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(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)
Summary.
In the United States a band bridged, like no other, the worlds of new wave and
of heavy-metal: Van Halen, destined to become
the first heavy-metal band ever to top the charts. Formed in Los Angeles by
Holland-born virtuoso guitarist Eddie Van Halen
(an acrobat of hammering chords, exhausting vibratos, melodic riffs and
Hendrix-ian glissandos) and vocalist and sex-symbol David Lee Roth, they
streamlined the genre on Van Halen (1978), making it more appealing
to the everykid, and then they redefined it for an even larger audience when
they introduced the synthesizer, thus Jump (1984).
Full bio.
Van Halen was the band that rehabilitated heavy metal for the new wave and punk rock generation. Born in Holland and raised by their father, a jazz musician, brothers Eddie and Alex Van Halen moved to Pasadena in 1968. On the Hollywood club circuit they met singer David Lee Roth, a scion of a noble family. It was the beginning of heavy metal's greatest commercial phenomenon.
Eddie Van Halen was perhaps the first guitarist of the 1980s to establish a new style on the instrument (a pounding torture, unusual timbres, an exaggerated vibrato, abstruse manipulations of pick-ups), combining it with a natural talent for the stage (he runs, jumps, falls, without ever missing a string of the guitar, which is in turn forged with the most exhibitionist "looks"). A disciple of Hendrix for virtuosity and histrionics, Van Halen was instead rather limited in terms of composition: his riffs were as old as rock and roll and his melodies were based on shamefully kitsch mid-tempos.
The band's sex-symbol, David Lee Roth, heir to the
"sex, drugs and rock and roll" iconography, completed the magic of
the most effective teenage illusionists of the decade,
not coincidentally originating from San Fernando Valley.
Van Halen (Warner, 1978) was the album that launched their career,
containing the guitarist's first
tour de force,
Eruption (although the best solo is to be found in the cover of blues traditional Ice Cream Man).
Their hits were as silly as popular: Running With The Devil (1978), Dance The Night Away, off II (Warner, 1979), and And The Cradle Rock, off Women and Children First (1980), a slightly less catchy and more experimental album.
Fair Warning (1981), their first album with synths,
and Diver Down (1982), their worst, saved only by the covers,
laid out the foundations for
1984 (1984), on which the synth towers over the guitar,
containing the hits Jump and Panama.
After replacing
Roth with their inspiration Sammy Hagar (of Montrose), Van Halen
further increased their commercial appeal on
5150 (1986), containing Why Can't This Be Love,
OU812 (1988), containing When It's Love, and
For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (1991).
After a four-year hiatus, Balance (1995) failed to capture the
(commercial) magic of the past.
A Different Kind of Truth (2012), the first album from Van Halen in 14 years, marked the return of Roth but was the usual disappointment of reunion albums.
Eddie Van Halen died of cancer in 2020 at the age of 65.
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