Fans of Van Halen’s older work have a reason to rejoice over the bands new album, _A Different Kind Of Truth_.
Sadly, the album starts out at its lowest point with the song “Tattoo.” The musical aspect of the lead single is fine, but it’s hard to get into a song that just talks about tattoos and repeatedly says, “tattoo” throughout the song. The track sounds like it is meant to be catchy and overplayed because it doesn’t fit with the rest of the album, so don’t let this one song affect your opinion.
“She’s The Woman” is where the album should officially start. It celebrates all the things Van Halen has always done well — playing great, driving riffs, getting your head nodding and having choruses that make casual listeners and fanatics sing along. This song really gets you going and fits the Van Halen catalog like a glove.
“China Town” begins with a fast solo, being tapped by Eddie Van Halen. The song quickly goes into the verse featuring another heavy guitar riff and fast drums. It’s a strange thing to say, but this song feels like you should be watching a movie with a car chase scene. It has that high adrenaline feel that you would expect while watching something like that.
“As Is” is an interesting song because it has a drum intro and starts the guitar out with a strange rhythm to match that of the drums. Then the real riff of the song kicks in, which yet again brings high energy, similar to “Hot For Teacher.” It is really easy to appreciate and get into.
One song old Van Halen fans would really appreciate is “Stay Frosty.” The track begins with an acoustic blues riff and gets heavy just like the band’s cover of “Ice Cream Man” in 1978. It is interesting because it takes old blues riffs, makes them heavy using distortion and uses guitar fills.
Eddie Van Halen’s guitar playing really makes the album and shows he is still one of the best guitarists.
_A Different Kind Of Truth_ does not disappoint and shows fans that David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen are able to be in a room together for more than five minutes and still make great music.
