"LED...ZEPPELIN...IS...BACK!" shouted the TV advertisements for this collection, distilled from 1990's four CD box set. Indeed, the 3CD "Remasters" (two music discs plus a third interview disc) provides near-perfect middle ground between the group's collected works box and 4CD box, and the inferior "Early Days" and "Latter Days" one-disc sets.

"Remasters" spends its first disc on Zeppelin's seismic first four albums, leaving out some essential "II" tracks ("What Is And What Should Never Be," "Living Loving Maid") but culminating where it should, with "Stairway To Heaven." The second disc concentrates on Zeppelin's most experimental work and could lead to greater appreciation of 1976's "Prescence." "Achilles Last Stand," with its understated (for him) Robert Plant vocal, and "Nobody's Fault But Mine" are represented; "Candy Store Rock" would've been a nice addition also.

The third disc features a 30-minute radio special (featuring a lo-fi, interwoven "Hey, Hey What Can I Do"), individual interviews with surviving band members, and some Jimmy Page's song intros ("Hello, this is Jimmy Page and this DJ is insane!" "Hello, I'm Jimmy Page. It's time to wake up and get the Led out!") This is all as essential music as any released since the Beatles' breakup, and should be owned (either here or on the original LPs) in some form.

All of Led Zep's albums (with the possible except of Led Zep IV and Physical Graffiti) have had some outstanding tracks, but some not so great ones. And here, in one handy package, are virtually all the outstanding ones. This is nearly as good quality as buying all 8 seperate albums, but much much cheaper (I got the British edition, which doesn't have the interview disc but has the two music discs, for [amt], which is about [amt]!) It has all the classics, from the opener 'Communication Breakdown' through 'Babe I'm Gonna Leave You', 'Whole Lotta Love', 'Since I've Been Loving You', 'Black Dog', 'Rock and Roll' and my favorite track of all time 'Stairway To Heaven', then onto the second disc which is concerned with Physical Graffiti (once described by British music magazine Q as the heavy alternative to Seargeant Pepper) and the other experimental albums, and contains more great numbers like 'The Rain Song', 'Houses of The Holy' (which, contary to logic, does not appear on the album of the same name but on Physical Graffiti), 'Kashmir' and closer 'In The Evening'. It is a great place to start for begginers to Led Zep, and despite some ommisions (where is When The Levee Breaks or What Is And What Should Never Be) it is a wonderful collection of music and a brilliant introduction to one of the most pioneering rock bands of the 20th century.

Well what can you say about Led Zeppelin that no one already knows. They absolutely positively rock. The man to thank for this brilliant CD is Jimmy Page, the God on the guitar and the backbone of the band. In this cd jimmy displays his absolute best. The best way to describe this cd is old classics remastered for the 90's. The crisp clear sound only makes you appreciate the music more. My only advice is to quickly GO BUY THIS CD! STILL HERE GO I SAID GO

It's strange, the Zeppelin legacy. Nowadays, Zep. are largely regarded as the original heavy metal rock dinosaurs whose cartoon excess on tour and on stage cataysed Punk and killed off the 60's. Odd that, as listening to this collection of songs I can't find a SINGLE bloated heavy metal track among them. If Metal spawns from below the waist, Zep music comes from an altogether more sinister and mystic place. Sure, it has balls, and Zep could rock with no peers (Rock & Roll, Black Dog, Immigrant song etc) but there is a restraint and spiritual discomfiture in this music which has more in common with mediaeval troubadour folk than Deep Purple style lumpen metal. Zepplin music is of shadows and needful things, not of MTV.

Tracks like 'No Quarter' are EVERY BIT as chilling as Robert Johnson's timeless recordings : ' The dogs of doom are howlin' more' indeed. 'Gallows pole' is desperate, and 'the Battle of Evermore' is pure Canterbury tales: Gothic, existential, disquieting.

There is lyrical conceit for sure (unintentionally Parodied later by bands like Rush) but the sheer magnificence of tracks like 'Kashmir' justify the Homerian timbre of the lyric: ' O Father of the four winds fill my sails..'. Truly inspired by ethnic music at is purest and most spiritual long before Paul Simon made it trendy, Zeps best music draws from a huge variety of sources ALL of them base, ancient, spiritual.

Page's restrained guitar work is more effective than any cranked-up modern metaller can ever be, it's what he doesn't play which says the most.

'the Rain Song' is just plain beautiful, but again the retraint renders the song imploring, unfulfilled, fearful like almost no other modern music.

Plant's early shredding vocals (Whole Lotta Love, Communication breakdown) were effective enough, but gave way to an unsettling existential moan over time, (Kashmir, Achille's last stand, No Quarter). John Bonham's sex groove underpinned all their best work, and gave Hip Hop-pers an obvious drum sample along the way '(when the levee breaks, the Ocean)

Don't buy this album as a historical document, as you would , say, a Who album, for Like Gregorian Chant , Zep music is both of it's time and timeless.

Buy it, love it and be unsettled. We will never see their like again.

This album is essntial.

It is so good I could listen to it for hours on end! If you like Led Zeppelin than you have to get these discs!