t think is overrated. It works because of its simpleness, I think; an acoustic arpeggio in a minor key with a medieval-like whistle working behind it; that clambers up effortlessly into major strumming, then the bombastic BA-DA-DAs when the electric guitars come on... then abruptly back down to that last gasp above. It’s unnerving to think that these lyrics are laced with subliminal messages about the Occult... but it makes sense. Part of the appeal comes from the fact that Plant is mumbling, but he also sounds tragically sad:

‘There’s this feeling I get,
When I look to the west
And my spirit is crying for leaving…’

That epic alone is enough to load Led Zeppelin IV with context and the elusive ‘hidden meaning,’ but there’s other songs, too! Seven of them! All of these show diversity, and are worth checking out.

First up is ‘Black Dog,’ which is roughly the same as Green Day’s ‘American Idiot’ (except thirty years before it) – a monster riff with a punchy line before it. Plant holds his own with his majestic high-pitched croon, even if the lyrics, which in contrast to ‘Stairway’ are easily picked up, are cringeworthy on more than one occasion (‘Hey hey mama / The way you move / Gonna make you sweat / Gonna make you groove’? You need to get into soul, brutha!). It is, all in all, a capable if typical Zeppelin opener that delivers the goods.

Taking a refrain from the rocking out they do on the first two tracks, ‘The Battle of Evermore’ is probably the longest-lasting statement a band could record. Eerie and dischordant acoustic guitars populate the soundscape in the lead-up to ‘Stairway to Heaven,’ and Plant’s uneasy harmonies segue between hopefulness (particularly the lines ‘morning light’) and descriptions of darkness. There’s probably a heap of homage to paganistic rituals in here, but unless you were an expert in black magic you’d never notice them. As Side A becomes Side B, ‘Four Sticks’ can be seen as a re-energized start to the album, with a wide range of instruments on tap. This includes some fuzzy noise at the three minute mark and an intriguing tender bridge that separates it from its driving distortions. The percussion work of drummer John Bonham in this and the closer ‘When the Levee Breaks’ is often raved about; I don’t see why it’s so great, myself, but it’s at least an uptempo rocker with twice the usual intelligence of its time.

But in the end, there’s little I could think of that does more to ensure their continued relevance in the world of rock culture than one ‘Misty Mountain Hop,’ which is absolutely amazing. Something about that keyboard interplay syncopated with the chugging drumming really gets to me. Each part follows the other, but the deliberately flat, churning melody dominates the soundscape. Once again Plant proves to be the only vocallist who could yell from the back of his throat at the top of his range and still remain tuneful. Even Alice in Chains copied it, with the whole atonal harmony shtick.

It’s interesting that the record’s two weak links are practically opposites.

One is the twangy ‘Rock & Roll.’ Now this is bland. It’s based on the famous 12 bar blues, which from memory goes something like this:

I, I, I, I, IV, IV, I, I, V, IV, I, I

Historical significance of that chord progression aside, if it’s not punk, bands have no place playing those three chords, as far as I’m concerned. The mystique is clearly an ‘essential ingredient’ in Led Zeppelin IV, as this one is pretty poor, along with its I, IV and V chords and one shrill piano note that jars its way into your cranium. And ‘Going to California’ seems like just a way to rehash ‘Stairway to Heaven’ and ‘The Battle of Evermore’ as side 2’s downtime; the same good-natured, chiming acoustics, only the effect has become fluffy and bloated. Still, if it doesn’t bowl me over, at least it’s got a trump card up its sleeve: it’s short.

If it keeps on raining, the levee’s going to break...

‘When the Levee Breaks’ has strangely renewed relevance that can’t be denied. It’s also interesting to me as I’d only heard the A Perfect Circle version prior to picking up IV and, with all due respect, they’re worlds apart. This has Zep showing their bluesy side, laced with extra convoluted solos, and like I said, I don’t know why the drumming’s so cool (can someone please help me out here?), but it’s mutated into a mammoth of a prog-rock song by the end, which deserves kudos. This finale does not necessarily translate to a “bang,” however, and after its groove has faded there’s not much to remember.

You probably saw it coming – more thinking, I’m afraid. Chew over this quote for a second:

‘Rolling Stone magazine was particularly unkind to them, referring to their albums as joyless, empty exercises in sheer volume whose only possible appeal was to listeners too stoned on horse tranquilizers to turn them off.’

How they’d be changing their tune in a couple of years! Led Zeppelin IV can also be found on Rolling Stone’s List of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, at number 66, and I’ll beat you over the head if you’ve never heard ‘Stairway’ before, but then again, there’s more to the classic than that. It remarkably stands the test of time as a “very good” – not “perfect,” “very good” – album with a couple of big surprises, if you open your mind to it. On an (accurate) list of the greatest rock songs ever, a scraping of these would probably earn a ranking. While the benefit of living now makes them seem dated, and part of me wants to scream ‘OVERRATED! OVERRATED!,’ another more logical half is in awe of the musicianship on display and wants to burn down a church or pledge myself to the occult.

And by the way... I figured out what the band are really saying on a backwards message in ‘Black Dog:’ ‘Fuck Rolling Stone.’

I need to listen to Houses of the Holy.

1. Black Dog
2. Rock & Roll
3. The Battle of Evermore
4. Stairway to Heaven
5. Misty Mountain Hop
6. Four Sticks
7. Going to California
8. When the Levee Breaks


Recommended: Yes