6. For Your Life
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_JCEcHZZHs Presence is noted for its lack of experimentation. The one rule with Zep was to expect the unexpected, as previous albums would be filled with blues, metal, folk, funk, soul, and even punk. So really, expecting the unexpected is applicable to Presence for its stripped down, bass-drums-guitar approach to the songs. For Your Life embodies this perfectly, its grinding, power chord riffs chug through the merciless backbeat. It cuts and slices rather than swings, with Robert Plant dishing out an especially sharp performance, spitting out his bitter lyrics while sounding as if he can barely keep up with the instrumentalists raw performance. Such a lack of unison between singer and instrumentalists is a testament to the immediacy of Presence, an album which, unlike its follow-up, wastes no time in bludgeoning the listener into submission.
Fred McNamara
Contributor
Senior editor for the superhero/comic book hub A Place To Hang Your Cape. BA in Creative Writing and Film Studies from Hull Uni. Currently getting lost in the big wide world of freelance writing. And some other stuff.
See more from
Fred