anyone a fan of the van halen III album?

[mdmatt4ever]

i listened to it today for the first time in about 2 years. its not as bad as i remember. it still one of the 4 worst van halen albums but i blame it all on eddie who wrote most of these tunes. its just seems too pieced together. a few songs sound like they were written between 1995-1996 when sammy was still there and then 1 or 2 songs sound like they were started when DLR rejoined them and did the new songs for the hits cd. finally the remaining songs sound like eddie was like "well i got a new singer and lets try something a little diffrent."

people who blame gary cherone for this album being bad just want to find a scapegoat and a reason to say "well sammy or DLR need to comeback."

 

[Platinum Maze]

Um, no. I don't blame Cherone, even though I don't think he was the right choice. The fact that Eddie sings a song on this one is all anyone needs to know.

 

[muzmaze]

Some good moments on this CD but overall its just a bad EVH solo effort. Gary is a good vocalist but he seems to be forcing it here...not being himself. The production is horrible and not only does it seem pieced together but it actually is. I believe Eddie did some drums and most of the bass parts as well. VH is at thier best when they kinda wing-it and have that live-jam feel when recording... VH3 is the complete opposite of this and suffers from it.

fav. tracks:
-a year to the day
-once
-dirty water dog

 

[sixxswine]

As a whole the album blows but most of you knew that already.
I do like "Dirty Water Dog," "Without You" and "Fire In The Hole."

 

[mdmatt4ever]

As a whole the album blows but most of you knew that already.
I do like "Dirty Water Dog," "Without You" and "Fire In The Hole."

those are basically my favorite songs too. believe it or not i like van halen III better than ou812, diver down and maybe even women and chldren first

 

[mdmatt4ever]

Some good moments on this CD but overall its just a bad EVH solo effort. Gary is a good vocalist but he seems to be forcing it here...not being himself. The production is horrible and not only does it seem pieced together but it actually is. I believe Eddie did some drums and most of the bass parts as well. VH is at thier best when they kinda wing-it and have that live-jam feel when recording... VH3 is the complete opposite of this and suffers from it.

fav. tracks:
-a year to the day
-once
-dirty water dog

eddie plays the bass on every song but "without you", "fire in the hole" and "one i want". alex plays all of the live drums but i think eddie did some of the drum loops that are on a few tracks. in all honesty Balance is the last real van halen album. if they make a new album with DLR, michael anthony still won't be on it and anthony doesn't really play on van halen III and doesn't play on any of the new songs recorded with sammy for the best of both worlds compilation. i would have liked the cherone version of van halen to have done at least 1 more album

 

[Platinum Maze]

believe it or not i like van halen III better than ou812, diver down and maybe even women and chldren first

Now that's crazy talk. :zombie: WACF is one of their best.

 

[muzmaze]

Agree, I wanted to hear a second cd with Cherone...sounded like it was going well and in the right direction and then bamm, they split. Balance may not be considered thier best effort. I however think it is underrated and would say VH sonically has never sounded better...IMO production-wise Balance is thier best. I think Humans Being with Sammy and Cant Get This Stuff No More and Me Wise Magic with Dave falls into that same kinda good sound that Balance had.

 

[sixxswine]

those are basically my favorite songs too. believe it or not i like van halen III better than ou812, diver down and maybe even women and chldren first

I wouldn't get carried away like that man...

 

[mdmatt4ever]

I wouldn't get carried away like that man...

diver down has too many covers, ou812 sounds like the just repeated the formula for the album 5150.

 

[mdmatt4ever]

Agree, I wanted to hear a second cd with Cherone...sounded like it was going well and in the right direction and then bamm, they split. Balance may not be considered thier best effort. I however think it is underrated and would say VH sonically has never sounded better...IMO production-wise Balance is thier best. I think Humans Being with Sammy and Cant Get This Stuff No More and Me Wise Magic with Dave falls into that same kinda good sound that Balance had.

van halen III was bad production wise but the songs sounded inspired. each van halen album had new things on it in terms of eddie's song writing. i believe if sammy was still in the band and III sounded the same but with hagar singing fans would have loved it. cherone got put in the akward situation of van halen getting DLR back and then booting him again which pissed the fans off. i think its funny someone said to me one time that anthony hated cherone but if you watch the live stuff anthony is always trying to stand near cherone and anthony thanked gary in his speach at the RnR HOF ceremony. sounds like BS to me. also i saw them live on that tour and the band seemed to be having more fun than they did on the 2 most recent tours

 

[poundingmetal74]

I'm not the biggest VH fan - I've heard maybe 1/2 of their albums - but VH3 more or less sucked. You could have had Geoff Tate circa 1986 sing VH3 and it still would have sucked. The songs weren't up to snub and the production, as you stated, was pretty bad.

As an aside: one thing I've never understood is how bands have gone from brilliant productions of the early 90s (Slave to the Grind, The Black Album, Empire, Painkiller....... to several years later having their albums sound like utter ass? Financial situations could be cited as a factor (dropped from the majors), but numerous bands employed renowned producers to make follow up albums in the subsequent decade and many albums sounded like shit.

 

[desert_demon]

I own VHIII and I think it's not that bad, nothing great, but I would not consider it a bad album. The reason for my opinion is that I'm just not a die-hard Van Halen fan in the first place and having Gary Cherone on vocals wasn't a problem for me. If one sees this album as being part of the whole VH discography, then I agree, the album just doesn't cut it. But taken by itself, on its own terms there are some good tracks to be found.

 

[mdmatt4ever]

while we are discussing van halen stuff, anyone else think DLR's solo album shit all over the van hagar stuff? DLR proved to me that he was the heart and soul of the original van halen and imo his solo albums are much better than the stuff van halen did without him.

*eat'em and smile- dlr showed he could still rock out after releasing that e.p. of cover tunes. his heavier songs were heavier than anything on 5150

*skyscraper-dlr saw van halen started doing pop on 5150 and showed he could do much better pop songs while still retaining rock qualities. its miles better than ou812

*a little ain't enough-dlr made a huge rock album after going pop on the last album. a great dumb fun rock album. van halens F.U.C.K. is basically tied with this album on quality

*your filthy little mouth- dlr showed he was more than a rock singer and he branched out into almost every style imaginable. it made for a very diverse album. van halen's next album was balance and the hagar formula seemed to be getting tired

*dlr band- well dlr was booted from van halen again and he made the most van halen sounding album since 1984. rocks hard and its better than Van Halen-III

*diamond dave- mostly a covers album but still fun

 

[muzmaze]

van halen III was bad production wise but the songs sounded inspired. each van halen album had new things on it in terms of eddie's song writing. i believe if sammy was still in the band and III sounded the same but with hagar singing fans would have loved it. cherone got put in the akward situation of van halen getting DLR back and then booting him again which pissed the fans off. i think its funny someone said to me one time that anthony hated cherone but if you watch the live stuff anthony is always trying to stand near cherone and anthony thanked gary in his speach at the RnR HOF ceremony. sounds like BS to me. also i saw them live on that tour and the band seemed to be having more fun than they did on the 2 most recent tours

The songs on III did seem inspired but it just didn't sound like a band was at work here. I just think it was the Eddie and Gary show...almost like they were too serious, trying too hard, and forcing it. Maybe if Sammy sang over the same III material it would have sounded better, but not neccesarily make a better record...if that makes sense? Point is, if you have Sammy and Mike potentially take part, add input to the material that Eddie came-forth with for III, go through the whole recording process of what was III, then the end result is going to be different and better. I know Eddie always comes up with most of the material but I think his collaborations with Sammy were more dynamic, back n forth, pushing each other with input...it seemed to work better.

Damn, I could talk about this band forever.

I know this is a cover song and prefer original material and the recording process can be more trying and stressful. But this clip is the Van Halen that I like to see...four guys in the studio, jamming at once, and having fun. The way it was done in the old days with DLR as well. I don't envision this happened with Gary and he is not to fault...I was excited when he was announced and in the end felt bad for the guy.

 

[sixxswine]

diver down has too many covers, ou812 sounds like the just repeated the formula for the album 5150.

I agree about Diver Down it's not a great album...
OU812 I fucking love it. I will say the production is waaaaayyy to slick and would greatly benifit from the Rhino Records remixing and reissuing....

 

[sixxswine]

I've never understood is how bands have gone from brilliant productions of the early 90s (Slave to the Grind, The Black Album, Empire, Painkiller....... to several years later having their albums sound like utter ass? Financial situations could be cited as a factor (dropped from the majors), but numerous bands employed renowned producers to make follow up albums in the subsequent decade and many albums sounded like shit.

Protools, in home studios... Hell these days anyone can record an album in their home studio, i.e. bathroom, bedroom... The equipment became just way to accessible and anyone with a do it yourself attitude did, in some cases they shouldn't have...

 

[muzmaze]

while we are discussing van halen stuff, anyone else think DLR's solo album shit all over the van hagar stuff? DLR proved to me that he was the heart and soul of the original van halen and imo his solo albums are much better than the stuff van halen did without him.

I love Dave and it was a thrill of a lifetime for me to see him with the boys on this past reunion tour...I had never seen VH live with Dave til this point. I'm more of a Dave era fan than a Sammy era fan.

However, would disagree on two-points.

I would put the Van Hagar stuff ahead of the DLR solo stuff...though I enjoy both.

...and Eddie is and always will be the heart and soul of Van Halen...no matter what choices good or bad he has made.
Daves persona, importance, and impact not only to the band but to the rock n roll world of singers is second to none IMO.

 

[poundingmetal74]

Protools, in home studios... Hell these days anyone can record an album in their home studio, i.e. bathroom, bedroom... The equipment became just way to accessible and anyone with a do it yourself attitude did, in some cases they shouldn't have...

Yeah, that's a good point. The problem is you've really got to know your shit to make a great sounding record. Bands go in and work with an engineer a few times and after 3-4 records figure they can do everything themselves.

Which most can't well because audio engineering, like any other engineering, requires years of training and theoretical knowledge to really know what the hell you're doing.

Sneap, James Murphy, Paeth, and Dennis Ward however are all examples of musicians who've become incredible engineers.

 

[METALDUDE]

"Without You"