It’s 2012 and the mighty Van Halen ship has set sail once again, the first full album with David Lee Roth and the Van Halens since 1984. Make no mistake – this is the Van Halen people want to hear. Sammy Hagar had a career before and after he was with the band, so his membership is negligible to the fans who were weaned on the Roth era.
And that isn’t taking anything away from what he and Van Halen did. It’s just that the great divide between Roth and Eddie Van Halen, in particular, creates a special, peculiar friction that spills over into the music. That spark is what gave the first (and, in this writer’s opinion, very best) Van Halen album its grit and teeth. Over 30 years later, it’s that same spark that gives A Different Kind Of Truth its edge, its energy – ultimately, exactly what the fans have been wanting and waiting for.
It’s been five years since Roth returned to the Van Halen fold, which leads to all kinds of speculation of what’s been going on. The Van Halen brothers have cultivated this cloak of mystery that used to make rock stars a more dangerous, less user-friendly breed. How they’ve managed to muzzle Roth all this time proves how much control they have over the band. It also says a lot about why Wolfgang, Eddie Van Halen’s son, was brought in on bass – it’s a family business with few outsiders allowed in.
Nevertheless, Roth, in a handful of promotional interviews for A Different Kind Of Truth, mixes on his guitar player, stating in an L.A Times interview, “I don’t know if Ed has ever felt good.” But the singer’s brash attitude of the 80s gives way to diplomacy and adulthood. “There’s a thin line between rage and great work,” Roth told the Times. “He (Eddie) really never enjoyed his fame or success, and that might be part of what compels him.”
Time, obviously, offered no incentive to Van Halen, and questions about why it took so long to record A Different Kind Of Truth are irrelevant. Bottom line: It’s here and it pretty much shreds. Yes, there are missteps along the way. The first track, the much maligned “Tattoo” isn’t a terribly good example of what the album is about. It’s a gratuitous attempt to “pop” up the music, so to speak, and it’s confounded many a listener expecting more. Thankfully, the tracks that follow deliver on the promise of a kick ass, classic Van Halen reunion album.
And, before we go any further, there is the case of Michael Anthony. As fine a bass player as Anthony is, it is his trademark background vocals that are sorely missing. “She’s A Woman,” one of the older demos Anthony originally played on that the band has revived, and “Bullethead,” are two that spring to mind that may have benefited from the former Van Halen bassist’s supportive pipes.
That being said, it doesn’t take long to love the songs without Anthony, especially when Wolfgang Van Halen appears to have such a firm handle on the bottom end, virtually joined at the rhythmical, genetic hip to his Uncle Al. Indeed, throughout the record, you’re keenly reminded as to why the Van Halen name applies as much to the machine gun style of Alex Van Halen’s drumming as it does to his brother’s guitar heroics.
But really, what A Different Kind Of Truth comes down to is that Eddie-and-Dave dynamic, which seems genuine and intact. It can’t ever be said that Roth is everyone’s favorite singer as much as he is a character and a foil to Van Halen’s frenetic guitar work. “China Town” captures the chemistry on the cusp of Alex’s double-kick. Roth rasps his way over the verses, the beat plows through and Eddie’s simple chord structure launches into one of his tapping tantrums – full speed ahead.
Submit to the goofiness of “As Is” (another one that could have used Anthony) and “Honeybabysweetiedoll,” and you’ll think it’s 1977 at the Whisky, just months before Van Halen became a national phenomenon. Back then, Roth was the ringmaster with a flare for shifting the tempo, hollerin’ and la-la-la-ing at just the right moments. Here, he returns to form, a little squeakier on the yelps, but in general, on the mark and in sync with the mood.
“The Trouble With Never,” “Outta Space” and “Big River,” are all as pulsating and reminiscent of the late 70s band that rose out of Hollywood to lead a new wave of hard rock and heavy metal – without an 80’s “Jump”-style keyboard in sight. An even more direct homage to those early days is “Stay Frosty,” a ‘cool’ kissin’ cousin of “Ice Cream Man.” Whether or not they’d been keeping that one on ice remains unknown at press time.
The one thing to be sure of is that Van Halen has returned with an admirable effort, drawing heavily on their earliest and most fertile period. The question now is: Can three guys in their 50s with a tumultuous history and one in his 20s with a tradition to uphold keep it together and stick around long enough for an encore? Is so, make it quick, A Different Kind Of Truth, if you will… because we can’t wait around for another five years.
~ Shawn Perry
