>Balance is the 10th album by American hard rock group Van Halen, released on Warner Bros. Records January 24, 1995. It was the final album to feature Sammy Hagar as the group's frontman.
...ummm
Being a conjoined twin would suck
>>131852513it was the last passably decent VH record. VH III was objectively terrible, and ADKoT was mostly stuff from the 70s they left on the cutting room floor.
>>131852513For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge had some bangers but the rot was setting in. This was just forgettable.
>>131852513The Eddie Van Halen Method:>get lead singer>lead singer "lead singers" too hard>get butthurt>"IT'S MY NAME ON THE BAND, NOT YOURS MIIIIIINE!! REEEEEE!!!">act like a cunt until lead singer quits>repeat
'P on teh 'log
>"Eddie was a sad sight by 1995," Hagar said in his memoir. "He would shamble around in an old trench coat drinking cheap shiraz straight from the bottle. It turned all his teeth black. I said 'Don't you want a glass for that?' He tapped the side of the bottle and said 'It's in a glass.'"
>>131852832Sammy was outshining him.
>>131852855in whose view? Ed claimed it was cuz Hagar wanted to take a break after Balance (i don't blame the guy, he'd been on the road for over two decades by that point and was owed a rest sometime). They also changed managers and the new one was like wormtongue. Being a raging alcoholic didnt help either. EVH was pretty messed up for awhile. it sucks. oh well. at least we have the music.
>>131852513The album cover screams "80s band who want the 90s look."
>>131853000With the exception of King's X (who were sort of their own thing anyway), virtually none of the 80s hard rock bands who did these mid-90s "darker" albums did it well. They all ranged from mediocre (Van Halen, Mr Big, Extreme) to horrible (Motley Crue, Def Leppard, Warrant, Skid Row)
>>131852513Pedo cover
>>131852595>ADKoT was mostly stuff from the 70s they left on the cutting room floor.Nah. Half of it was brand new material and the old stuff refreshed with better DLR lyrics. The 3 Van Halens are on fire. That album is pretty damn good. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GYT7sGaS-Q
>>131852685it takes two to tango. You think Roth was easy to work with?
>>131852595tpbp
>>131852513I think history would look more kindly on this record if the cover wasn't such an obvious (and terrible) attempt at looking "dark".If Balance had a cover w/ a dark painting like Fair Warning, people would've been a little more receptive to the music.Not a great record, but it's 3/5
>>131852832Supposedly evh did more coke in the early/mid 90s than he ever did in the 70s or 80s. Which is really saying something.
>>131852513Balance, relative to III, is a work of genius.III would have been great (or at least not a laughable trainwreck) if Eddie had let Glen Ballard produce it. GB produced the last great Van Halen track, "Me Wise Magic" and could've guided them through the end of the 20th century into the 21st.>>131852595>>131853115ADToK was mostly reheated leftovers from the 70s; even the supposedly "new" stuff was still recycled from the tapes on the shelf. At some point they're going to release the archives, at which point it will be painfully obvious (if it isn't already) that ADToK is just a microwave dinner.
>>131854384>even the supposedly "new" stuff was still recycledNot factual. As Is, You and Your Blues, Stay Frosty, Honeybabysweetiedoll and Chinatown were all brand new music written for the album. If you can’t enjoy this then you dont like Van Halen:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgiBZmbn5nc
>>131852513I love this CD. I know it by heart. of course I'm a big Van Halen fan but I really like this one. it sounds huge its cool. used to listen to it on repeat in my car when I was in high school ha
>>131852513pedocoded illuminati garbage
>>131854384>At some point they're going to release the archivesvan halen somehow have been really good about not releasing demos or outtakes (aside from some of their 90s stuff lol). i don't think we'll hear them officially anytime soon
>>131852513Why were boomer rockers so obsessed with naked kids
>>131853056It says something that most of the 80s bands who still got hits on radio by the mid to late 90s like Metallica, Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, etc managed to do it by just sticking to what they did best instead of trying to pivot into "sounding current".
>contrary to popular belief, the little boy on the cover of Balance is not Wolfgang Van Halen.[3]
>>131852595IN A WORD TOTHE WISDOM TOOTHhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAZG2UX8ONQ
>>131861922if by the same token Clapton continued to prosper post-70s by doing what he did best ie. pop blues
>>131858961Alex VH is working on some right night with Lukather helping
>>131853056>>131861922The album in question- Balance debuted at #1.
>>131854368i don't know about that. he was known in the early days for not going out and partying with dave and alex and would instead just chainsmoke/do coke/play guitar in his hotel room all night. later in the 90s he was drinking a lot more and somehow smoking a lot more too. which ultimately led to his throat cancer.
>>131853000There's soooo many shitty Photoshop covers from the 90s/2000s as bands started shifting to it
>>131863930Warner still very much considered VH a marquee act back then and gave all of their albums huge promotional pushes.
>>131853056Mirror Ball is kinda dope https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwBxQ1peUgQ
>>131854384>At some point they're going to release the archivesi doubt it. wolfgang seems too proud and seems intent on wanting to make it on his own with his 1/10 buttrock band. if he was actually smart he'd swallow his pride, tardwrangle everyone, and organize a years-spanning worldwide van halen farewell tour where sammy/dave split the set. that shit would easily outgross the gnr reunion tour.
>>131863650>if by the same token Clapton continued to prosper post-70s by doing what he did best ie. pop bluesDidn't work for the Beach Boys. They became a joke in the 80s.
That song from the Twister soundtrack was pretty good desu
>>131864083>if he was actually smart he'd swallow his pride, tardwrangle everyone, and organize a years-spanning worldwide van halen farewell tour where sammy/dave split the set. that shit would easily outgross the gnr reunion tour.DLR had to cancel most of his last tour because of low ticket sales, not to mention his voice is completely shot and he's half deaf. AVH and Sammy haven't even spoken in decades. Even if Wolfgang tried his hardest, it'd be nearly impossible, and even it by some miracle it was possible, I don't think the public's desire for a Van Halen (minus EVH) farewell tour is nearly as strong as you believe it to be.
>>131864249>not to mention his voice is completely shot and he's half deaf.maybe just go with sammy then. he does sound pretty awful in recent recordings of him.>AVH and Sammy haven't even spoken in decades.neither had axl and slash/rest of the old band and then all of a sudden they were all on a reunion tour. you throw enough money at a problem and all will be forgiven, even if only briefly.>I don't think the public's desire for a Van Halen (minus EVH) farewell tour is nearly as strong as you believe it to be.again, throw enough marketing money at something and the demand will be made out of thin air. i don't think enough people realize that wolfgang is the only person on the planet that can play note for note like his father did. 70s/80s/90s nostalgia is HUGE business right now but it's not going to last forever. it just sucks seeing opportunities waste away
>>131864108The Beach Boys had stopped being cool by the late 60s.
>>131864108They were cool in the 80s. They did that Kokomo song that was very popular and they got John Stamos to be in the band
>>131864704don't confuse having a hit song with being cool, because they were definitely not "cool" in the 80's
>>131864241SHINE ONSHINE OOOONNN
>>131865717By that logic Bryan Adams was "cool" based on his platinum count.
>>131853115HER THUNDER THONG AROUND YOUR NECK
>>131859015idk ask eric clapton or klaus meine.
>>131864463>it just sucks seeing opportunities waste awayVan halen never really bounced back after VHIII bombed. The beginning of the end was when their manager died and Al brought in his brother in law to manage the band.This band should've had a fruitful late stage career with more albums but they blew it.
>>131870097>This band should've had a fruitful late stage career with more albums but they blew it.i don't see any universe where alex or eddie get their shit together after sammy leaves. eddie's life in particular is incredibly depressing to read about in his later years.
>>131870353sadly he stopped learning any new tricks after 86
Eddie said 5150 was the only of the Hagar era albums that everyone was happy with. From OU812 it was all downhill. I used to like Hagar and think he was more "real" since he didn't have Dave's showman flamboyance, but he really lost it after the mid-90s.
>>131870474Sammy just isn't very bright. He came off as a tryhard. His strength was always putting good vocal melodies to music but he ran out of them after the 80s. I think he just didn't have a lot to say anymore.
Dave used to chug a whole bottle of Jack Daniels onstage and say it was real and he wasn't a poseur like the critic -core bands of the day like The Clash or Talking Heads.
>>131870474do you have a sauce on that quote? i always thought the same thing. 5150 still has some of that spark leftover from 1984, it's so damn polished and slick compared to the rest of hagar's era. it has some of sammy's more ballad-y stuff but even that's pretty good. maybe i'm a sucker but i even like love walks in
>>131870474the worst thing Eddie ever did was get his own home studio which exacerbated his self-indulgent tendencies. their albums didn't sound good anymore either once he started recording at 5150.
>>131870613Not so sure I agree because he recorded 1984 and Carnal Knowledge at 5150 and nobody has an issue with how those sound. It was more having the right/wrong people in the room. OU182 has no bass, it's AWOL and 5150 has a horrid drum sound.
>>131870189True, 5150 became his hideaway from the real world.
the contemporary interviews from when VH3 came out tell a story. in all of the band's prior years they looked like a band of brothers having fun. for the VH3 tour it's clear that Eddie is the unchallenged dictator and there are no more laughs, the other guys just do as they're told.
