Van Halen
Van Halen

We have entered the great 80s where seventies groups like Kiss, Alice Cooper, and Judas Priest set the pace, and where many Hard Rock bands (Poison, Motley Crue, Cinderella) inspired by them are born, and where what will become today's extreme metal (Death Angel, Metallica, Pantera, etc...) is forming. On the doorstep of this decade that will indelibly mark the history of music, a band of four guys just over twenty appears, with two Dutch prodigies on guitar and drums, a highly charismatic singer on vocals, and a likable and theatrical young man on bass. Naturally, we're talking (in order) about Eddie and Alex Van Halen, David Lee Roth, and Michael Anthony, better known as Van Halen.

The debut of this band is electrifying as they present to the audience what is surely the best album of their career, "Van Halen". The album is innovative and loaded, instantly searing into our eardrums what will become the Van Halen style. The track opens with an adrenaline-charged burst of energy "Runnin' With The Devil", a short bass riff, and Eddie's guitar and David's high notes introduce this captivating song. The chorus is remarkably catchy; you think it's a great track and that the solo is worth it, well, wait until you hear the next songs. "Eruption", ladies and gentlemen, you must bow to one of the greatest guitarists of all time, an instrumental piece done on guitar that is surely known to everyone, so I won't talk much about its structure nor sing its praises (also because 100 pages wouldn't be enough), but I will talk about the impact it had for that era. Hundreds of guitarists hung up their boots—or rather their guitars—after hearing that wonderful tapping solo; guitarists around the world wondered how Eddie could play so fast and with those tones; the track deserves the gold medal for technique, musicality, and, above all, innovation. After this piece (what a piece), we move on to "You Really Got Me", and here the high technical level and "Made in Holland" indeed shine as the Van Halen brothers showcase high skill and ability (as if Eddie still had anything to prove after "Eruption"), the song is based on a fast and full chorus, and at the end, David Lee Roth has a very unique voice that makes this track fantastic, and good old Anthony fires a salvo of powerful riffs, a gem that became a VH classic.

"Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love", along with "Jump" and "Dreams" is my favorite VH track, dark, granite guitar and always technical and reliable drums make this one of the most beautiful VH songs, a very hard piece that sticks in your mind, it’s one of those tracks where you have no choice but to surrender to the sound and start going wild like a maniac, the guitar achieves hard and gritty tones that make this a gem, one of the best pieces in the history of Hard Rock, let’s move on to a good piece "I'm The One", the guitars become increasingly biting, although in this track the drums are much ahead compared to the guitar (listen to how it maintains a very fast rhythm with the double pedal), this track strangely reminds me of VH from "1984", the chorus is quite nice also because the backing vocals make it much more attractive and charismatic, the only flaw is that the instruments fuse into a tornado of Hard'n'Heavy that covers Lee Roth's voice, very nice and convincing. Now another big hit, "Jamie's Cryin'", the piece is really well-structured, and Eddie's guitar along with Michael's bass provides an excellent texture of hard and gritty riffs to the track, which thanks to the beautiful chorus will become a flagship piece for VH. Now comes the track "Atomic Punk", another beautiful track for it boasts of having a great guitar riff, drums pushed to the max and a bass that blends very well with all the musical texture skillfully crafted by Eddie and Alex, the rest is done excellently by David who, with a very high voice and very fast speech, makes this track powerful and very much in VH style.

"Feel Your Love Tonight", this is the title of the eighth track, which once again lives up to the expectations set by the previous songs, an excellently paced chorus by the quartet's voices, the instruments as usual shoot riff after riff, a track that convinces and makes you want to keep listening to this beautiful album. "Little Dreamer" is the ninth track of the album and is not in VH style, a very seventies piece, the guitars (especially in the intro) recall the virtuoso guitarists of the past (the intro seems inspired by King Hendrix), the vocals in the verses boast a David Lee Roth with a calm and passionate voice while the chorus with very strong backing vocals is almost heavenly, well if this beautiful VH piece had little it has even less the following "Ice Cream Man", a 60s blues piece, it seems to have been created to be played in an Alabama bar, country-blues riffs for a very atypical track, towards the end the band goes full throttle and with tones and sounds revives the Presley period. The final solo is Academy Award-worthy. Then the last track is really nice, hard rock like few others closes this masterpiece in the best way, the drums seem to go crazy, and Eddie performs a series of beautiful virtuoso moments, it's easy to get lost in these very hard tones.

Well, this is another milestone in music history, another indispensable CD, a CD played by these "wonders" of hard rock, I hope the review has been satisfactory. Goodbye to all.