Led Zeppelin has been gone since the turn of the 1980s, and maybe a couple of bands have had that level of rock-and-roll success. The band is a household name worldwide. Even if you’re not their fan (which means you aren’t a fan of rock), and if you don’t live in a third-world country, you’ve heard of Led Zeppelin. Their prowess is so great that to even be compared to a level somewhat in line with them was a massive compliment. One band from Michigan, however, is doing what the rock-and-roll world thought they would never see again: a band is successfully (or extremely close to) mirroring Led Zeppelin.

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Greta Van Fleet’s three core members are the three Miszka brothers. Josh is on the microphone, Jake is their lead guitarist, and Sam plays bass, keyboards, and acoustic guitars; on the drums is a man named Danny Wagner. Their first EP, “Black Smoke Rising,” was released in April 2017, and it was released again with four new tracks under the title “From the Fires” that November. By that time, the band’s first single “Highway Tune” had already hit number one on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, and the second single “Safari Song” would follow suit three months later. In addition to their cited blues and Zeppelin influence was something immediately clear - the songs were perfectly reminiscent of “The Rover” and their version of “In My Time of Dying”, from 1975’s “Physical Graffiti.” Those two singles were all to showcase their talent and then hold us over for the big product: the full debut Greta Van Fleet album, “Anthem of the Peaceful Army,” which was released this past Friday, October 19.

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If what Greta Van Fleet wanted with this album was to show how much they loved playing music that sounded strikingly close to the legends’ style, they have succeeded masterfully. They really don’t skip a beat; the album is complete with sweeping, long-length epics bookending the album (“Age of Man,” “Lover, Leaver (Taker, Believer)”) as well as simple old-fashioned 70s party rockers, like the lively lead single “When the Curtain Falls,” which should be pretty up front about its subject matter once the opening verse’s first stanza is complete: “Well you're so great and I love you so / You know I'm your biggest fan.”

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Some reviewers are seeing their approach on Anthem of the Peaceful Army as somewhat of a rip-off of Zeppelin with the help of bright and shiny production techniques that weren’t available when the legends were around. This is almost unavoidable; the reason being that it is impossible in 2018 to sell the idea of a more raw-produced sound to a major-label record company like Republic Records, the label Greta Van Fleet is signed to. It doesn’t hurt the record; in fact, it puts a fresh spin on it that helps distinguish themselves. After all, they’re not 2018 Zeppelin, they’re a band who loves them and has studied them so much that they just know how to mirror their style into new songs. Even Led Zeppelin’s former front man, Robert Plant, has publicly recognized that he loves them.

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“There’s a band in Detroit called Greta Van Fleet, they are Led Zeppelin I [their debut record in 1969]. Beautiful little singer, I hate him!” he said in an interview with Australia’s Network Ten, laughing and obviously kidding at the end of the statement.

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The rock scene needs one of these bands. The current scene is full of the same things: electronic, bass-heavy experiments in down-tuned, distorted hard rock that comes a dime a dozen, even if it’s still good. But it’s hard to call it experimenting when the scene is suddenly saturated in it, isn’t it? The rock charts have not seen a band as talented at authentic blues rock as Greta Van Fleet is in a very long time, and it needs this reminder of what rock and roll’s golden era used to sound like, and Greta Van Fleet are poised to deliver.