Greta Van Fleet Chants For Spirituality And Serenity In ‘Meeting The Master’

Returning as the modern heavyweights for rock music, with their branded image enamoured with an appreciation for their 1970s glam rock roots, Greta Van Fleet has returned to the charts to tease fans for their upcoming album. Their latest track ‘Meeting The Master’ acts as an ode to spirituality, uncertainty, and reckoning with death. Whilst tackling a topic surrounded by fear and confusion, the single is enriched with an optimistic view of death and the encouragement to live a life of satisfaction and love.

Calamity and serenity are foregrounded in the lyrics of the song, where the four-line verses and repeated messages make the track appear as a rock and roll hymn about death and faith.

The track’s narrative journey evolves from wanting to “meet the / master” into a greater plight of finding emotional satisfaction through sharing “All of our love” with whatever or whoever fulfils those desires. A heavy allusion to faith and spirituality can be drawn from the “master” character, yet the themes of positivism and peacefulness resonate with a universal human anxiety surrounding death to make the track delicately unpack a fear of the future in an inclusive and warming manner.

Although the single's lyrics may be short and concentrated, the message behind the song is amplified by the expansive vocal range of lead singer Josh Kiszka and the melodic stylings of drummer Danny Wagner, bassist Sam Kiszka and guitarist Jake Kiszka.

The crescendoing guitar riff at the end of the track possesses an electrifying energy that’s nostalgic to Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix, encapsulating the band’s heavy influence from the raw passion and progression of rock music which defined both the 1970s and the genre itself.

Discussing their highly anticipated next album, Wagner stated “We wanted to introduce characters and motifs and these ideas that would come about here and there throughout our careers through this world”.

‘Meeting The Master’ features on the band’s upcoming third album 'Starcatcher', set to release on 21 July 2023.

 

Alanya Smith

@AlanyaSmith 

Image: ‘Starcatcher’ Official Album Cover