Van Halen - Balance (Expanded Edition) - VINYL LP

Limited 180 gm vinyl LP pressing. With their 1978 eponymous debut, Van Halen simultaneously rewrote the rules of rock guitar and hard rock in general. Guitarist Eddie Van Halen redefined what the electric guitar could do, developing a blindingly fast technique with a variety of self-taught two-handed tapping, hammer-on's, pull-offs, and effects that mimicked the sounds of machines and animals. It was wildly inventive and over the top, equaled only by vocalist David Lee Roth, who brought the role of a metal singer to near-performance art standards. Mastering engineer Chris Bellman, who remastered the original albums at Bernie Grundman Mastering Studios, was enlisted for this new version. In order to produce the original sound the band intended, Bellman cut straight from the quarter-inch tapes.

EU pressing features a different track listing to the US edition. Almost evenly split between tracks that feature glammy showman David Lee Roth and those that feature earthy screecher Sammy Hagar, BEST OF VOLUME I seems designed to let this pioneering hard-rock band's fans compare and contrast between it's two frontmen. As if to drive the exercise home, BEST OF features three tunes cut in '96-two of them with Roth, who had been estranged from the band since 1985, and one with Hagar (InchHumans BeingInch, originally released on the soundtrack to TWISTER). Otherwise, BEST OF presents the hits in chronological order, beginning with the unadorned, aggressive soundof the early Roth material. Powered by guitarist Eddie Van Halen's hammer-on notes and orchestral pyrotechnics, and lightened up by Roth's used-car-salesman-on-a-bender persona, InchAin't Talkin 'Bout LoveInch and InchRunnin' with the DevilInch are as close to pure, perfect hard rock as anyone is ever likely to come. The early '80s found the band incorporating synthesizers (played by Eddie) and a pop sensibility, resulting in mega hits like InchJumpInch. Things changed again when Hagar replaced Roth and took the band further from it's roots, toward an expansive new sound with broader new arrangements, heard here in such pop hits as InchDreamsInch and InchRight NowInch. Refusing to tip the balance toward either David Lee diehards or Sammy-come-latelys, BEST OF contains enough Van Halen milestones to keep anyone satisfied.

Limited 180gm vinyl LP repressing. Digitally remastered edition of this 1982 album by the hard rock quartet. Diver Down was the band's fifth album, which ended up going four-times platinum. With vocals by the wildly entertaining David Lee Roth, the guitar masterwork of Eddie Van Halen and the irreplaceable rhythm section of drummer Alex Van Halen and bassist/backing vocalist Michael Anthony, Van Halen were one of the late '70s and early '80s greatest Rock 'n' Roll bands. Mastering engineer Chris Bellman, who remastered the original albums at Bernie Grundman Mastering Studios, was enlisted for this new version. In order to produce the original sound the band intended, Bellman cut straight from the quarter-inch tapes.