Album Review- Van Halen "A Different Kind of Truth"

I will admit: I came into the first Van Halen album in 14 years with a ton of reservations. In fact, saying a ton would likely be an understatement. No one is going to sit here and dispute Van Halen’s place and contribution in hard rock history, but there were a lot of issues I had going in. First off, replacing Michael Anthony with Eddie Van Halen’s son Wolfgang was and is appalling to this very day. I can just imagine Eddie telling his son what to play and how to play ever single note and it sends shivers down my spine. David Lee Roth does have some dumb charm to him, but it tends to grow old real quick these days. And when word got out that the new album is a collection of old demos the band had been sitting on since the late 70’s, you tend to think that all creativity has been thrown out the window and the band is truly living on past glory.

On VH’s 12^th album, originality may not be there because nearly every song sounds like a rehash of the old days, but there are some moments of entertaining glory that will appeal to fans. To hear Eddie’s shredding at the beginning of “China Town” will get fans excited and sounds like material from “Diver Down” and other old school VH albums. A song like “She’s the Woman” gives the album some swagger and comes off as one of the better cuts off “Truth”. Every song attempts to showcase the dynamic between Eddie and Roth, and when the band moves into the up-tempo stuff, like “Bullethead”, it seems like the VH pistons are firing once again and often.

But even with the band digging deep into the archives, some of the songs should have been scrapped in favor of starting fresh. If I were the band, picking the dull “Tattoo” as the first single was a mistake, which left fans with a ho-hum feeling. “Blood and Fire” almost rips off the classic track “Little Guitars” a little too much for my liking. And the acoustic beginning and Roth’s off kilter vocals on “Stay Frosty” seems a bit forced and goes into nothing real quick.

I will admit: I don’t hate this album at all. I think unearthing a lot of the old riffs turned out a lot better than initially thought. Personal feelings for Eddie Van Halen aside, I think he is the MVP of the album and does a great job with a sizable portion of the riffs. Roth is goofy as usual, but even as he pushes 60- there is still a vigor to his voice that is very noticeable.

But even as I write this, there is even still an uneasiness I have towards liking this album. Whether you call it tainted or put an asterisk by it, I just feel that I didn’t need to know that the riffs are all old demos from the 70’s and makes me feel like much in the way of original effort was put forth on the album.

But if you don’t give a crap about that and are a huge Van Halen fan, this is gonna sound like the second coming of the band and relive the glory days. If you can get that tainted feeling out of your head, this will be heaven. But for this reviewer, it’s a flawed success.