As a classic rock fan, I have mixed feelings about Van Halen’s newest album, A Different Kind of Truth. While it doesn’t dip below what would be expected for the band’s first album in 14 years, it doesn’t exceed any, either. With David Lee Roth back in the band to replace Sammy Hagar yet clearly past his glory days, the responsibility to carry the band falls on guitar legend Eddie Van Halen more than any of the other members, which include drummer Alex Van Halen, and the newest addition to the band on bass: Wolfgang Van Halen, Eddie’s son.
Let’s start with the previously released single, “Tattoo.” This is one of the worst tracks on the album, yet 10 to 1 it will be the one that stays in your head no matter how hard you try to flush it from your mind. With meaningless, repetitive, and unimaginative lyrics, it seems a strange candidate to demo the album with.
The best of the songs are without a doubt the six that were actually demoed under different names back in the 70’s. “She’s the Woman” has obvious ties back to the rowdy Van Halen style from their hay day, and “Big River” and “As Is” have the familiar, insane finger-tapping solos that Eddie is known for.
Some of the newer songs are decent, too. “Stay Frosty” and “You and Your Blues” have hints of the blues, but without straying too far from the band’s rock comfort zone. The best song on the album is arguably “Blood and Fire.” It starts upbeat and melodic, and is a bright memory of classic Van Halen material, stemming from the 1985 instrumental “Ripley.”
The album is far from perfect though. The faster paced tracks resemble each other too closely. You can be humming one of the tracks and not be sure which out of four or five songs it is. It’s that bad.
Another major change from this and Van Halen’s past works is that there is a complete lack of synthesizer. Part of this can be accounted to the fact that 70’s and 80’s bands were somewhat limited to the synthesizer, but part of me still misses the emotional and exciting keyboard bits from “Jump” and “Dreams.”
But the worst part of the album is without a doubt the lack of Van Halen. What I mean is, if it weren’t for the couple phenomenal solos scattered throughout the album (and don’t get me wrong, they are there), a listener would have no clue that it was Van Halen, save the distinctive voice of David Lee Roth.
A Different Kind of Truth has turned Eddie Van Halen, more or less, into a metal electric guitarist. Too many of the verses are filled with heavy, palm-muted pounding instead of the creative licks and fills that were in “Panama” and “Why Can’t This Be Love.”
Van Halen’s 12th studio album, A Different Kind of Truth isn’t much of a tribute to what used to be Van Halen and is now just another metal band. The average listener may find it a refreshing new blend of metal, rock, and a bit of blues. But I don’t think any true Van Halen fans will be able to “Dance the Night Away” to any of these new tracks.
By Luke Holland
