Greta Van Fleet announced their new album, The Battle of Garden’s Gate, with a nearly seven-minute new song, “Age of Machine.” As the young rockers tell Rolling Stone, they wanted the upcoming record to register “on the scale of a film score.”

“We wanted to do that for a long time, but we didn’t think people would be ready,” vocalist Josh Kiszka
explains.

Now, with a hit debut album and fans worldwide, the Greta members felt they can now fully execute their vision.

“Being in music long enough, there’s more of a relationship that we have with people,” Kiszka says. “I think that will help them understand this particular album — because it is a very sophisticated album. There is no doubt about it.”

Despite its increased scale, The Battle at Garden’s Gate, the sophomore follow-up to 2018’s Anthem of the Peaceful Army, does follow in the footsteps of its predecessor in certain ways. For one, the war metaphor continues in the album title.

“There’s reoccurring themes in my work… constantly, there’s war,” Kiszka says. “Sometimes there’s this idea that it’s for religious reasons, but then there’s industry — the war industry, I suppose. Then there’s this idea of when industry becomes the identity of society. What will become of humanity?”

The Battle at Garden’s Gate is due out April 18, 2021.

By Josh Johnson
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