LED ZEPPELIN

The year 1969 was the year that many classic rock and prog bands began releasing albums, and Led Zeppelin was one of the few that got the ball rolling almost immediately. If you want an example of a heavy, powerful hard rock album, you've got one in Led Zeppelin's debut; they take all of their blues influences and inject a proto-metal sound into them. In a progressive sense, they're taking the blues a few steps further than anyone thought the blues could go.

In our world of prog rock, this almost doesn't fit. Sure, Bonham is a mammoth drummer (one of the better ones in rock history), but this album is almost pure heavy blues-rock, granted we are excepting the proto-raga rock tune ''Black Mountain Slide''. There's little variety in the other tunes, falling into either hard rock or blues rock.

''Dazed and Confused'' is the most classic track here; later live performances ballooned the song to unnecessary lengths, but this version is a true showcasing of Led Zeppelin talents in 6.5 minutes and making you headbang in the process. ''How Many More Times'' has a proto-prog feel in the music and weaves through several changes in structure whilst staying reasonably listenable. ''I Can't Quit You Baby'' is a traditional tune arranged very nicely with stunning dynamic shifts.

The other song not mentioned aren't much of interest. The opener and ''Communication Breakdown'' are fun rock tunes that get too stale too fast. With me not being a fan of pure blues, ''You Shook Me'' is my pick for the weakest track on the album (it can't go anywhere). I'm also not keen on Robert Plant's voice for some odd reason. Still, I think this is one of their best efforts. I know we're not far in prog territory here, but it should still be of interest to some progheads.