Anthem Of The Peaceful Army [VINYL]

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The album is written and recorded by the band—lead singer Josh Kizska, guitarist Jake Kizska, bassist/keyboardist Sam Kizska and drummer Danny Wagner—alongside Grammy-winning producer Dave Cobb (Chris Stapleton, Brandi Carlile). Recorded at the legendary RCA Studios in Nashville, the band utilized the large recording room to capture the pure energy of their world-renowned live performances. Josh Kiszka’s high and mighty voice – which, at full screech, can sound like an ejaculating hyena – has come in for special grilling. NPR balked at his “grating, maximalist pitchiness”, while the Times called his voice scratchy and shrill. Matrix / Runout (Runout side A, var. 1): 187353E1/A1 B0027675-01A MRP1782/B002767501-A JN-H STERLING Matrix / Runout (Runout side B, var. 3): 187353E2/A B0027675-01B MRP1782/B002767501-B B20 JN-H STERLING Pressed further about the uncommon level of criticism the band has received, Kiszka did allow a trace of ire. “Some people are writing their articles in their mother’s basement and they’re pissed off that we’re doing something,” he said. “If your career is writing negative things about people, I would think you’d have something better to do.”

Matrix / Runout (Runout side B, var. 2): 187353E2/A2 B0027675-01B MRP1782/B002767501-B JN-H STERLING The young men also absorbed the literature favored by his father, a chemist with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy. (Their mother is a science teacher.) “We had a lot of books that maybe children shouldn’t read, by Nietzsche and Sartre,” he said. “It was all very interesting.” The band notes, lead single “‘Meeting The Master’ peers into an esoteric world heeded by the word of a wise teacher. Sung in the voice of a devout believer, and eventual group exclamation, the song details the love these fervent followers have for their teacher and their firm belief in his vision. It’s an exotic spiritual journey. A dark comedy that inevitably ends in chaos.” That mindset goes a long way towards explaining the insular world that shaped the music of the Kiszka brothers who comprise three-fourths of Greta Van Fleet. They include Josh’s fraternal twin Jake, who plays guitar, and their younger brother Sam, on bass. (The sole non-sibling member is their close friend, drummer Danny Wagner.) The musicians’ remove from the modern world also helps explains why their sonic taste falls so far from that of most in their generation, as well as part of why they have drawn so much scorn from contemporary critics. While Greta Van Fleet’s debut album, Anthem of the Peaceful Army, released in 2018, excited enough fans to debut in Billboard’s Top Five, critics treated it like a fresh outbreak of Ebola.At the same time, the album continues the lyrical bent of their debut. The titles of both sets employ war imagery. “We thought that would be a good through-line because war has been here since the advent of man,” Kiszka said. “There’s always conflict – from wars of religion to wars of industry.” Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge.

Matrix / Runout (Runout side B, var. 4): 187353E2/A3 B0027675-01B MRP1782/B002767501-B JN-H STERLING At the same time, he recognizes the value of becoming a lightning rod. “If you drop flaming nitrous in someone’s lap, I think they’ll notice” he said. “It’s a sign that we’ve done something to arouse people in some way or other.” Where's the line between being influenced by classic bands and being a copycat of these very bands? We didn’t really have to force or be intense about writing, because everything that happened was very instinctual,” Jake says. “If anything, the record is our perspective, and sums up where we are as a group and individually as musicians.”The singer accepts that his own visual presentation can raise eyebrows. “A grown man in a jumpsuit screaming,” he said with a laugh. “What is he thinking? Someone once said to us, ‘I can’t think of anybody else who can get up there, dressed like that and get away with it.” Matrix / Runout (Runout side A, var. 5): 187353E1/A2 B0027675-01A MRP1782/B002767501-A JN-H STERLING Matrix / Runout (Runout side A, var. 4): 187353E1/A2 B0027675-01A MRP1782/B002767501-A JN-H STERLING Throughout the ten-song collection the band explores the duality of fantasy versus reality and the contrast between light and darkness. “We had this idea that we wanted to tell these stories to build a universe,” says Wagner. “We wanted to introduce characters and motifs and these ideas that would come about here and there throughout our careers through this world.” Certainly, he has in his approach to singing, which can make Freddie Mercury seem like an introvert. “It just felt natural to me to do something acrobatic with my voice,” Kiszka said. “I wanted to hang from the rafters.”

Matrix / Runout (Runout side A, var. 3): 187353E1/A B0027675-01A MRP1782/B002767501-A JN-H STERLING A13The band took multiple concepts from critically acclaimed second album The Battle at Garden’s Gate and brought them into Starcatcher, although Sam’s take on the new record’s big ideas hint instead at new beginnings. “When I imagine the world of Starcatcher, I think of the cosmos,” he says. “It makes me ask a lot of questions, like ‘Where did we come from?’ or ‘What are we doing here?’ But it’s also questions like, ‘What is this consciousness that we have, and where did it come from?’” But, “in the end. you don’t give a shit. You abandon fear because it only hinders you as a performer.” Kiszka maintains just as blithe an attitude about the endless Zep allusions. “We’ve been honored and flattered to have those comparisons,” he said. “And it’s lovely that Robert Plant would speak so kindly about what we do.”

Matrix / Runout (Runout side A, var. 2): 187353E1/A2 B0027675-01A MRP1782/B002767501-A JN-H STERLING

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In fact, it’s not clear that he has. In an interview last year with Australia’s Network Ten, Plant described Greta Van Fleet as “Led Zeppelin 1”. When asked about Kiszka’s voice he slyly said, “he borrowed it from someone I know well.” If the result has divided listeners, the singer’s look has pushed things to the limit. On the band’s Saturday Night Live performance last season, Kiszka wore a get-up he designed himself which NPR described as a cross between “a beaded curtain and a yarn bomb”. Even the singer’s stature (at 5ft 6in) has come in for cruel descriptions, causing many a YouTube commenter to compare him to Bilbo the Hobbit. The fact that some consider the result bombastic doesn’t faze him. “I can get on board with that,” he said.