Led Zeppelin (Digitally Remastered) - Led Zeppelin

While they were receiving too much praise for originality at the time, Led Zeppelin would later be heralded amongst the founders of the Heavy Metal and Hard Rock movement that carried over from the late sixties into the early seventies. Their début self-entitled record was highly-instrumental in setting the foundations in having such high praise. Rolling Stone initially brushed the record off as a release without real creativity, before the Blues-Rock sound morphed into Metal completely and the music world changed forever. Subsequently, it’s no surprise it was later claimed by Rolling Stone to be one of their ‘500 Greatest Albums of All Time’.

The Led Zeppelin début dropped at the start of 1969. Recorded in just 36 hours under financial pressure, the guitarist Jimmy Page headed ‘The New Yardbirds’ with the fresh recruits of John Paul Jones (bass), John Bonham (drums) and Robert Plant (vocals) after his old act disbanded and immediately took on the music world with their innovative take on old techniques found in the styles which the London boys were primarily inspired by.

The introductory track to the album really gets things off to a great start. Commanding things with and extremely-memorable percussion performance, they jam with something funky to start things off before their music sounds a lot more solid and dense as the release rolls on. The release is noted for its variety and although it may begin with a song that sounds quite danceable and lively, they quickly take away from this with the Acoustic second song and confuse it all later with the mix of tracks seen as it goes along.

Consisting of nine songs, its length was nothing out-of-the-ordinary at the time. Within these individual tracks the five of them manage to fit in all that was required of them in order to make an impact with the music they make. From tune to tune they show listeners what exactly they’re about and how they have the capabilities to revolutionise the game by introducing techniques which had yet to be seen used in such an experimental and daring manner. Blues’ call-and-response is filled upside down, electronic sounds were becoming much more important and this was all done without moving too far away from the sound that The Yardbirds were noted for.

The key highlights of the album come in the form of the fourth and fifth songs (“You Shook Me” and “Dazed and Confused” respectively). Taking the former into account, the layering on it means that it’s a great talking point pick out. They cover a little something from Muddy Waters and decide to leave the song with the same raw outline that made it so powerful in the first place. Tripling the track in length, they’re sure to give an indication of who led to them making such soulful music and what’s to be expected of them in the future. The production on that song is also well-noted for its backwards echo, in which the echoing comes before the guitaring and so gives an ominous feel to the song. “Dazed and Confused”, on the other hand, is a stand-out tune for a completely different reason. It stands as the other main focus of the album as a song which features some of the best vocal work from Plant and Jimmy Page offering monstrous guitar work by showing his skills when taking the bow to his instrument.

The record is especially noted for its use of riffs as the hook rather than choruses. In traditional commercial music it’s the sung melodies in a re-occurring verse from a song which usually take on this role, but here the riff are far too intense and overpower almost every track on the release. This can be seen to be apparent in something which begins very jazzy like “How Many More Times” but then comes across just as clearly in a straight banger like “Communication Breakdown”. There’s a great mix and it comes through in a number of ways such as this. Another aspect would have to be through their choice of material. They may be billed as ‘Heavy Metal’, but then “Your Time Is Gonna Come” and “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” are acoustic songs. The range keeps listeners engaged and excited by what could come next. All of it (other than the instrumental folk song “Black Mountain Side”) seems to be of a high standard, and although Metal fans that got into them late may be put off by the variety, it seems to work well for them.

Overall, this is a great album and one which is definitely for the fan of early Metal and Hard Rock. This, amongst others at the time, bridges the gap between the days where what was merely an extension to Blues was then suddenly made so that ‘Metal’ was clearly-defined with its characteristic sound. Much of what’s done here is fresh and original (in spite of the flack they received), but this is largely down to the productional techniques instead of the music itself. Of course some of this would have been new at the time, but it’s clear why they were immediately given praise from the moment they released this album.

1. “Good Times Bad Times” **Five Stars**

2. “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” **Four Stars**

3. “You Shook Me” **Five Stars**

4. “Dazed and Confused” **Five Stars**

5. “Your Time Is Gonna Come” **Four Stars**

6. “Black Mountain Side” **Three Stars**

7. “Communication Breakdown” **Five Stars**

8. “I Can’t Quit You Baby” **Five Stars**

9. “Home Many More Times” **Five Stars**