Album Review: Van Halen's A Different Kind Of Truth

Happy Halloween Fellow Otaku & Metalheads!

This is it everybody! The one time of the year where mortals & the spirits walk alongside each other. The one time of year that Pumpkin Spice is just a little more potent, and the candy flows even more than Christmas. For people like myself, we bring out the albums that are perhaps a bit spooky. The albums that send chills up our spine, and the albums that may sometimes attract the restless spirits of dead music lovers. As you’ve obviously noticed, I’ve been covering a much less scary band this October in tribute to Eddie Van Halen, who’s now been dead for just over a year now. I took a look at the original run at the beginning of the month, Sammy Hagar’s reign in the middle, and now we’re at the end, and I saved what may be the best for last. So, grab a big bucket of sugary sweets, spray your hair with so much Aquanet that you make a fog cloud in the room, and somehow read my review for A Different Kind Of Truth. Boo!

Background
Taken from Wikipedia:

“The genesis for this album goes back as far as 2000, when the band briefly reunited with David Lee Roth after scrapping Love Again, the second album that would have featured Gary Cherone. The band, with Michael Anthony returned to the studio to write and record some of the tracks that would eventually find their way onto A Different Kind of Truth. Most of the tracks written/recorded were originals and not the reworked tracks spearheaded by Anthony's replacement on bass, Wolfgang Van Halen. A source cited in the article claims to have heard 2000 recordings of future ADKOT tracks "Honeybabysweetiedoll", "As Is", "Blood and Fire" and "The Trouble With Never".

In 2007, Van Halen reunited with original lead singer David Lee Roth – who had left the band in April 1985, at the peak of their global popularity – for a North American Tour. This tour added bassist Wolfgang Van Halen, the then-16-year-old son of guitarist Eddie Van Halen and actress Valerie Bertinelli, forcing out original bassist Michael Anthony, who would go on to form both Chickenfoot and Sammy Hagar and the Circle with Van Halen's second lead singer, Sammy Hagar. The reunion tour consisted of 74 shows from September 2007 to June 2008, and became the band's highest-grossing tour of its thirty-year history, earning over $93 million. Eddie Van Halen was reluctant about the possibility of recording new material with Roth in 2009, citing the poor reaction to the three new songs recorded with Hagar for the 2004 compilation Best of Both Worlds. After Wolfgang became enthusiastic about recording a new Van Halen album, Eddie's opinion changed: "We're doing this [album] for us."

Eddie, Wolfgang and Alex Van Halen began jam sessions at the former's 5150 Studios three months after the tour's completion. During this time, Wolfgang discovered rough, unreleased demos from the band's archives. After listening to these and believing they had potential, he brought them to Alex and Eddie to rework and refine. The first of these tracks, "She's the Woman," was completed by August 2009. It had originally been demoed by the band in the mid-1970s. Roth decided to join the project after hearing this song, as well as two other reworked tracks: "Let's Get Rockin'" – later renamed "Outta Space" – and "Bullethead."

Wolfgang's original intention with the album was to create a collection of previously released "b-sides" (According to Eddie, this would mean deep album tracks such as "Drop Dead Legs" and "Girl Gone Bad") along with three reworked demos, with Eddie saying: "It would [have been] a record of our more hardcore songs and none of the pop stuff. That was the initial plan, but the deeper we dug, the more we found. At the same time I was writing new songs. Dave got very excited about that. We all did. We ended up recording demos for 35 songs." After deliberating over whether to self-produce the album or choose a producer from a list that included Rick Rubin and Pat Leonard (who had involvement on their scrapped album Love Again), Roth suggested John Shanks. Shanks liked the first three songs, and agreed to produce the album, working alongside Wolfgang to pick the demos that would be developed into the album's tracks. While all of Van Halen's albums since 1984 had been produced inside 5150, Roth persuaded the band to work at Henson Recording Studios—where he had been recording for more than a decade.”

The reception of the album was met with positive reviews, and was also a commercial success. A Different Kind Of Truth entered the US Billboard 200 at No. 2, selling 188,000 copies in the first six days of it’s release, becoming the group's 14th consecutive top ten album in the country. By the end of 2012, it would have sold 411,000 copies, making it the 71st best-selling record of the year & the third highest-selling hard rock album. It also debuted at No. 6 on the UK Albums Chart with first-week sales of 14,040 copies, making it the highest-charting release in the country. In Japan, it wound up being at No. 3 on the Oricon chart, and was one of the few western albums to appear on their year-end tally, finishing at number 89 with 79,517 copies sold.

Basic Description
Van Halen resurrected......and a reluctant way to go.

This right here is the return of a legend. Whatever cobwebs or rust they may have accumulated since 1998 in terms of album output were completely cleaned off by this record. Though the original incarnation of Van Halen came back a few times beforehand, this album truly feels like they’re back together. All of the pomp, all of the awesomeness, all of the 1980s vibes, you name it. David Lee Roth, Eddie Van Halen, and Alex Van Halen feel like they’re more connected on this album then perhaps any other during their original lineup. Wolfgang Van Halen, meanwhile, is a great replacement for longtime bassist Michael Anthony, and despite this being the only record he played on, has some damn good skills. Sadly however, A Different King Of Truth would ultimately be the final album on which to end their storied career on. You obviously know why.

Best Track
Tattoo is a hell of a way to show that the band was back. The band had one foot in the door of the past: the whole song is steeped in the band’s original David Lee Roth run. There’s a massive amount of 1980s Hair Metal/Hard Rock nostalgia all over, complete with guitar, bass, and drums that feel like they could only have come from that decade (In terms of playing). On the other hand, the band also have their other foot in the door of the present. The recording & production make the whole song sounds fresh & crisp, as there’s no slipup or stutter though the whole track. On top of that, the band feels incredibly energized, and not at all like the “Dinosaurs” that some of their detractors called them. Definitely the right song to open things up!

Tattoo

Worst Track
Honestly, the only bad thing about A Different Kind Of Truth.....is that this was it. No more Van Halen albums came right after this. The band certainly did a few extra tours, but there were no signs of anymore records. It’s a shame, because this album is so damn good!

Other
If you’re curious about listening to this album, then click on the link below:

A Different Kind Of Truth

Overall Impression & Rating
A Different Kind Of Truth was a welcome return to the old days. After the dumpster fire that was Van Halen III, going back to the past seemed like a great change of pace. Sure, this was the last thing they put out, and that it’s the only time father & son were together on a record, but it effectively became a hell of a way to go out on. Definitely an album to have in your collection!

A Different Kind Of Truth gets a 9.5 out of 10. A hell of a record to end a career on.

And that was what would ultimately become their final release, A Different Kind Of Truth. For one last time, we saw one of the greats come back, and deliver perhaps the finest work they’ve ever done. For one last time, some 80s nostalgia came back in force. Eddie Van Halen.....I salute you! With the spookiest time of the year now in the rear view mirror, it’s time to revisit a tradition I started last year. So see me in about a week (Maybe less), when I’ll take a look at one of my honorable mentions from the plague ridden year that was 2020. Take care, and be well!

Metal Overview: Van Halen (Hagar Era)

 Welcome back fellow Otaku & Metalheads!

At the beginning of the month, we took a look at the golden years of Van Halen, headed up by David Lee Roth. Timeless to this very day, things would take a left turn once Roth decided to leave. With the iconic singer out of the band, it would take a miracle to find someone that could fill the void. Luckily, such an individual was eventually located. So join me will you, as we examine the Sammy Hagar era of Van Halen. Let’s begin!

5150 (1986)

With the leaving of David Lee Roth, the band had considerable difficulty finding a replacement singer. At first, Eddie Van Halen invited Patty Smyth of Scandal to replace Roth, but she declined. Ultimately in July of 1985, he was introduced to former Montrose frontman Sammy Hagar via their Ferrai mechanic. The pair hit it off right then, and the brand new singer began making songs with the band immediately. The band would then go to work in November of 1985, and would be finished in February of 1986. Released literarily a month later on the 24th of March, 5150 would go onto be number 1 on the Billboard 200, and as Sammy Hagar said in 2014:

“The album went platinum in one week. It was the fastest million-selling record in Warner's history ... It was such a high.”

5150 was notable for a higher number of love songs and ballads, which contrasted against the  straightforward rock stylings of Roth’s time in the band. Many called this new version of the band "Van Hagar" (derisively or affectionately), and the nickname was so ubiquitous, Warner Bros. asked them to consider renaming the band as such, but Eddie and Alex declined. Criticism of the record was bolstered by the absence of Ted Templeman, who having produced every previous album for the band, left to helm Roth's solo release Eat 'Em and Smile. He would return to produce Van Halen's 1991 release a few years later (More on that in a bit), for which Andy Johns had already been tapped. Donn Landee took over producer duties for 5150 after serving as an engineer on previous albums, but the production was considerably different from anything done by Templeman.  Eddie Van Halen’s guitar, previously high in the mix and frequently pushed to the left channel (to simulate a "live" sound"), now sat equal in said mix and its overall sound had changed. This may be something he did, as he was not a fan of the "live mix" that Templeman created with the Roth band. The album was also the first Van Halen release to feature no instrumentals.

Best Track? Those of us 90s kids who saw the Power Rangers movie might recognize the song that was played during the end credits, Dreams. This is where I discovered it myself, and while I didn’t necessarily appreciate it back then, I did enjoy how incredibly upbeat it was. When I got older, I appreciated the track for what it was: an upbeat happy song that I can call “Soul Metal” (A term a dear friend of mine came up with a year or two). A metal track that heals your insides, and makes you fell warm & fuzzy if you’re feeling drained. If you skip this tune for whatever reason, then something is clearly wrong with you!

Dreams

Worst Track? There aren’t any! From beginning to end this album is filled with some of the best metal the 1980s can provide. Even the title track is a beast: playing at 5 minutes & 44 seconds, it doesn’t feel like a time filler like 1984 was on the previous album.

5150. A hell of a start for the Sammy Hagar era of Van Halen, and a great album in it’s own right. If you’re taking a trip through the 1980s era of metal, this is definitely a release to check out. Next album!

OU812 (1988)

Following the conclusion of the highly successful 5150 Tour, Eddie had a few riffs he’d been working on, and Hagar had “a bunch of lyrics in notebooks that I had been thinking about and writing”, so the two decided to start working on a new record right away. Released on the 24th of May, 1988, OU812 acknowledges Van Halen for songwriting & performing and Landee for recording, but there was no production credit. According to Sammy Hagar:

“The band pretty much produced the album ourselves. And we weren't producers, in the sense that we went in with an idea and told everybody what to do and took control. There just wasn't a producer”

When Sammy arrived in the studio, Eddie showed a piano and drums demo he recorded with his brother, which they soon developed into the song "When It's Love". Given that the musical components were finished quicker than the lyrics, Hagar decided to take a few weeks off and traveled to his Mexican home in Cabo San Lucas to work on some more songs. It was there that he found the inspiration for the song "Cabo Wabo", which borrowed the melody of "Make It Last", which was made during his Montrose days, and whose title later named Hagar's nightclub in the city (And the later franchise). "Finish What Ya Started" was the last song to be developed, with Eddie & Sammy composing it one night late into the production. The last track that Hagar recorded however, was the album opener "Mine All Mine", as he was unsure of the lyrics. The more deep & metaphysical lyrics had to be rewritten seven times, as Hagar said:

“It was the first time in my life I ever beat myself up, hurt myself, punished myself, practically threw things through windows, trying to write the lyrics”

Reception for OU812 was mixed at first. Despite placing at no. 1 on the Billboard 200 like the release before it, music critics certainly had something to say. Robert Christgau of The Village Voice rated the album at a C, noting that “Eddie's obsessed with technique, Roth's contemptuous of technique, rhythm section's got enough technique and no klutz genius. But Sammy . . . like wow. If I can't claim the new boy owns them, you can't deny he defines them”. In a retrospective review, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic said that “When David Lee Roth fronted the band, almost everything that Van Halen did seemed easy – as big, boisterous, and raucous as an actual party – but Van Hagar makes good times seem like tough work here. The riffs are complicated, not catchy, the rhythms plod, they don't rock, and Sammy strains to inject some good times by singing too hard. Ff it isn't as good as Fair Warning (even if it's nearly not as much fun), it's nevertheless the best showcase of the instrumental abilities of Van Hagar”.

Best Track? When It’s Love and Feels So Good were always banger tracks to me. Even before I got into Van Halen as much as I have, these two songs always perked me up. Neither fast or slow, they both occupy a middle ground in terms of pacing, but they don’t let up the intensity either. I’m kind of glad that they weren’t right next to each other in the tracklisting, as they would have potentially blended into one another. Still, they’re both fantastic, and you should press the skip button when they play!

When It’s Love

Feels So Good

Worst Track? There aren’t any bad songs on here! Much like the album before it, Van Halen put out a 10-track buffet of badassery for anyone interested to devour, and devoured many did! However, I got two nitpicks: The first is that OU812 feels like a more commercial version of 5150. Not massively by any means, but there’s enough commercial feel that does make this album a little easier to listen to than many other releases of the band’s career in the 1980s. My other nitpick would be the album’s running. Now, I do admit that maybe I was being a little goofy complaining about a Van Halen album from the Roth era’s running time. As short as those albums can be, I am impressed with how quick they’re made and how fast said releases can play. OU812 comes across like the exact opposite. The record was made in a quick manner like everything before it, but the length is surprisingly meaty. 5150 went on for 42 minutes & 74 seconds, while this CD went on for 48 minutes & 1 second. That’s not a massive time jump, but it is enough that you can tell the difference.
    
OU812. Still just as good as 5150 was. While the slightly more increased commercial appeal may turn some away, and the increased length of time seems strange, there’s still a lot of good quality meat on these bones. Pick it up if you’re interested. Next album!

For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (1991)

The year is 1991. The era of Hair Metal came, and is almost gone at this point. Grunge wasn’t that far away, Rap/Hip-Hop’s popularity was getting bigger, and classic Heavy Metal just wasn’t in the public conscious anymore. But somehow, someway, Van Halen managed to survive the supposed musical “apocalypse” that took place once things hit 1990. Marketed as the "return" to the band’s hard rock roots (Most songs were guitar driven, and the synths were replaced with piano), Van Halen began work in March of 1990, and finished up 2 months before it’s release. Put out on the 17th of June, 1991, For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge got it’s name from Sammy Hagar, who wanted to push the issue of censorship by naming Van Halen's album with a vulgarity, stating “That's when censorship was a big issue. I wanted to name the album just Fuck”. He backed off from the outright vulgarity when former world lightweight boxing champion Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini (A friend of Sammy’s) said that  "fuck" was an acronym for the phrase "for unlawful carnal knowledge" (though this is false).

The reception of For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge was perhaps more mixed & negative than the album before it. John Milward of Rolling Stone rated the release a 2 out of 5 stars, explaining that it “is so stuffed with zigzagging guitars and blustery vocals that it almost forgets to rock. Eddie Van Halen, who probably has more guitars than teeth, upends such a tackle box of hooks that they only start to surface after repeated listenings. Tasteful simplicity, which is never really simple at all, would have proved a better course to follow”, and Gina Arnold of Entertainment Weekly gave the album a C, stating:

“It would be nice to believe that the acronym formed by the title of Van Halen's new, top-charting album was intended as a covert blow against censorship in America. Unfortunately, it's far more likely that the punny name merely indicates VH's love of the kind of bathroom talk that third graders think is funny. For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge doesn't contain even one mind-numbingly catchy melody. Only 'Top of the World' and 'The Dream Is Over' come close to working up a truly fist-thrusting chorus, and the gist of the latter—'dream another dream, this dream is over'—may well be advice that Van Halen and their fans ought to take to heart”

The more negative reception is ironic when you look at For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge’s debut. It debuted at no. 1 on the billboard 200 like the last two releases, and would stay there for 3 weeks. Weird!

Best Track? Once again, I bet a huge bunch of you 90s kids that remember the early part of the decade, might recall at least the first few notes of Right Now. Famously used in the classic (Or infamous, depending on how you look at it) 1993 commercial for Crystal Pepsi, it shows off how simplistic much of the music was. The guitar & bass beats are easy but still awesome, the drumming doesn’t go overboard but is still pounding, and Sammy Hagar’s voice still sounds like it can shatter glass. Though I think that Right Now should have been an opener rather than a closer (It’s 3rd to last in the tracklisting), it’s still a song that brings back nostalgia of a simpler time.

Right Now

Worst Track? If there’s one dent in For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge’s armor, it would be that it’s perhaps the most commercial album in the band’s discography. OU812 certainly had a little more commercial feeling put into it, but it didn’t feel like that across the whole thing. With this release, it seems obvious that Van Halen is going for a much wider audience than they did before, and thus almost everything on here is easy to get into. That doesn’t make the music bad, as there’s still an awesome buffet of songs here, but at the same time said buffet will be easier to devour.

For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. Maybe the most commercial release of Van Halen’s career at that time, and it’s reception was certainly more mixed, but it’s still jam-packed with a variety of great songs. If you want an easier VH release to get into, you can’t go wrong with For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. Next album!

Balance (1995)

Remember when I talked about the cracks back in part 1? Well, they came back, and in sort of a big way. According to the book Everybody Wants Some: The Van Halen Saga (Written by Ian Christie), 1995's Balance was released amid internal fighting between their manager Ray Danniels, Sammy Hagar and the Van Halen brothers. From my understanding, it came down to Sammy wanting more control over the band, and Eddie & Alex trying to make sure there wasn’t a hostile takeover. Things didn’t fair much better after the album was released, as after the subsequent Ambulance Tour (the band renamed the "Balance" tour to the "Ambulance Tour" because Eddie was having hip issues and brother Alex had to wear a neck brace), the second incarnation Van Halen would break up. Sammy Hagar left the band on Father’s day in 1996, amid escalating tension between himself and Eddie & Alex during, of all things, the recording of songs for the film Twister. As Eddie told Guitar World in 1997:

“There had been a variety of conflicts brewing between manager Ray Danniels, Sammy, and the band since I quit drinking on October 2, 1994... It got so bad that I actually started drinking again.”

Despite all of the chaos before & after, Balance wound up once again being another no. 1 release on the Billboard 200. In it’s first week of sales, 295,000 units were sold (This is what secured the no. 1 spot), which was 21% higher thanthat of For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, which topped the chart with 243,000 units in the summer of 1991.

Best Track? The Seventh Seal is of particular importance not just to this album, but to Eddie Van Halen’s life as well. Featuring mystical overtones & instrumentation throughout the whole track, this came about due to Eddie’s new found sobriety at the time. His therapist, Sat-Kaur Khalsa, urged him to simply relax & imagine where he was after drinking a six-pack. After smoking & drinking beer for 20 years, he tried writing sober and cranked out three songs in a half hour period. That’s pretty damn impressive if you ask me!

The Seventh Seal

Worst Track? Balance is far in a way the crispest, cleanest, and perhaps the most produced album of their career at that time......and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing. On the one hand, it does means that there’s no scratches, no hiccups, or any other production issue. All of the songs on here sound fresh, and in turn have aged quite well. On the other hand.....I kinda liked it when Ven Halen albums were rough around the edges. Something about the band have more simplistic recording gave their work an identity that was all their own. Even For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge still had a little roughness, despite it having a little more audio clarity to it.

Balance. Somehow, someway, the band have continued their streak of number 1 releases with this album, and while it may sound a little too modern (When compared to the releases before), it still manages to be a great piece of music. Sadly, darker times were ahead for Van Halen, and with those times came the only bad record of their entire career.......or is it bad? Next album!

Van Halen III (1998)

The period following the band’s breakup was intriguing. In 1996, David Lee Roth was called by Eddie to talk about what songs would be included on a planned Van Halen compilation, the work of which was done before Sammy Hagar left. Apparently Roth & Eddie were getting along well, and David was invited up to Eddie’s house & studio. Shortly after this invitation, Roth re-entered the studio with the band and their producer Glen Ballard, & two of the songs made during that time were added to the band's Best Of – Volume I album and released as singles to promote it.

Cut to the 4th of September, 1996, and the band alongside David Lee Roth were at the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards to present an award, and it was the first time in over 11 years that they were together, but known to Roth, Eddie & Alex were still auditioning other singers, including Mitch Malloy. Malloy ultimately declined to join the band, citing the VMAs publicity stunt with Roth, of which he had no prior knowledge until it aired on TV. The appearance of the band at the VMAs fueled reunion speculation, but after a few weeks David Lee Roth was out again. Roth stated that he was an unwitting participant in a publicity stunt by Van Halen and manager Ray Danniels, while Eddie & Alex claiming they’d been completely honest with Roth and never said he was guaranteed to be the next lead singer. The one to claim the mantle of Van Halen’s lead singer would be Gary Cherone,  frontman of the then-defunct Boston-based band Extreme (They managed to obtain some success in the early 1990). Once they got their new singer, the band re-entered the studio, worked from March to December of 1997, and on the 17th of March, 1998, Van Halen III was released.

The reception for Van Halen III was mixed to negative upon it’s release. Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic says that the album “Suffers from the same problems as Hagar-era Van Halen – limp riffs, weak melodies, and plodding, colorless rhythms.” Entertainment Weekly gave the release a B, saying “judging from the renewed intensity of Eddie’s guitar playing throughout much of III, having a merely competent, relatively ego-free singer seems to have reinvigorated his muse” But would go on to say that "How Many Say I", a song that Eddie was lead vocalist on was "cringeworthy" and "unintentionally hilarious". Greg Kot from Rolling Stone gave VHIII 2 out of 5 stars, noting that “Cherone sounds disconcertingly like Hagar, full of spleen-busting bluster and incapable of understatement” and “When the band plays it heavy, it mires itself in a Seventies tar pit, with only the chorus of "Without You" achieving any sort of pop resonance”. Kot goes on to complement Eddie’s vocalwork, saying “'How Many Say I' finds the guitarist singing in a disarmingly appealing, nicotine-stained voice over a moody piano melody”. Ironically, the release debuted on the Billboard 200 at number 4, with 191,000 copies getting sold. "Without You", the only radio hit from VHIII, reached no. 1 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart on the March 7, 1998 issue of Billboard, and would stay there for six weeks. Two other tracks off the release that got radio play were "Fire in the Hole" and "One I Want".

Best Track? Once for whatever reason tickles my musical fancy. It’s kind of hard to describe: the whole mood feels like that of the band’s time in the 1980's, but with late 90s modernism. The instrumentation isn’t the heaviest (The intensity does increase overtime though), but the whole thing feels like calm driving music. It’s the kind of music where you roll the windows down on a nice summer day or night, you turn the volume up, and you let the warm summer air caress you as you drive. Definitely an easy song to get into.

Once

Worst Track? There’s definitely some things wrong with VHIII. For one thing, this feels like it was phoned it. Not that it sounds bad, because it doesn’t. Not that it was produced poorly, because I don’t think it was. Not that there wasn’t any talent, cause there certainly are some talented musicians on here. I just think that the band was like “Eh, we’re here in the studio. Let’s just crank a record out, and be done.” The other thing is that this album is.....I don’t want to say the word pretentious. It’s certainly not that, but Van Halen III definitely comes across like a release that’s at least a little full of itself. The band comes across as a little grandiose with how long a lot of the tracks are, and it feels like a lot of the experimentation was done simply to do it. It’s really frustrating, as there’s definitely something here. There’s definitely the potential for this album to be great, but is bogged down the problems above.

And while this isn’t bad or good, Val Halen III is on record for being the longest album in the band’s entire career. Clocking in at 65 minutes (65 minutes & 22 seconds to be exact), this will either make it a slog for some listeners, or a 9 course feast for others. Given the reviews it got back in the day & even now, it’s probably gonna be a slog for a lot of you.

Van Halen III. Definitely the worst out of Van Halen’s discography, but at the same time it’s not god awful if you separate the Van Halen name from it. There’s definitely some potential within the music, but it’s sometimes hard to hear it. Certainly not recommended, but do think of it as a curiosity if it ever comes across your path.

And that was a look at the Sammy Hagar era of Van Halen. Certainly an interesting time for the band, but one that would be plagued with issues, and as such a fair amount of the music suffers. However, a blast from the past would come back to join the band once again. So, see you all on Halloween day, when we’ll look at what would ultimately become Van Halen’s final release. See you then!

5 Greatest Anime Chests (For Breast Cancer Awareness) No. 5

It’s time fellow Otaku & Metalheads!

As is tradition for the past few years, it’s time to talk about some of the finest chests in the world of anime to promote awareness of a very real disease that assaults very real women. However, since I did something a little different in 2020, I figured that doing something a little different for this year was in order also. For 2021, I want to travel into the mystical land of Vtubers to raise Breast Cancer Awareness! Sure, Vtubers might not be anime per se, but give their physical appearances it’s kind of hard not to call them anime also. On top of that, I’m definitely factoring in their personalities much like how I did things last year, as I thought that added to the challenge. With that out of the way, here are the top 5 Greatest Anime Chests (For Breast Cancer Awareness).......number 5!

5) Project Melody (Video)

And here we start things off with one of the most baffling Vtubers out there. On the one hand, our resident A.I. is knowledgeable in all things hentai & pornographic. She’s not ashamed in knowing what she knows, has an absolutely great figure (Her chest isn’t massive, but does fit nicely in one’s hands), and is known for performing various.....acts on Onlyfans & other sites.....so to speak. On the other hand, Melody is an absolute sweetheart. She’s bubbly, cute, sweet, gets caught offguard sometimes, and can get embarrassed from time to time. This mix of things almost makes her come across as bipolar somehow, and you never necessarily know what way she’s going to go. Maybe that’s what makes her a popular Vtuber to watch for her fanbase, who are lovingly know as The Science Team even by fans of other Vtubers who’ve come across them.

4) Veibae (Video)

If there’s one thing that our number 4 Vtuber doesn’t have.....it’s shame. Veibae has absolutely no shame during her streams, and given that said streams are 18+ most of the time, it’s no surprise that shame is thrown out the window. There’s rarely a moment where something dirty, foul, kinky, or weird, which is funny given that Vei is also oddly charming. There’s sort of this “Party Girl” vibe she has, can also be exceptionally cute at times, and like everybody on this list is a gigantic weeb. She also looks great also: Whether in her 3d model, or her more newer 2d one, her chest is quite nice. Much more fuller that Melody, and exceptionally more bouncy.

3) Snuffy (Video)

Now here’s where we come to oddball of this list. A friend to many of the Vtubers within Vshojo, the beloved trash panda didn’t start out as one. In fact, she started out with a more cutesty catgirl model before she transitioned into a racoon. For a while she was exceptionally flat chested, but in recent months debut a 2d model with what I can only describe as.......bouncy bouncy fun fun fun fun fun! They are quite round, and look to be exceptionally squishy. This also matches up her personality: Snuffy is quite an energetic & bouncy individual. On the one hand, she’s pretty dirty a fair amount of the time, which isn’t a surprise considering she used to create pornographic art (Furry or Hentai, I’m not sure). On the other hand, she’s incredibly sweet, and more often than not is laughing with her viewers. Her personality is incredibly infectious, and on the offhand that something tender happens, it feels.....real, if that makes sense.
 

2) Froot/BSApricot (Video)

Number 2 and Number 1 were hard. Really hard. Not in terms of who, but where. The individual known as BSApricot has been creating art for some time, but it’s only been nearly a year that she became a Vtuber, and her model is wonderful. In addition of a gorgeous chest (Think similar to Veibae but a little more bouncy), it’s a nice mix of Gothic with a bit of color to it. What makes her so great is just how sweet she is. Her British accent isn’t heavy, but it is obvious, and also incredibly charming. In every single stream, Froot is filled with nothing but good cheer, as she’s always smiling and laughing. On the off chance that something serious happens and she cries, you immediately want to comfort her with a hug & headpat. Froot is indeed one of the best Vtubers out there, but there is one more.....and you aren’t going to be surprised by who it is.

1) Silvervale (Video)

Many of you who know me personally will not be at all surprised that I put Silvervale at the number 1 spot on this list. After discovering year last year effectively by accident, I didn’t quite believe it at first. I didn’t believe that there were people out there that were so nice, so understanding, and just so bubbly & sweet! Sure enough, after watching a few of her videos, it turns out to be true. Silvervale is that genuinely kind and nice, as she does everything she can to makes things nice & cozy for her viewers, friend, and family (Her Mom & Brother sometimes play with her). Silver is an absolute treat of a Vtuber: both her 3d and her relatively recent 2d model are quite bountiful when it comes to her chest, and the jiggle physics are quite wonderful. Weirdly though, I don’t watch her streams for the fanservice (As excellent as it is). I watch Silvervale for her personality and her heart.......as cheesy as that sounds.

And that concludes this year’s list of the top 5 greatest chests for Breast Cancer awareness. I thought it was fun to do something different again, and I hope you didn’t mind the change. So, with that bit of business done, it’s time to come back to the realm of Van Halen once again. See you all next week, as I’ll have part 2 out! Until then, be sure to give some of these ladies a little love for the work they do.

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If you’re curious about who I talked about in 2020, then click on the link below:

Top 5 Greatest Anime Chests (For Breast Cancer Awareness) No. 4

Also, if you’re curious about the Vtubers I mentioned here, click on the links below for their Twitch pages:

Project Melody

Veibae

Snuffy

Froot/BSApricot

Silvervale

Metal Overview: Van Halen (Roth Era)

Happy October fellow Otaku & Metalheads!

Normally when it comes to this month, I examine the career of a group that’s either incredibly spooky, or really gothic. Not this year! For 2021, I wanted to cover a band that’s anything but spooky or gothic. As many of you know, Eddie Van Halen passed away last year due to stroke, effectively ending the storied band that shared his name. So, to pay tribute to a musical icon, I’m devoted this normally scary month to one of the biggest groups ever. Normally, I’d split this into 3 separate posts, but an opportunity came up. Perhaps more than any other band I’ve covered for this occasion, Van Halen has gone through some highly distinct periods in their career. So, to start things off, I’m going to cover the beginning era of the band, when a badass Jew fronted the group. So, without delay, here’s my look at the David Lee Roth era of Van Halen. Let’s begin!

Van Halen (1978) ***

Our story begins in the early to mid 1950s in a little nation known as the Netherlands. Amsterdan, to be exact. In 1953 & 1955 respectively, brothers Alex Van Halen and Eddie Van Halen were born. Their parents were Dutch musician Jan Van Halen and Indonesian-born Indo Eugenia Van Beers, so their heritage was already something unique. The family would move to Pasadena, California, in 1962, and shortly after Eddie began studying classical piano by ear. He would become so good, he won an annual piano recital contest 2 or 3 years in a row, despite never mastering the ability to sight-read sheet music. Eddie and Alex would begin playing music together in the 1960s, with Eddie on drums and Alex on guitar, but out of out frustration and brotherly competition, Eddie said to his brother: “OK, you play drums and I'll play your guitar”

In 1964, Eddie & Alex had formed their first band, Broken Combs. As they became more popular playing backyard parties and local high school functions, they changed their name to the Trojan Rubber Co, then to Genesis in 1972, but would later become Mammoth when they discovered Genesis was already a major-label band. At the time Eddie was both vocalist and lead guitarist and friend Mark Stone on bass, but it would be a chance encounter with Indiana-born, Pasadena transplant David Lee Roth that things really took shape. Eddie & Alex were renting a sound system from Roth for 10 dollars a night, but ultimately decided to save costs by simply having Roth become the band’s lead singer. Come 1974, Roth had been in the band for about a year, when they decided to replace the Stone, who wasn’t sure about a career in music. To replace him, Eddie brought on  Michael Anthony Sobolewski, a Pasadena college music-classmate of Eddie. Not only that, but in the same year, then changed their name to Van Halen, and the rest was history.

As for their beginning self-titled album, Wikipedia has this to say:

“Van Halen began recording demos in 1976. However, a three-track tape financed by Gene Simmons attracted no interest from record labels. Guitarist Eddie Van Halen was not convinced of the quality of the material because they could not make the recordings with their own equipment. Simmons left to tour with Kiss after recording the demos, but said he would try to secure Van Halen a record deal afterwards.

After recording the demos, the band was offered several concerts. At a sold-out show in their hometown, Pasadena, the group's future manager, Marshall Berle, discovered the band. He and musical entrepreneur Kim Fowley paired them with punk rock band Venus and the Razorblades for a gig at the Whisky a Go Go. After being well received by Berle at the Whisky a Go Go, the band gained the attention of Mo Ostin and Ted Templeman of Warner Bros. Ostin and Templeman were impressed with the band's subsequent performance at the Starwood, and Van Halen proceeded to sign a contract with Warner.The recording of their debut album began in October 1977 and lasted three weeks. With producer Ted Templeman, it was mostly recorded live. "Runnin' with the Devil", "Jamie's Cryin'", "Feel Your Love Tonight" and "Ice Cream Man" contain guitar overdubs. Overall, the album cost approximately $40,000 to produce.

"We didn't have a ton of material," recalled bassist Michael Anthony, "so we basically just took our live show and all the songs we knew and went for it. The whole album only took a couple of weeks. Ted Templeman wanted to make a big, powerful guitar record, and he had all he needed in what Eddie was doing."

The subsequent tour began with the band opening for Journey, along with Montrose, in the United States. They later opened for Black Sabbath in Europe and the United States.”

The album would go onto have a great amount of success. Van Halen would reach number 19 on the Billboard Top 200, and their cover of The Kinks' "You Really Got Me"would be on there for three weeks, peaking at number 36. By August the 7th in 1996, the album was re-certified by the RIAA for selling ten million copies in the United States alone. Van Halen remains One of only six rock bands to release two RIAA Diamond status albums, and it remains one of the group’s two best-selling albums (The other I’ll talk about at the end).

Best Track? Runnin' with the Devil was always a banger of a track (Not to mention a great opener), and really shows off everybody’s talent. From Roth’s subperb vocal work, to Eddie’s amazing guitar playing, to his brother Alex’s ability to smash the drums, and Michael Anthony’s bass playing, the song displays what the band was capable of. It’s intense, it gets your blood pumping....what more could you ask for!?

Runnin' with the Devil

Worst Track? I dare you. No.....I TRIPLE DOG DARE you to find a single bad piece of music on here! Every single song is great, and despite Eruption being just a short 1 minute & 42 seconds, it is on record for being one of the best guitar tracks ever put onto a record. Vah Halen, an absolutely perfect way to start a career, and a great piece of 70s Hard Rock/Heavy Metal in it’s own right. Next album!

Van Halen II (1979)

If there’s one thing that people can give Van Halen credit for, it’s that the band works fast in addition to working hard & well. Less than a year after the release of their highly successful self-titled debut, recording of their 2nd album began on December 10, 1978 at Sunset Studio a week after their first world tour. The band went with using a Putnam 610 console to record the record, which was similar to what Eddie Van Halen would put in his home studio in 1983. Curiously, many of the songs of this release were known to have existed prior to the release of their debut, and are present on the 1976 Gene Simmons demos, as well as the  1977 Ted Templeman ones. Some of these included an early version of "Beautiful Girls" (then known as "Bring On the Girls") and "Somebody Get Me a Doctor ". So, after just a single week of recording, Van Halen II was released on the 23rd of March, 1979. Commercially, VHII would go on to have a great degree of success, reaching no. 6 on the Billboard 200, and no. 23 on the UK Charts. The album would go on to be certified platinum 5 times in 2004, and would sell 5.7 million copies in the United States by that same year.  

Best Track? Dance The Night Away, like the opener from their first output, deserves to be the first song you hear. It’s got a similar pacing when compared to Runnin' with the Devil, but the instrumentation has a hint of blues to it, and David Lee Roth has a little more crooning in his voice. Certainly an interesting way for VHII to start on.

Dance The Night Away

Worst Track? Much like their first album, there’s not a single bad track on here! As Timothy White said in his 1979 Rolling Stone review: “Scattered throughout Van Halen's second album are various Vanilla Fudge bumps and grinds, an Aerosmith-derived pseudobravado, a bit of Bad Company basement funk and even a few Humble Pie miniraveups”. Basically, there’s something for everybody on here. If there’s one fault to be had with VHII, it would be that the record on the whole fundamentally comes across like a carbon copy of their first release. This isn’t necessarily bad, as said first record was a musical juggernaut, but at the same time there are enough similarities where you may scratch your head over this.

Van Halen II. Similar to their first outing, but at the same time still has a great deal of care & quality put into it. If you loved their first release, then you definitely get a kick out of this also. Next album!

Women and Children First (1980)

Released on the 26th of March, 1980, Van Halen’s 3rd outing followed some similar guidelines that the last 2 albums did. The band recorded in Hollywood at Sunset Studios, and they managed to do it in about 2 weeks time. However, there were also a number of differences as well. For starters, there was a little experimentation to be hand: there were more studio overdubs, less emphasis on backing vocals (2 songs were recorded in a Cherokee Studios demo in 1974, before Michael Anthony had joined them), female backing vocals (the only time they were ever used in the band’s history), and the first usage of electric keyboard/piano.

Women and Children First would go on to be very well received by critics & Van Halen fans alike. It would reach No. 6 on the Billboard 200 like their last album did, and would be at the No. 51 spot by the end of the year.  David Fricke of Rolling Stone magazine highlighted the songs, Romeo Delight, Everybody Wants Some!!, and Loss of Control, calling them "works of high-volume art". He also praised the band, calling them "exceptionally good players". In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine rated Women and Children First with 4.5 stars out of 5. He called the release “mature, or at least ... a little serious” and noted that “there's a bit of a dark heart beating on this record”.

Best Track? Gotta give to the two iconic openers And The Cradle Will Rock and Everybody Wants Some. As great as the album is on the whole (And by extent most Van Halen albums), there’s just something about the beginning that has a bit more of a punch. The former song once again occupies that mid-level of pacing, which in turn gives it quite a bit of punch. Everybody Wants Some, on the other hand, is a much faster song. It’s wilder, more chaotic, but it doesn’t fly off the tracks. The track also happens to come across as a bit more metallic also, and said metal nature would come out more & more as the 80s would go on.

And The Cradle Will Rock

Everybody Wants Some!!

Worst Track? Once again, there isn’t a single damn thing on here that’s bad! Somehow, someway, Van Halen have managed to have an incredible level of quality across their earliest work so far. There’s no slipups in the recording or production process, and the band are giving it their all in their respective role. As their first release in the 1980s, Women and Children First continues the band’s streak of great records. Next album!

Fair Warning (1981)

And here is where we see the cracks begin to form in the band’s ranks. In 1981 as they were recording their 4th album, artistic tensions rose, as Eddie desired darker and more complex songs in minor keys, which clashed with David Lee Roth’s pop tastes and style. Fortunately (Or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it), Roth and veteran Warner Bros rock producer Ted Templeman acquiesced to Eddie's wishes on the record. Released on the 29th of April, 1981, Fair Warning ended up being the slowest-selling of the David Lee Roth era, and it only got platinum status after $250,000 of payola pushed it up nationwide from 400k copies. Ultimately, it managed to seel more than two million copies. Whether the band knew that payola was involved or not, nobody has ever said.

Despite the disappointing sales, the album would be greeted with mostly positive reviews from critics. Robert Christgau of The Village Voice's rated the album at a B-, signifying "a competent or mildly interesting record that will usually feature at least three worthwhile cuts." He stated that Fair Warning featured “not just Eddie's latest sound effects, but a few good jokes along with the mean ones and a rhythm section that can handle punk speed emotionally and technically.” He would also explain that “at times Eddie could even be said to play an expressive – lyrical? – role. Of course, what he's expressing is hard to say. Technocracy putting a patina on cynicism”. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic found the album fairly positive, stating that “it's a dark, strange beast, partially because it lacks any song as purely fun as the hits from the first three records” and that “whatever the reason, Fair Warning winds up as a dark, dirty, nasty piece of work." He went on to say that "dull it is not and Fair Warning contains some of the fiercest, hardest music that Van Halen ever made. There's little question that Eddie Van Halen won whatever internal skirmishes they had, even with the lack of a single dedicated instrumental showcase". He concluded that "nastiness is the defining characteristic of Fair Warning, which certainly doesn't make it bunches of fun, but it showcases the coiled power of Van Halen better than any other album, which makes it worth visiting on occasion.”

Best Track? Unchained comes across as the lone “Happy” track of the album. In a circumstance similar to something like Creepy Green Light, this is like a lighthouse standing on an island in dark bay, sending out a signal for anyone to see it. The instrumentation comes across as similar to songs off of prior releases, and Dave’s vocal work isn’t quite as harsh as everything else on here. There’s still a little bit of a serious on here, but it doesn’t feel as overwhelming as it sometimes is on everything else on Fair Warning.

Unchained

Worst Track? Compared to the previous three releases, Fair Warning is definitely a darker record. There’s not that much in the way of happy party & rocking vibes on here, replaced with what I can only and bizarrely call Proto-Guns ‘n’ Roses grittiness. There’s a little bit of upbeat energy on here, but this album seems to show more of the “Man Behind The Curtain” as it were. The instrumentation seems a bit more dirtier, David Lee Roth doesn’t have a much of a “Fun” tone to his singing, and the band is using more real-world/serious subject matter for the music on here.

Fair Warning. Certainly maintains the same level of quality as the past three albums despite what some critics say, but the darker nature of the content pushes towards the lower parts of the shelf. Still, it’s certainly something to track down if you’re curious about it. Next album!

Diver Down (1982)

And here we reach the first hated album of the Van Halen brothers. Don’t take this the wrong way: Diver Down isn’t a bad album necessarily: Released on the 14th of April, 1982, it would reach no. 3 on the billboard 200, and end up at no. 60 by the end of the year. On top of that, it would sell 4 million copies in the United Stated by 1998. However, it would be the circumstances that would draw ire from the brothers. The record company want some of the songs on the album to be covers. 5 cover tracks, to be exact. Their reasoning was that Diver Down had a greater chance of being a hit if it was composed of songs that were already successful. In retrospect the Van Halen hated this release like I said above (Eddie said that “I'd rather have a bomb with one of my own songs than a hit with someone else's”), but in a interview with Guitar Player magazine in 1982, Eddie said:

“When we came off the Fair Warning tour last year, we were going to take a break and spend a lot of time writing this and that. Dave came up with the idea of, 'Hey, why don't we start off the new year with just putting out a single?' He wanted to do 'Dancing in the Streets.' He gave me the original Martha Reeves & the Vandellas tape, and I listened to it and said, 'I can't get a handle on anything out of this song.' I couldn't figure out a riff, and you know the way I like to play: I always like to do a riff, as opposed to just hitting barre chords and strumming. So I said, 'Look, if you want to do a cover tune, why don't we do 'Pretty Woman'? It took one day. We went to Sunset Sound in L.A., recorded it, and it came out right after the first of the year. It started climbing the charts, so all of a sudden Warner Bros. is going, 'You got a hit single on your hands. We gotta have that record.' We said, 'Wait a minute, we just did that to keep us out there, so that people know we're still alive.' But they just kept pressuring, so we jumped right back in without any rest or time to recuperate from the tour, and started recording. We spent 12 days making the album... it was a lot of fun.”

Best Track? (Oh) Pretty Woman was the most popular of the 5 covers on this album, and this I feel that it’s the best thing on Diver Down. This is one of those kind of covers that doesn’t necessarily follow the letter of the original song, but follows the spirit quite well. The band’s instrumentation is fundamentally similar to the original, but slathered in early 1980's Hair Metal grit & dirtiness. David Lee Roth’s vocal work is music the same: he travels a similar crooner’s path that Roy Orbison did, but brings the tone & energy of the early 80s to the lyrics.

(Oh) Pretty Woman

Worst Track? Having nearly half of the album be covers is an incredibly frustrating thing. They’re not bad by any measure, but having 5 on the record because the record company wanted them there is just silly. The whole things comes across like the company didn’t have any confidence in the band to have a successful album of completely original material, and seemed like an attempt to exert more control over the band than anything else.

Diver Down. Certainly not an awful release by any measure, but the above average amount of cover tracks makes this the record from the David Lee Roth era the one I’m least likely to listen to if I’m in the mood for some Van Halen. Recommended, but weakly so. Fortunately, as time went on, and we would reach the year 1984, nobody was prepared for the musical juggernaut that was to come. Next album!

1984 (1984)

Following the tour that supported Fair Warning, Van Halen wanted to slow down from all of the writing & touring, and take a break from it all. They did manage to put out a stand-alone song, which was a cover of the Roy Orbison classic (Oh) Pretty Woman that I mention above. Unfortunately, the label asked for another album due to the cover’s big success, and so they recorded Diver Down pretty quickly. Following this recording, Eddie Van Halen was pretty dissatisfied by the concessions he made to David Lee Roth and Warner Bros. producer Ted Templeman, who both discouraged him from making keyboards a prominent instrument in the band's music going forward.

By the time 1983 came around, Eddie was in the process of building his own studio alongside Donn Landee, the band's longtime engineer, naming it 5150 (Named after the California law code for the temporary, involuntary psychiatric commitment of individuals who present a danger to themselves or others due to signs of mental illness). With boards & tape machines being installed, Eddie began experimenting with synthesizers to pass the time so he wouldn’t be bored during the construction. From this experimentation,  he composed Van Halen's follow-up to Diver Down without as much perceived "interference" from Roth or Templeman. The end result was 1984. Released on the 9th of January in 1984, it was a compromise between the two creative factions in Van Halen: a mixture of keyboard-heavy songs, and the intense hard rock that they were known for. The album would go on to have incredible success: so much so, that it would stay at the number 2 spot on the Billboard 100 for 3 weeks.....just behind Thriller.

Best Track? Like I said in my original review of the album, Jump & Hot For Teacher were the tracks that always stuck out for me when I listened to 1984. Hell, even before I listened to the record, I was always a big fan of these two songs. Both are energetic, upbeat, and incredibly happy tunes. The former is a nice take on licking your wounds & taking in the bright side of life, while the later is a funny take on the classic “Hot Teacher” trope. All the other tunes are absolutely fantastic in their own way, but these two in my view are the face of 1984.

Jump

Hot For Teacher

Worst Track? Like I said back in 2019, only the title track is bad. At only a little over a minute (1 minute & 7 seconds to be exact), it feels like a fluff track made to extend the already short run time 1984 has. At 32 minutes & 10 seconds with the title track taken out, you gotta listen to this album at least twice (For many of you at least) in order for it to stay in your head. Like I said in my review, I got nothing against short albums as long as the quality of the music is good, and if you take the title track out of the equation, then said quality is most excellent indeed!  

1984. My absolute favorite out of the David Lee Roth era of the band! Perhaps the happiest, warmest, and fuzziest out of their 80s material, it’s also the album I go to for when I’ve had an absolutely awful day. If you want a gateway into Van Halen, 1984 is the door to go through.

And that was a look at the David Lee Roth era of Van Halen. Easily some of the most iconic releases in the realms of Hard Rock and Hair/Glam Metal, these albums are still popular even now in the beginning of the 2020s. Now, we wait until the middle of October, for there is another singer that will take up the mantle of singer of this band, and help create some classic records in their own right. Seen you then!



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For a more complete history on the band’s origins, check out their wikipedia page.