Urban Hat€monger ?

How much Van Halen stuff have you actually listened to?

Apart from the debut album I find most of their stuff to be surprisingly wank free.

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boo boo

Lol.

Are we even talking about the same band?

Van Halen made very melodic music and aside from the guitar it's pretty straightforward rock n roll music. EVH's guitar playing is very abrasive but he doesn't go off into ridiculously long solos or anything.

I don't consider Hendrix a wanker either and I find your idea that simply showing off your musical abillity is wank to be terribly extreme.

I don't consider the debut wank either, I do consider it their best album.

Even Eruption is very melodic, in fact the whole outro is a homage to Rodolphe Kreutzer's Etude No. 2.

Sadly, some people think classical music influences = wank.

I pity those people.

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It's only knock n' knowall, but I like it

http://www.last.fm/user/kingboobs

Sneer

Van Halen, Valen II and Women and Children first. I really didnt enjoy any of them and i disagree with Boo Boo's opinion that there was a distinct melodic element to his solos, to me it's just a lot of tapping and a lot of whammy. So I never sought to check out anything else. Not great of me, I know, and I'm open to being proved wrong if there is an album of theirs displaying real depth and focus that you'd care to recommend.

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Sneer

That's what I'm saying, not that the band as a whole indulged in it, but EVH himself. And unfortunately their songs don't redeem them.

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boo boo

I have to disagree. I think EVH is a really strong songwriter, his riffs are killer and all their best songs have a great groove to them. Again, their music has a lot of doo wop and motown influence, you can hear that in the backing vocals. Because of that I actually consider them to be one of the most melodic metal bands of their time.

And I certainly don't get how their music lacks "focus".

If this is what you think of straightforward verse/chorus/verse rock music in 4/4 that rarely clocks in over 4 minutes then I can imagine what your opinions are regarding 20 minute prog epics in 7/8.

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It's only knock n' knowall, but I like it

http://www.last.fm/user/kingboobs

Sneer

I'm sorry, but how is this not wankery?

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TheCunningStunt

Nice as fuck guitar though despite it being massive wankery

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boo boo

I don't see what's so terrible about that performance, it's not terribly musical but some of those sounds he's getting out of there are really cool. It just looks like he's having some fun, I see nothing wrong with that. Hendrix did it, Page did it, f*ck, even Cobain did it.

That's my beef with you kids these days, you want music to be so serious.

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It's only knock n' knowall, but I like it

http://www.last.fm/user/kingboobs

TheCunningStunt

Cobain did what? All I ever recall is him, Kirst and Dave smashing up shit.

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Sneer

Not a case of wanting music to be serious, I just dont want my ears scorched by a guy hell bent on showing us just how amazing he is by overloading on tapping and whammy. Hendrix and Page had a much more melodic approach to their solos - they created an atmosphere and mood with what they did, case in point:



EVH for a lot of that performance is just twiddling for twiddling's sake. And when did Cobain ever perform 10 minute solos?!

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