Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin IV

THE REVIEW

It's a bit bizarre to review an album of which not even the title is known, but, as Robert Plant said on the eve of its release, the intention was to focus the audience's attention exclusively on the music it contained.

But contrary to the band's intent, the "obscurity" of this album - which featured neither a title nor the band's name, but displayed only four strange symbols and a reproduction of the Tarot Hermit - gave even more importance and a certain veil of mystery and curiosity to the work.
For convenience, it was simply titled "Untitled", but also "IV", as it followed "III", or "Four Symbols" (because even inside the cover four symbols appeared with meanings sometimes magical, sometimes mystical, sometimes diabolical representing each band member), or "Zoso" (the symbol representing Jimmy Page, also the only one that could be named).

Revered, contemplated by critics and the audience, awarded entry into the Grammy Hall Of Fame, "IV" is the evolution and consecration of the experimentation and softer inclinations begun with previous works and especially with "III".
Active, energetic, volatile, "IV" is a mix of elegant hard rock ("Black Dog", "Rock'n'Roll", "Missy Mountain Hop"), of blues (the ending track "When The Levee Breaks", a reprise of Memphis Minnie's 1928 song), of acoustic-folk ("The Battle of Evermore", a dark and tragic duet between Plant's dynamic vocal talents, so powerful that they blend excellently with the other instruments and become in turn a fourth instrument - the fusion is so well achieved that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish the instrument from the voice - and Sandy Denny of Fairport Convention, accompanied only by the sound of Page's mandolin) - and very, very much rock'n'roll.

After listening to the first three songs - beautiful - one realizes that they are nothing less than an elegant red carpet, made with the rarest and most refined fabric, to pass before reaching the majestic, legendary "Stairway To Heaven": an intersection of pure hard rock with a sometimes macabre-medieval sound (after all, Plant has always shown his fascination for the mystical-religious).

Even those who preferred them tough stop, admire, and believe they are on the stairway to heaven. "And we pass like a breath along the road, with shadows larger than the soul, and there walks a lady we all know, who shines brightly and wants to show that everything still turns to gold."

Led Zeppelin IV, Runes, Zoso, Untitled, Four Symbols, Stairway to Heaven or whatever you want to call it, it doesn't matter, because a perfect record like this doesn't need to be called, it needs to be listened to.