Presence

Plant's car accident on the Greek island of Rhodes on 4 August 1975 cancelled a US tour planned to start on 23 August. As tax exiles, Plant had to recuperate abroad, staying first in Jersey and then in Malibu, where Page joined him in September. Bonham and Jones came to SIR Studio in Hollywood to rehearse through October. Page chose Musicland Studios in Munich, a basement room in the Arabella Hochhaus hotel, and the album was finished in 18 days with engineer Keith Harwood. The band had booked the studio just before the Rolling Stones, and Page borrowed two days from them to record all the guitar overdubs in one long session. He said he worked 18 to 20 hours a day. Plant sang from a wheelchair. Because the album was done the day before Thanksgiving, Plant suggested that title before the group settled on Presence.

Six of the seven songs are by Page and Plant, and Royal Orleans, about an incident involving Jones at the Royal Orleans Hotel in New Orleans, is credited to all four. There are no keyboards, and no acoustic guitar apart from a rhythm track on Candy Store Rock. Plant called it a cry of survival. Achilles Last Stand began with a backing track on 12 November, on which Jones played an eight-string Alembic bass, and Page added six guitars at the end. Nobody's Fault but Mine was inspired by Blind Willie Johnson's 1928 song of nearly the same name, and Tea for One was an attempt to update Since I've Been Loving You. Only Achilles Last Stand and Nobody's Fault but Mine were played in full while the band was active, from the 1977 US tour on.

The album reached number one in both the UK and US after entering the US chart at number 2, was certified 3x Platinum, and was the band's lowest seller, overshadowed by the film The Song Remains the Same. Rolling Stone's Stephen Davis said it established Led Zeppelin as the premier heavy metal act, and a Q critic wrote that it sounds as rushed as it was. Hipgnosis and George Hardie designed the sleeve around an obelisk called The Object, and the pair were nominated for a Grammy in 1977. Pitchfork's Mark Richardson wrote in 2015 that it might be their weakest album but is among the most special.