New Van Halen

[Gordon Williams]

The CD Warehouse in my area somehow got the new Van Halen before the national release date (they did on the last Black Stone Cherry, as well).

Anyway, I bought it Friday night, and have already listened to it twice, and I am VERY impressed.

Sonically, it may be the best Van Halen album ever. Everything sounds great in the mix, to me. Eddie's playing a lot of down-tuned guitar, and it sounds fantastic! Alex is back with great sounding drums.

And believe it or not, the bass playing (and the mix from the studio) both sound awesome! I mean, when your Dad is Eddie Van Halen, the kid is going to keep getting better on the bass guitar.

This may not be quite as good as the debut, song wise, but it is easily back to the classic DLR era Van Halen sound. After two listens, I think the second half is better than the first half, but the whole thing really, really cooks!

And again, I can't say how much I think the production is top rate! After the awful production of "Van Halen 3", it is great to hear the band sounding this good again. Plenty of humor injected in David Lee Roth's lyrics, and performance.

I find myself having a hard time saying this...BUT....the long wait for new Van Halen music may have been worth it!

I think I can say this without "fear of retribution"...but, if you liked DLR era Van Halen...then, no need to wait until you hear more of this album. It's a "MUST HAVE" in my book. Will be in heavy rotation for a long, long time.

[Alan Christensen]

http://www.annihilatormetal.com

I think that is the bands website. The album cover is TERRIBLE? And why did they not use their REAL logo? But Annihilator is a pretty good band!

[Jon]

Meant it was a good cover version of Romeo's Delight. I have a few Annihilator albums, pretty good band.

[Alan Christensen]

[RJhog (Admin)]

How about this review from Classic Rock Magazine?

"Ah, the Van Halen album. Something that’s certainly proven to be a talking point. Opinions range from calling it excellent to utter rubbish. So, just where to put A Different Kind Of Truth (Interscope)? Well, it’s OK, but no more. Some of Eddie Van Halen’s playing is brilliant. However, the best that can be said about the songs is that they imitate some of the finest moments from the original David Lee Roth era. However, these 2012 versions really are a shadow of what went before. As is also the case with Diamond Dave. He doesn’t have the spark or sparkle of old. If you’re satisfied with a once great band attempting to recreate what made them so remarkable yet falling well short of previously high standard,, then you’ll enjoy this. Otherwise…avoid."

[Alan Christensen]

I like it. Van Halen was my first band and anything new is welcome. I REALLY like the Balance CD, was looking forward to the new songs on the greatest hits disc (both with Dave and Sammy). It is hard to believe those were the last new recordings. I need to revisit them! :)

[Niels (Mod)]

It's not THE review from CRM. It's just one of the writers since the KERRANG!-days, Malcom Dome's opinion on the CRM-site. The "real" review will appear in the magazine, that will be released in the end of february.