10 Overlooked Masterpiece Songs By Legendary Rock Bands

These 630 seconds of Zeppelin at their epic best should be required listening for any rock fan. Taken from their unequally underrated seventh studio album, Presence, Achilles Last Stand (and indeed, that whole album) was recorded during a difficult time for the band, during the second-half of 1975. Lead singer Robert Plant, at that time, was recovering from a traumatic car accident - his vehicle spun off the road in Rhodes, Greece, injuring Plant's then-wife Maureen Wilson, and leaving Plant himself with a broken ankle and broken elbow.

As a result, guitarist Jimmy Page put in some marathon sessions to complete the album, which became one of Zeppelin's hardest-sounding efforts. Unusually for the band, Presence features no keyboards and very little acoustic guitar. Achilles Last Stand itself goes all out from the get-go, with frantic, propulsive drumming from Bonham and cutting, no-nonsense riffs from Page.

The song makes use of mythical and legendary material drawn from, most obviously, Homer's The Iliad (the Trojan War), William Blake's Albion and other ancient sources. What makes this track extraordinary is that there is no let-up here, no slow-builds or softer sequences, just ten minutes of Zeppelin doing what they do best.