III of course is the worst, but yes Balance is close to it. Balance is the most non-Van Halen sounding VH record (I don't even count III). Adult/contemporary ballads, couple heavier rockers that are ok although seem to lack focus w lots of parts (Aftershock), corny lyrics as expected from Sammy (Amsterdam) and the #1 worst VH cheesy song (Can't Stop Loving You).
@@TheMightyVanHalen yep we kind of came to the conclusion that for a few other reasons we ranked III lower, but its pretty close. thanks for the comment!
You’re wrong. WAY wrong. The production is lacking. That said, it has great writing, playing, energy and integrity. It was the first time we got to hear Van Halen material that didn’t involve getting laid. “Dirty Water Dog”, “Once” and “One I Want” are terrific. I can’t understand why you would say this is an “obvious” choice with garbage like “OU812”. “Balance” is great as well. Your assessment of “there ripping themselves off” is a completely clueless observation. The live shows were incredible. I’ve seen Van Roth, Van Hagar and Van Cherone. The Cherone show was BY FAR the best. All the great “Fair Warning” and “Women and Children First” tunes made there way back into the setlist. Thanks to Martin for being objective.
@@joerich1629 I see what you’re saying about the content of the song lyrics, but imo the songs aren’t very good, whether they’re written about partying and getting laid or not. There’s not much memorable about it, even after doing this episode and research I’d have to go back and see the track listing to remember what’s on it, I don’t have that problem with most of the other records. But that’s just me, cool you got to see every line up though! I’m jealous! Thanks for the comment.
Van Halen III I agree was the worst album. I'll put Diver Down next . Balance has kinda grown on me over the years. Van Halen was trying to do some more serious material at the time. It's probably grown on me since I'm a guitar player. I agree "can't stop loving you" lyricly was cheesey but the music was good.
I saw this tour at their stop in Auburn Hills Michigan I don't remember anything else other than Eddie. Alex was wearing a neck brace (small note).. I only went to see Eddie and that's why I was there.
This is by far my new favorite TH-cam channel. I covered this record when 3 dudes did bad albums by great bands. It’s my contention that VH3 is not only the worst VH album but it’s the only bad VH record.
You nailed it - VH3. Love the format of the show, thanks. I was shocked that an established band and a great guitarist joined forces with an excellent singer (Extreme is underrated) and producing such a flaccid LP. This lineup proved less than the sum of its parts.
I would put ANY Sammy Hagar VH under this album. And I hate Gary sharone. Van Halen was a fun party band in the David Lee Roth era. Everything else after blew. At least this particular album had a couple heavier songs on it.
I agree, the big hits in the sammy era seem to be ballads, which theirs nothing wrong with that but... it was always like "is this love"... "why isnt this love" etc whereas the big songs from the Dave era are way more rockin, this album is definitly heavy, FUCK is pretty heavy too... but i prefer my VH from the classic line up era
Well said. I'll take intellectual VH over those sappy love songs. I dig VH3. BTW, from what I've gathered, there was no bad blood between Gary and Eddie. It was the record company that forced Gary out of VH. Mike Post was chosen to produce iii because he was Eddie was his neighbor. Also, iii wasn't trying to be knockoff Van Hagar. They were trying to be more progressive. I like How Many Say I.
First things first-it's good to see you guys looking healthy and happy. Hope your families are well also 🙏. Anyways another great contrarian episode,! I like the different take, look forward to more of this format in the future. But whatever you guys put out, I'm there. And you guys hit it on the T with Van Halen lII . TAKE CARE AND BE SAFE 🤘👍🤘
Awesome comment thank you, hope you are healthy and happy too, and glad to have you along for the ride with whatever we put out! Thanks, we are your number 1 fan!
21:10 Gary was in the band long enough to nearly make 2 albums, trying to right wrongs they had made on the second album. They put a lot of effort into a follow up to VH3, and then nobody has gave any reason why there was a sudden end to everything. Gary alluded to Eddie relapsing at the time, but nonetheless it would be interesting to see what they churned out before the entire band nearly went extinct for several years.
Apparently they had another whole album recorded with Gary, when they decided to move on without Gary, they scrapped the album. I would love to hear those recordings...
I LOVE Balance. It had so many great songs. It was heavy, diverse and behind For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, it is my favourite Van Hagar album. How can you hate on it with songs like: The Seventh Seal, Can't Stop Lovin' You, Don't Tell Me (What Love Can Do), Amsterdam, Not Enough, Aftershock, and Feelin'?
Not my favorite Van Halen era, you're not wrong though and it's not a terrible album, it's hard for me not to compare with with the earlier stuff i like a lot better.
I really tried to like the "III" album when it was released, but no, it didn't do anything for me. Anything from Van Halen/Van Hagar is better. I do like "Balance" though, some good songs on that one.
@@thecontrarians2438 Sort of, I guess. I miss Michael Anthony's backing vocals, which was a major part in their songs. But generally a good, but not excellent album. 7/10.
Someone once said that VH III is an Eddie Van Halen solo album. I think that description is perfect. That said, my first impression of VH III is that it had some good guitar and some creative touches, but far from a cohesive effort.
III is terrible, but it could've been great if they would've committed to completely revamping their style. Maybe do an all-acoustic album. The album kicks off with an acoustic instrumental, and I thought, "something new!" Then they bring in the usual sound. And they make Cherone should like Hagar. But the big villain is the producer. The mix is awful, and there are way too many self-indulgent moments. The piano song with Eddie on vox could've been cool if it would've been shortened. Overall the album is just too long. "Once" is actually a killer song, but it's 7:42!! Too much. The producer was a total non-entity on this record.
For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge is the best Sammy album, and above some of the Dave albums too in my book. It's top to bottom heavy songs, it takes itself seriously for the most part (which is unusual for Van Halen), it rocks and grooves and kicks all kinds of ass. Eddie nails his guitar sound, Sammy was in top form. I love that album. Oh yeah, and III sucks.
Ya I think Martin likes that one too, I have to go back and reassess what I think about it, I think because of Balance I kind of group the two of those ones together like sister albums, and Balance brings Knowledge down, but that's my own prejudice. and Ya III sucks.
Yeah like we said the musicianship on here is good and there are some creative things i appreciate about it, but it doesnt really hold up as a whole, for me anyway. Gary is a good vocalist too, i kinda wish they tried again on another album, i mean he was in the band for like 3 years, even though it seemed short at the time.
Same thing with Calling All Stations by Genesis, these vocalists get put into a near impossible situation and the ignorant view is that it’s the singer’s fault. I agree with Martin that they should have toured first. A little trial by fire before Fire In The Hole.
Piece of crap album from top to bottom! A CD neither useful as a coaster or its liner notes as a welcome receptacle for your beloved bird's copious droppings! And for an album produced by noted TV composer Mike Post, any one of his many beloved 1970s/early '80s themes were tighter both musically and melodically, not too mention, some extra stellar guitar in spots. Also, unrelated in the Extreme (pun obviously very much intended!), but a 2006 song by the (Half-)Who was entitled "Mike Post Theme". Not sure what Mr. Post did to deserve that honour, but it certainly was not as a result of this bottom feeder of an album. Lastly, as for "How Many Say I", the less said about that musical trainwreck, the better! EVH's 'vocals', if you can even call them that, make Tom Waits at his most incoherent sound warm and welcoming. P.S., kudos to Martin for the Bullet Boys love. Big fan of their "Za-Za" album!! And a slight postscript to my comment above, but "Balance" was actually VH's "Go to Vancouver" album, or at least they had B. Fairbairn produce it. Worked as well for them as it did Yes 3 or 4 years later!!
wow, this is the best comment we've ever gotten lol thank you! Ya agreed it pretty god awful, so many brilliant bands cant turn out a decent album in their later years for the life of them for some odd reason, almost as if their musical tastes become so sophisticated that they over think (or under) to the point of it detrimentally affecting the music. It's wild when a band says something about one of their classic early albums along the lines of "it was written and recorded in 2 weeks and cost next to nothing" and then 30 years later it takes months (or years) to come up with some over produced nonsense that is a barley listenable trash bucket of songs. Look at Aerosmith Just Push Play, KISS Psycho Circus for other examples right from this same time period as VH III too. Rating this like a 3 is giving it more credit than it probably deserves. Thanks again for the comment!
@@thecontrarians2438 Always happy to have the opportunity to contribute in some small way to a very worthwhile cause! As for very crappy latter day albums by once mighty bands, well, I'd take "Psycho Circus", as lame and knee-capped as it was, in a red hot minute any day over "Just Push Play", or, as I like to call it, "Don't!!", or "Just Push Delete"!!!
I love the album. They should of called it a different kind of band and the last studio album with Roth: Van Halen 3 to tie in all three albums with the original singer
I've actually never listened to VHIII, mostly out of apathy likely caused by the reputation of the record. But after watching the discussion between you two I'm a bit more curious to check it out.
Too bad they couldn’t work out the kinks with Gary and bring back the punch the band needed. The band were in a bad place making that album. To be honest they were done in the 80’s. Roth leaving was like taking the venom out of cobra. Sammy leaving was taking the fangs out.
ou812 n balance are very weak, 5150 n f@%k are amazing though. Always thought VH2 was the weak one from the Roth era but theres really no such thing as a weak VH album imo
Love this format, and would agree that VH III is their worst album. That said, "From Afar" and "Once" are interesting compositions, but would have benefited from a better vocal production. Gary's delivery is too raspy for those tunes, and his sibilants get completely lost in the mix. Would love to see an episode on Maiden's Virtual XI, B.O.C.'s Club Ninja, or Priest's Jugulator - which may be one of the worst albums ever recorded by anyone.
Very cool point of view, thanks for the comment, and thanks for the suggestions! we will definitly keep those in mind, though we have dont regular episodes on BOC and Iron Maiden, your suggestion of Judas Priest may very pop up in the near future.
@@underlordsuniverse7823 We did do a regular Contrarian episode on Uriah Heep, if you havnt seen it, dont know if we'll go back to that well right away, Equator could be fun thanks for the suggestions
Its not as bad as people make it out to be, is it great? No its not great but i wouldnt say its bad. We’re not exactly talking about music from the elder here, If you go into this not expecting it to be like anything else other than a EVH solo album i think its easy to get into, i also think better production wouldve helped a lot. What is interesting is it went gold, not the same sales as what the roth and hagar albums hit but it at least sold just not at the expectations of the record company and band. Supposedly to this day its hit 800,000 sold units which is kind of interesting that it still sells if true at all.
Diver Down is very sad even for covers, their best cover by far is You Really Got Me, anyways its sad that the only album Gary made with Van Halen is rated the worst?>? What was the rush in getting it out? if they did not like it they did not have to release it, or they should have found and or taken there time to find the right singer. Gary is a great singer in Extreme, certain singers only suit their own bands. I saw Van Halen in 1986 in Vancouver with BTO and Red Rider as the openers i thought they did pretty good, even though its an Echo Machine in BC Place. Love 5150 Album by Sammy one of his better albums with Van halen. I listened to Van Halen iii, wow very different, very mature songs, some complex arrangements, and some varied different playing from Eddie, Good points made overall about it, i would say Diver Down is worse. rarely play anything from that album when they toured for years.
I agree with Martin about the underappreciated A Different Kind of Truth. If you haven't given it a listen, do yourself and favor and do it soon! I also agree that VH3 was their worst. I'm one of those, "It Ain't =VH= without DLR" fans. I had no problem when Dio became Sabbath's second singer. For me, it absolutely worked! Sammy in VH... not so much. I've been boycotting all things Hagar since 1986. Long Live EVH and the Mighty Van Halen!
Tokyo Dome in Concert may be the worst release of VH, but maybe it won't count in this discussion because it's a live album not a studio one. Dave's voice had tanked really badly on that concert release, it's shocking anyone would want to release it as an album because it will seriously stain DLR's legacy. Dave can only hope people just forget Tokyo Dome was ever released, at least Gary has a good voice on VH3 despite it's drawbacks.
I've only heard this album once, I liked it. My favourite Hagar album is OU812, I cannot get into Full Unlawful, the production sounds too tinny. And the last album with Dave made me think I already own this. So for me VHIII isn't their worst. Maybe it just shouldn't have been a Van Halen album.
i for one hated, HATED Extreme. i could not stand them and i did not like him as a vocalist or any of their songs. is it Gary's fault VHIII sucked, i dont know. despite the singng or the production or any other issues at the end of the day the problem was the songs are not good, it doesnt really matter if the production is bad or the singing is bad or anything else if the material just isnt good. and one thing Gary had already proven to me personally back when he was in Extreme is he cant write songs that i think are good, so he definitely played a part in VHIII's songs not being good. i watched an episode once of the youtuber Toddintheshadows where he did an analysis of VHIII and he made a good point in it. both Dave and Sammy had egos and stood up to Eddie and didnt let hm just control everything, but Gary apparently was just thrilled to be there and was no trouble at all and let Eddie just completely run the show. so maybe it is Eddies fault the songs arent good, maybe Eddie as brilliant of a musician as he is has some bad tendencies that Dave and Sammy were able to keep in check.
I agree that is by far the worst Van Halen album. For me, it just seemed like Gary was a weird choice to lead the band. He has such a unique and identifiable voice tied into his prior band, to me this actually sounds like an extreme album. LOL
We'll keep Hot Space in mind lol, our latest episode before this one was our Contrarian pick for best Queen album if that will do for now for ya. thanks for the suggestion!
Got VH III only last year cos I noticed, I don't have it. Speaking from the distance of 20+ years, I have to say the album is far from bad. The cover is terrible ☹ but the music isn't. One problem may be the length of it. There are some really long songs, what is very unusual for VH. Some consider VH III an Eddie solo album with backing musicians - this comes pretty close I think. Year in a day and Once are very good songs, but they are not what we consider "VH songs" 😉 Who knows how a sequel would've sound. 5/10 btw - agree with Martin on OU812 - nothing special on it (with the exception of Mine All Mine)
This is worst Van Halen album by far as a whole - though a few tracks were great, and Gary Cherone did a tremendous job on vocals. In my opinion, if you cut the album down to 8-10 tracks and 35-40 minutes (45 at the most) and did some sound work (i.e. in Audacity), you would have a much better result.
yep cant argue too much with that, they may have been able to do something much better with Gary, but as it stands, the one album they did with him is the weakest of the band's whole history.
I like VH3 but I think they needed a stronger producer that could say "no" and stand their ground. The song lengths are way too long. They should have been edited down.
I found a cheap, bargain bin copy. The production and musicianship is fine, a couple good tracks, like Fire In The Whole, but overall a mediocre, mess.
Are you absolutely kidding me?!? "How Many Say I" IS THE WORST SONG BY FAR IN THE VAN HALEN CANON. It's not even close. And Eddie MOST DEFINITELY DOES NOT sound good singing lead, which is why he never did it beforehand or since then. And he shouldn't have done it at all. Uccch. 🤢🤮 As for Gary's vocals on this album, it was obvious that Eddie was trying to get him to sound like Sammy Hagar, and it completely didn't work. Gary Cherone IS a great singer with very good range, but he never had Sammy's range (let's face facts, very few guys do). To me, the only decent songs on the album are "Fire In The Hole" (even with its awful lyrics), "Once" and "Year To The Day" (although each of those last two songs are overlong). "From Afar" is annoying and creepy as fuck, "Josefina" starts out good but unfortunately gets pretty creepy as it goes along and "Ballot Or The Bullet" just flat-out sux. "Without You" was supposed to be the big leadoff hit from the album, but that song is such a big mess it's not even funny. "One I Want" starts-out promisingly with a good mid-tempo groove, but unfortunately it's a lyrical nightmare. "Dirty Water Dog" also starts-out promisingly with a good mid-fast groove to it, but it's lyrical content really betrays its lack of actual meaningful content, plus the slow-as-fuck guitar solo is totally out of place in it. I saw these guys at The Jones Beach Amphitheatre in Wantagh NY, and was a decent show, but a very mixed bag: I mean, they did more Roth songs than they had with Sammy (saw them on the Monsters Of Rock Tour in 1988), and it was cool to have Michael Anthony actually do his one and only lead vocal on the Dave deep-cut "Somebody Get Me A Doctor!" Gary sounded good singing the other Dave songs, but ironically enough, he looked kind of lost singing his own Van Halen stuff. I think Gary on that tour kind of realized that his heart wasn't really completely into this, and that he was really missing his old band, Extreme.
Eddie Van Halen might be a great guitarist but him and the band really sucked as songwriters IMHO.They did a ton of covers and a few really good songs here and there but that's about it.They're no Heep or Purple or Sabbath that's for sure
Did we nail on worst Van Halen album? or was there some big oversight? Please let us know all the reasons why we're wrong!
III of course is the worst, but yes Balance is close to it. Balance is the most non-Van Halen sounding VH record (I don't even count III). Adult/contemporary ballads, couple heavier rockers that are ok although seem to lack focus w lots of parts (Aftershock), corny lyrics as expected from Sammy (Amsterdam) and the #1 worst VH cheesy song (Can't Stop Loving You).
@@TheMightyVanHalen yep we kind of came to the conclusion that for a few other reasons we ranked III lower, but its pretty close. thanks for the comment!
You’re wrong. WAY wrong. The production is lacking. That said, it has great writing, playing, energy and integrity. It was the first time we got to hear Van Halen material that didn’t involve getting laid. “Dirty Water Dog”, “Once” and “One I Want” are terrific. I can’t understand why you would say this is an “obvious” choice with garbage like “OU812”. “Balance” is great as well. Your assessment of “there ripping themselves off” is a completely clueless observation. The live shows were incredible. I’ve seen Van Roth, Van Hagar and Van Cherone. The Cherone show was BY FAR the best. All the great “Fair Warning” and “Women and Children First” tunes made there way back into the setlist. Thanks to Martin for being objective.
@@joerich1629 I see what you’re saying about the content of the song lyrics, but imo the songs aren’t very good, whether they’re written about partying and getting laid or not. There’s not much memorable about it, even after doing this episode and research I’d have to go back and see the track listing to remember what’s on it, I don’t have that problem with most of the other records. But that’s just me, cool you got to see every line up though! I’m jealous! Thanks for the comment.
Van Halen III I agree was the worst album. I'll put Diver Down next . Balance has kinda grown on me over the years. Van Halen was trying to do some more serious material at the time. It's probably grown on me since I'm a guitar player. I agree "can't stop loving you" lyricly was cheesey but the music was good.
6:30 This is a great line: I'll never look at the album cover the same way again. It's a warning to the listener!
I saw this tour at their stop in Auburn Hills Michigan I don't remember anything else other than Eddie.
Alex was wearing a neck brace (small note).. I only went to see Eddie and that's why I was there.
This is by far my new favorite TH-cam channel. I covered this record when 3 dudes did bad albums by great bands. It’s my contention that VH3 is not only the worst VH album but it’s the only bad VH record.
Wow!!! Thanks for the great comment! Ya Balance is probably a close second for worst but VH3 just seems to get it wrong in so man areas.
Wow!!! Thanks for the great comment! Ya Balance is probably a close second for worst but VH3 just seems to get it wrong in so man areas.
The Contrarians this channel is inspiring me and lighting that fire to keep creating content, when I figure out the tech issues 🤣🤣🤣
@@quantumparadox2518 dont give up!!
A Different Kind Of Truth rules ALL!!
You nailed it - VH3. Love the format of the show, thanks. I was shocked that an established band and a great guitarist joined forces with an excellent singer (Extreme is underrated) and producing such a flaccid LP. This lineup proved less than the sum of its parts.
Ya, probably the biggest stinker of the 4 or 5 albums we've done on the Worst album edition so far... Definitely the lowest grade we've given.
I would put ANY Sammy Hagar VH under this album. And I hate Gary sharone. Van Halen was a fun party band in the David Lee Roth era. Everything else after blew. At least this particular album had a couple heavier songs on it.
I agree, the big hits in the sammy era seem to be ballads, which theirs nothing wrong with that but... it was always like "is this love"... "why isnt this love" etc whereas the big songs from the Dave era are way more rockin, this album is definitly heavy, FUCK is pretty heavy too... but i prefer my VH from the classic line up era
Well said. I'll take intellectual VH over those sappy love songs. I dig VH3. BTW, from what I've gathered, there was no bad blood between Gary and Eddie. It was the record company that forced Gary out of VH. Mike Post was chosen to produce iii because he was Eddie was his neighbor. Also, iii wasn't trying to be knockoff Van Hagar. They were trying to be more progressive. I like How Many Say I.
“I hate Sammy, I hate Gary…but I love Van Halen”…you do REALIZE that Eddie Van Halen wrote the songs and played guitar on these albums don’t you?…
The worst selling platinum album is Balance? Hmm.......
First things first-it's good to see you guys looking healthy and happy. Hope your families are well also 🙏. Anyways another great contrarian episode,! I like the different take, look forward to more of this format in the future. But whatever you guys put out, I'm there. And you guys hit it on the T with Van Halen lII . TAKE CARE AND BE SAFE 🤘👍🤘
Awesome comment thank you, hope you are healthy and happy too, and glad to have you along for the ride with whatever we put out! Thanks, we are your number 1 fan!
21:10 Gary was in the band long enough to nearly make 2 albums, trying to right wrongs they had made on the second album. They put a lot of effort into a follow up to VH3, and then nobody has gave any reason why there was a sudden end to everything. Gary alluded to Eddie relapsing at the time, but nonetheless it would be interesting to see what they churned out before the entire band nearly went extinct for several years.
VH 3 went number 4 on billboard goofballs. GOLD too!
Apparently they had another whole album recorded with Gary, when they decided to move on without Gary, they scrapped the album. I would love to hear those recordings...
wow really!? Would like to as well.
@@thecontrarians2438 Yeah, I believe I heard about that from Eddie Trunk.
Agree
love the concept!! And I agree with your choice. I like about half of it.
Thanks for the comment!
I LOVE Balance. It had so many great songs. It was heavy, diverse and behind For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, it is my favourite Van Hagar album. How can you hate on it with songs like: The Seventh Seal, Can't Stop Lovin' You, Don't Tell Me (What Love Can Do), Amsterdam, Not Enough, Aftershock, and Feelin'?
Not my favorite Van Halen era, you're not wrong though and it's not a terrible album, it's hard for me not to compare with with the earlier stuff i like a lot better.
Feeling, you forgot Feeling.
I agree, Marco is ignorant, going on and on about how bad he thinks BALANCE is. Balance is a very fresh sounding album with fantastic songs!!!!
I really tried to like the "III" album when it was released, but no, it didn't do anything for me. Anything from Van Halen/Van Hagar is better. I do like "Balance" though, some good songs on that one.
thanks for the comment, do you like a different kind of truth??
@@thecontrarians2438 Sort of, I guess. I miss Michael Anthony's backing vocals, which was a major part in their songs. But generally a good, but not excellent album. 7/10.
@@Rataxes Ya Michael Anthony sung a lot of harmonies didnt he? I really like the song Tattoo
I'd Say you Nailed it.. clearly the Most disappointing album of their Catalog
Thank you!!
Someone once said that VH III is an Eddie Van Halen solo album. I think that description is perfect. That said, my first impression of VH III is that it had some good guitar and some creative touches, but far from a cohesive effort.
Ya thats a pretty good description, and I feel the same way. Thanks for the comment!
I think Hagar said that on the Stern show
III is terrible, but it could've been great if they would've committed to completely revamping their style. Maybe do an all-acoustic album. The album kicks off with an acoustic instrumental, and I thought, "something new!" Then they bring in the usual sound. And they make Cherone should like Hagar.
But the big villain is the producer. The mix is awful, and there are way too many self-indulgent moments. The piano song with Eddie on vox could've been cool if it would've been shortened. Overall the album is just too long. "Once" is actually a killer song, but it's 7:42!! Too much. The producer was a total non-entity on this record.
For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge is the best Sammy album, and above some of the Dave albums too in my book. It's top to bottom heavy songs, it takes itself seriously for the most part (which is unusual for Van Halen), it rocks and grooves and kicks all kinds of ass. Eddie nails his guitar sound, Sammy was in top form. I love that album. Oh yeah, and III sucks.
Ya I think Martin likes that one too, I have to go back and reassess what I think about it, I think because of Balance I kind of group the two of those ones together like sister albums, and Balance brings Knowledge down, but that's my own prejudice. and Ya III sucks.
Ed does have cool licks on this album, I like it. 3.5 is fair stars for it, its better than people think.
Thanks for agreeing with us!!
“Once” is one of the better tracks from VHIII.👍🏼
I really enjoy some of Eddie’s Solos on VH 3
Yeah like we said the musicianship on here is good and there are some creative things i appreciate about it, but it doesnt really hold up as a whole, for me anyway. Gary is a good vocalist too, i kinda wish they tried again on another album, i mean he was in the band for like 3 years, even though it seemed short at the time.
Wot ?! Balance is a great underrated album IMO
i dunno how underrated it is, it did go triple platinum
I heard about it and still never bothered so I cannot disagree.
honestly, its not super memorable, its not terrible though
Same thing with Calling All Stations by Genesis, these vocalists get put into a near impossible situation and the ignorant view is that it’s the singer’s fault. I agree with Martin that they should have toured first. A little trial by fire before Fire In The Hole.
I'm gonna have to revisit this...."it's not the musicianship, the album is just bad." Ha!
lol, the song writing for sure was lacking.
VH III isn’t to bad. Gary charone sounded great live. He did a great job sounded like a mix of Sammy and Dave!
I have tried. No songs. And I love Gary, he's great. Ed needed someone to give him a good fight. And, Gary didn't have Nuno
Piece of crap album from top to bottom! A CD neither useful as a coaster or its liner notes as a welcome receptacle for your beloved bird's copious droppings! And for an album produced by noted TV composer Mike Post, any one of his many beloved 1970s/early '80s themes were tighter both musically and melodically, not too mention, some extra stellar guitar in spots. Also, unrelated in the Extreme (pun obviously very much intended!), but a 2006 song by the (Half-)Who was entitled "Mike Post Theme". Not sure what Mr. Post did to deserve that honour, but it certainly was not as a result of this bottom feeder of an album. Lastly, as for "How Many Say I", the less said about that musical trainwreck, the better! EVH's 'vocals', if you can even call them that, make Tom Waits at his most incoherent sound warm and welcoming. P.S., kudos to Martin for the Bullet Boys love. Big fan of their "Za-Za" album!!
And a slight postscript to my comment above, but "Balance" was actually VH's "Go to Vancouver" album, or at least they had B. Fairbairn produce it. Worked as well for them as it did Yes 3 or 4 years later!!
wow, this is the best comment we've ever gotten lol thank you! Ya agreed it pretty god awful, so many brilliant bands cant turn out a decent album in their later years for the life of them for some odd reason, almost as if their musical tastes become so sophisticated that they over think (or under) to the point of it detrimentally affecting the music. It's wild when a band says something about one of their classic early albums along the lines of "it was written and recorded in 2 weeks and cost next to nothing" and then 30 years later it takes months (or years) to come up with some over produced nonsense that is a barley listenable trash bucket of songs. Look at Aerosmith Just Push Play, KISS Psycho Circus for other examples right from this same time period as VH III too. Rating this like a 3 is giving it more credit than it probably deserves.
Thanks again for the comment!
@@thecontrarians2438 Always happy to have the opportunity to contribute in some small way to a very worthwhile cause! As for very crappy latter day albums by once mighty bands, well, I'd take "Psycho Circus", as lame and knee-capped as it was, in a red hot minute any day over "Just Push Play", or, as I like to call it, "Don't!!", or "Just Push Delete"!!!
@@averyteplitsky885 haha! another winning comment lol!
@@thecontrarians2438 Thanks, I'll be here all week. No joke, that!!
Before Gary Cherone Eddie considered Patty Smythe of the band Scandal.
Mmmm interesting choice. Goodbye to you Eddie !!!
I love the album. They should of called it a different kind of band and the last studio album with Roth: Van Halen 3 to tie in all three albums with the original singer
Love Gary in extreme Van Halen should have kept Sammy or have been on good terms and alternated like how Black Sabbath did with Ronnie and ozzy
I've actually never listened to VHIII, mostly out of apathy likely caused by the reputation of the record. But after watching the discussion between you two I'm a bit more curious to check it out.
cool check it out, glad we could push you to listen!
Too bad they couldn’t work out the kinks with Gary and bring back the punch the band needed. The band were in a bad place making that album.
To be honest they were done in the 80’s. Roth leaving was like taking the venom out of cobra. Sammy leaving was taking the fangs out.
Lots of labels were releasing albums in ‘98 though. This is pre mainstream file sharing.
ou812 n balance are very weak, 5150 n f@%k are amazing though. Always thought VH2 was the weak one from the Roth era but theres really no such thing as a weak VH album imo
I wonder if "A Different Kind of Truth" was their debut album, would we even be talking about Van Halen?
Great question! Probably not....
Ehm...I LOVE THIS ALBUM! MY FAVOURITE VAN HALEN ALBUM!
haha i apologise!
Its a good album. Better than the sammy era
Now that's Contrarian!
Love this format, and would agree that VH III is their worst album. That said, "From Afar" and "Once" are interesting compositions, but would have benefited from a better vocal production. Gary's delivery is too raspy for those tunes, and his sibilants get completely lost in the mix. Would love to see an episode on Maiden's Virtual XI, B.O.C.'s Club Ninja, or Priest's Jugulator - which may be one of the worst albums ever recorded by anyone.
Very cool point of view, thanks for the comment, and thanks for the suggestions! we will definitly keep those in mind, though we have dont regular episodes on BOC and Iron Maiden, your suggestion of Judas Priest may very pop up in the near future.
@@thecontrarians2438 How about Uriah Heep's Conquest or Equator albums?
@@underlordsuniverse7823 We did do a regular Contrarian episode on Uriah Heep, if you havnt seen it, dont know if we'll go back to that well right away, Equator could be fun thanks for the suggestions
Its not as bad as people make it out to be, is it great? No its not great but i wouldnt say its bad. We’re not exactly talking about music from the elder here, If you go into this not expecting it to be like anything else other than a EVH solo album i think its easy to get into, i also think better production wouldve helped a lot.
What is interesting is it went gold, not the same sales as what the roth and hagar albums hit but it at least sold just not at the expectations of the record company and band. Supposedly to this day its hit 800,000 sold units which is kind of interesting that it still sells if true at all.
wtaf?
For unlawful carnal knowledge a b sides album????
B.s.
Their best, in my contrarian opinion, easily the best in the Hagar era.
Diver Down is very sad even for covers, their best cover by far is You Really Got Me, anyways its sad that the only album Gary made with Van Halen is rated the worst?>? What was the rush in getting it out? if they did not like it they did not have to release it, or they should have found and or taken there time to find the right singer. Gary is a great singer in Extreme, certain singers only suit their own bands. I saw Van Halen in 1986 in Vancouver with BTO and Red Rider as the openers i thought they did pretty good, even though its an Echo Machine in BC Place. Love 5150 Album by Sammy one of his better albums with Van halen. I listened to Van Halen iii, wow very different, very mature songs, some complex arrangements, and some varied different playing from Eddie, Good points made overall about it, i would say Diver Down is worse. rarely play anything from that album when they toured for years.
I agree with Martin about the underappreciated A Different Kind of Truth. If you haven't given it a listen, do yourself and favor and do it soon! I also agree that VH3 was their worst. I'm one of those, "It Ain't =VH= without DLR" fans. I had no problem when Dio became Sabbath's second singer. For me, it absolutely worked! Sammy in VH... not so much. I've been boycotting all things Hagar since 1986. Long Live EVH and the Mighty Van Halen!
Tokyo Dome in Concert may be the worst release of VH, but maybe it won't count in this discussion because it's a live album not a studio one. Dave's voice had tanked really badly on that concert release, it's shocking anyone would want to release it as an album because it will seriously stain DLR's legacy. Dave can only hope people just forget Tokyo Dome was ever released, at least Gary has a good voice on VH3 despite it's drawbacks.
I've only heard this album once, I liked it. My favourite Hagar album is OU812, I cannot get into Full Unlawful, the production sounds too tinny. And the last album with Dave made me think I already own this. So for me VHIII isn't their worst. Maybe it just shouldn't have been a Van Halen album.
Love Eddie's work on VH3 but the songs just aren't there. Diver Down would be my least fav VH album but wouldnt consider it their worst
i for one hated, HATED Extreme. i could not stand them and i did not like him as a vocalist or any of their songs. is it Gary's fault VHIII sucked, i dont know. despite the singng or the production or any other issues at the end of the day the problem was the songs are not good, it doesnt really matter if the production is bad or the singing is bad or anything else if the material just isnt good. and one thing Gary had already proven to me personally back when he was in Extreme is he cant write songs that i think are good, so he definitely played a part in VHIII's songs not being good.
i watched an episode once of the youtuber Toddintheshadows where he did an analysis of VHIII and he made a good point in it. both Dave and Sammy had egos and stood up to Eddie and didnt let hm just control everything, but Gary apparently was just thrilled to be there and was no trouble at all and let Eddie just completely run the show. so maybe it is Eddies fault the songs arent good, maybe Eddie as brilliant of a musician as he is has some bad tendencies that Dave and Sammy were able to keep in check.
good points about Dave and Sammy! Thanks for the comment!
I agree that is by far the worst Van Halen album. For me, it just seemed like Gary was a weird choice to lead the band. He has such a unique and identifiable voice tied into his prior band, to me this actually sounds like an extreme album. LOL
Curious to know where you would rank VHIII as an Extreme album
@@thecontrarians2438 second-worst extreme album behind the most recent.
Please do HOT SPACE by Queen...that is THE WORST Queen album...period.
We'll keep Hot Space in mind lol, our latest episode before this one was our Contrarian pick for best Queen album if that will do for now for ya. thanks for the suggestion!
Great review of this terrible VH record ;-)
lol thank you!
Gary gets ripped for this album being bad but I believe these songs were written n done n Gary just came in and put his voice down
ya and we were pretty easy on him actually... except for his live performances with the band! :S
Got VH III only last year cos I noticed, I don't have it. Speaking from the distance of 20+ years, I have to say the album is far from bad. The cover is terrible ☹ but the music isn't. One problem may be the length of it. There are some really long songs, what is very unusual for VH. Some consider VH III an Eddie solo album with backing musicians - this comes pretty close I think.
Year in a day and Once are very good songs, but they are not what we consider "VH songs" 😉 Who knows how a sequel would've sound. 5/10
btw - agree with Martin on OU812 - nothing special on it (with the exception of Mine All Mine)
This is worst Van Halen album by far as a whole - though a few tracks were great, and Gary Cherone did a tremendous job on vocals.
In my opinion, if you cut the album down to 8-10 tracks and 35-40 minutes (45 at the most) and did some sound work (i.e. in Audacity), you would have a much better result.
yep cant argue too much with that, they may have been able to do something much better with Gary, but as it stands, the one album they did with him is the weakest of the band's whole history.
I like VH3 but I think they needed a stronger producer that could say "no" and stand their ground. The song lengths are way too long. They should have been edited down.
Agreed!
I found a cheap, bargain bin copy. The production and musicianship is fine, a couple good tracks, like Fire In The Whole, but overall a mediocre, mess.
Yep, most of the songs are hardly listenable, very disappointing, though technically the musicianship isnt "bad"
balance was fucking awesome wtf are you guys talking about?!
Sounding like Spammy is never good kids. Gary WAY better vocalist in Extreme kids.
No brown sound on VH debut album?! How many say I was decent?! Who is this clown kids?!
Are you absolutely kidding me?!? "How Many Say I" IS THE WORST SONG BY FAR IN THE VAN HALEN CANON. It's not even close. And Eddie MOST DEFINITELY DOES NOT sound good singing lead, which is why he never did it beforehand or since then. And he shouldn't have done it at all. Uccch. 🤢🤮
As for Gary's vocals on this album, it was obvious that Eddie was trying to get him to sound like Sammy Hagar, and it completely didn't work. Gary Cherone IS a great singer with very good range, but he never had Sammy's range (let's face facts, very few guys do). To me, the only decent songs on the album are "Fire In The Hole" (even with its awful lyrics), "Once" and "Year To The Day" (although each of those last two songs are overlong). "From Afar" is annoying and creepy as fuck, "Josefina" starts out good but unfortunately gets pretty creepy as it goes along and "Ballot Or The Bullet" just flat-out sux. "Without You" was supposed to be the big leadoff hit from the album, but that song is such a big mess it's not even funny. "One I Want" starts-out promisingly with a good mid-tempo groove, but unfortunately it's a lyrical nightmare. "Dirty Water Dog" also starts-out promisingly with a good mid-fast groove to it, but it's lyrical content really betrays its lack of actual meaningful content, plus the slow-as-fuck guitar solo is totally out of place in it.
I saw these guys at The Jones Beach Amphitheatre in Wantagh NY, and was a decent show, but a very mixed bag: I mean, they did more Roth songs than they had with Sammy (saw them on the Monsters Of Rock Tour in 1988), and it was cool to have Michael Anthony actually do his one and only lead vocal on the Dave deep-cut "Somebody Get Me A Doctor!" Gary sounded good singing the other Dave songs, but ironically enough, he looked kind of lost singing his own Van Halen stuff. I think Gary on that tour kind of realized that his heart wasn't really completely into this, and that he was really missing his old band, Extreme.
Eddie Van Halen might be a great guitarist but him and the band really sucked as songwriters IMHO.They did a ton of covers and a few really good songs here and there but that's about it.They're no Heep or Purple or Sabbath that's for sure