Van Halen

Van Halen III

The cover says it all: a blow to the gut

Review Score:

(4/10)
Poor Eddie Van Halen. He tries and tries to make his band play heavy, serious, and challenging rock n roll. But the harder he tries, the less fruitful the attempt becomes. Van Halen is still regarded as some party band that you grew out of after college. And not only did the album Van Halen III do nothing to help their image, it almost undid them entirely.

I really can't help but feel sorry for them. The effort is intact with Gary Cherone in the combo, but so many things weren't in place. First of all, Cherone's voice is very similar to Sammy Hagar's, who never had a good voice to begin with. So this music ends up sounding like a band TRYING to be Van Halen instead of Van Halen themselves: almost like they have become just a shadow of their own band. You really can't listen to a song like Dirty Water Dog and not think of Finish What You Started.

And secondly, if you intend your music to have a lot of baggage, you better check your lyric sheet to make you you will be taken seriously. Any song that starts with "give me freedom or give me death" (from Ballot or the Bullet) should be scrapped from the word go.

Thirdly, How Many Say I is dreadful. Eddie plays the piano and sings. And this does not sound like a terrible idea on paper, but putting it in practice proved to be another bad move. Not only is the song dull, but his singing is way off key. It's hard to believe that Eddie Van Halen, the studio perfectionist with a keen eye for detail, listened to the playback and said "yeah, sounds good to me."

If there is a song that conjurs up some positive points in Van Halen's somber desires, it would have to be From Afar. The way the crackling drums and the reverb-soaked guitar play around each other could convince you that there is plenty of ideas left in Van Halen's think tank. But that would be a half-truth at best.

The following tour bombed and Van Halen, Cherone-less, went into hiding. Nowadays, no fans like to talk about Van Halen III (no songs made it onto the new double best-of), and with good reason. The weak points far outnumber the strong ones, and it almost reads like a distress call from a Eddie as if his inspiration and energy are about the expire. Too bad. If he just puts his mind to it, he can make something really special. But not this time. Sorry Eddie.

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