Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin IV

THE REVIEW

The '70s brought numerous innovations in the music industry: from albums like "In Rock" by Deep Purple and "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath, it was clear that something was changing in rock; after the legendary Woodstock concert, new bands had the ability to experiment by producing excellent work, but from the first listen, one would enter an absolutely innovative dimension, which at the time felt like a return to the moon. Thus was born the Hard Rock, the real one, made with heart!!

After already releasing 3 grand albums, spectacular from every point of view (especially the second), the Zeppelin dirigible returns to the spotlight with what is one of their most beloved and historic works in their career: an anonymous album, with a good cover, one of their highest results ever, which definitively marks for the Led as well the era of hard rock, which they had already managed to create in their previous albums with masterpieces like "Whole Lotta Love" and "Immigrant Song".

But now let's analyze this work track by track: 1) The album starts with "Black Dog": never was a start better than this. A surprising and elegant hard rock song with blues and metal hints, and a spectacular riff that will repeat for almost the entire duration of the song. Robert Plant's voice overpowers like a hurricane and the same goes for Jimmy Page's guitar. Very well done. 2) Followed by "Rock And Roll," with a grand drum intro by John Bonham: the song is a classic rock'n'roll riff played wildly where the instruments hit hard, Plant's voice moves like a wave in the listener's ears. Very apt also is the piano part played by bassist John Paul Jones and spectacular is the superfast solo by wizard Page. 3 minutes and 40 of pure adrenaline. 3) With "The Battle Of Evermore" you enter a medieval almost fantasy atmosphere, where Jimmy Page plays the mandolin. Beautiful lyrics inspired by Tolkien's works, particularly The Lord of the Rings. Nice song, although after a few minutes it risks getting a bit boring. 4) Then you reach the absolute masterpiece of the album: "Stairway To Heaven," one of the most beautiful songs (or rather works) in the history of rock. Wonderful is the initial guitar riff by Page followed by the delicate sounds of Jones's keyboard and Plant's splendid voice. Fantastic is the transition between the initial part (the first 5 minutes), played mainly acoustically, to the rock part. Grand is the solo by Page which envelops the song in magic, transforming it into a masterpiece. It is also said that listening to this song in one direction talks about heaven, while playing it backwards talks about hell with devil references, but it's all nonsense. 5) "Misty Mountain Hop" is a driving blues with a great piano riff and a nice catchy guitar and bass line. Another well-done piece, with excellent very folk and funky sounds. 6) "Four Sticks" is a Deep Purple-style song, unfortunately very underrated, very interesting from the compositional point of view which very much recalls the old sounds of previous albums, especially "Led Zeppelin III". 7) "Going To California" is a beautiful ballad with only guitar and voice, although as I already mentioned about Battle Of Evermore after a few minutes it risks getting boring and repetitive. 8) "When The Levee Breaks" drags us into an almost western movie atmosphere: excellent are the parts with the harmonica and guitar and good are also the parts of Plant's vocal solos and Page's guitar.

The result is one of the highest peaks of Zeppelin's career, a great masterpiece, even though I don't feel like judging it better than the past three. Certainly, however, it marked an era by bringing the band to the podium of the immortal gods of rock.