Van Halen - A Different Kind Of Truth
One of the reasons I learned how to play guitar is because as a 12 year old I was given a VHS of Van Halen “Live Without A Net”, which is still a brilliant lesson in how to play guitar and stage presence and worth checking out even if you don’t like Sammy Hagar as Van Halen’s singer. I was immediately inspired and realised that I wanted to be Eddie Van Halen (hasn’t happened yet but there’s still time…), next came “OU812″ which was erm, well it just was and then I was given “For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge” as payment for work experience in a record shop which I thought was great. As I got older though I realised there was more to Van Halen than the Hagar era and started exploring the earlier albums which now, 24 years on, have become some of my all time favourite albums.

When the rumours about a new Van Halen album emerged it was obviously met with a fair amount of scepticism, I honestly never thought it would happen. Then there was the smack talking of Sammy Hagar (surprise surprise) who is complaining that Van Halen have picked songs from the archives rather than writing new material, yes imagine that Van Halen have gone back to old demos back when they were the greatest band on the planet! I’m not sure which songs exactly are old and which are new (I don’t own the Gene Simmons recorded demos) but even if they are all old I honestly don’t care. What Van Halen have managed to do on “A Different Kind Of Truth” is recapture some of that energy and spirit that was displayed on those early albums except with a huge modern day production sound. The guitars still have that old Eddie cranked Marshall sound, his solos still sound as fresh as the guy who wowed fans with his crazy striped guitars and 2 handed fretboard wizardry back in the smokey clubs of L.A., and David Lee Roth can still hit all the right notes.

The one thing that worried me at first was that Michael Anthony has been replaced by Eddie’s son Wolfgang, Michael’s backing vocals were a key part of the old Van Halen sound but to be honest it really doesn’t bother me at all. If this is Wolfgang playing the bass parts and not Eddie (as he quite often used to) then Wolfie is an awesome bass player! I know he is still young and a bit awkward on stage but let’s face it, it’s hard not to be overshadowed by such extrovert performers as Eddie Van Halen and David Lee Roth.

So you have all probably heard “Tattoo” by now and the reaction seems to be split 50/50 between the lovers and haters. Let me just say it’s probably the worst track on the album, in fact to me it sounds like a David Lee Roth solo track reject which has been slapped on a Van Halen record but saying that it has grown on me. Moving on though there are a lot of great tracks from the definitely re-worked “She’s The Woman” that has the “Romeo’s Delight” kind of feel to it and “You and Your Blues” which has more of a “5150” kind of sound, maybe it was a song Eddie wrote in the Sammy era? who knows but I like it. Much as I love the first few Van Halen records, I like to hear a few layered guitars with overdubs like on this album rather than the totally single guitar live sound of “Van Halen I“, although they have managed to keep it quite live sounding in saying that. “China Town” has the tempo and power of “I’m The One” with it’s pulsating bass line and screaming rhythm guitars and the guitar solo? Wow, anyone who says Eddie has lost any of his ability needs to listen to this track first. There are actually quite a few tracks with this same level of energy, power and driving tempo such as “Bullethead” and “As Is” and “Outta Space” all of which are brilliant.

Another favourite track for me is “Big River” this sounds straight off “Van Halen I” with its’ stomping quarter note bass line reminiscent of “Runnin’ With The Devil“. Also “Stay Frosty” which is a modern day “Ice Cream Man” following a very similar song structure except with HUGE guitars in comparison. In a recent video David Lee Roth interviews Eddie and Alex and talks himself about the way recording has changed over the years, Eddie states that in most cases his recording process for this album was the same a single guitar track live start to finish with a couple of overdubs, unfortunately Dave doesn’t seem to have been able to do this and you can hear the vocal edits overlap in places, especially on ‘Stay Frosty‘ which is a shame as it takes away from the live vibe a little.

OK so I’ve talked about almost every track even though I didn’t mean to do a track by track rundown I just got carried away, so I should mention the menacing “Honeybabysweetiedoll” which has the darkest riffage on the album and a bit of Whammy pedal going on too, this is a very dramatic sounding track in the verses helped along by a dose of octave effect for extra bottom end. Also the closing song “Beat’s Workin’” has a great groove too and the old MXR Phaser and Wah get an outing for good measure. The only tracks left to mention are “Blood and Fire” which is again a bit “5150” and not one of my favourites on initial listen and “The Trouble With Never” which is ok but I didn’t like the chorus.

So to anyone with doubts about this album if you are a Van Halen fan then you are going to really enjoy it, forget the strange anonmaly that is “Tattoo” this is an exciting and energy packed album containing stunning performances from Eddie and Alex Van Halen (especially considering the lives these guys have led!), great singing by Dave Lee Roth and if it is indeed Wolfgang playing on the album and I have no reason to think otherwise then what a brilliant way to stamp his mark on music history.