Balance

By the time this album came out rock music had turned grungy and dark. VH answered in kind with their darkest set of songs since 1981’s “Fair Warning”. The band are at their most powerful here on tracks such as Aftershock, The Seventh Seal and Don’t Tell Me.

I love this album Eddie did great on guitar and Sammy was great on vocals this is for sure on my top 5 favorite Van Halen albums Great album. Feelin is the best song on the hole album and this album kicks butt. It my second favorite Van Halen album God bless all of you RIP Eddie

This is byfar the best effort of the Van Hagar era, and despite much darker lyrical content, all songs on the album are very solid. Bruce Fairbairn did a great job of capturing Van Halen's sound with minimal production, yet still managed to make a massive sounding album. Eddie's guitar tone imo was again at it's peak during this time. Balance is a must have album for any guitar player, or really any musician for that matter. A few of my favorites are: Don't Tell Me Not Enough Amsterdam Aftershock Feelin' Take Me Back The Seventh Seal

I always loved Van Halen and I always loved Sammy Hagar. But, as much as I tried, I couldn't love Van Hagar. Eddie's guitar had changed to a thin, overprocessed twang. Keyboards haunted every song. And Sammy was straining way out of his range on every song. Nothing they did came across as natural or fun. Alex pretty much phoned it in with every song containing the same bippity-bap stadium rhythm. I miss Eddie more than I thought I would. But, as much as I try to listen to these songs and enjoy them, it just doesn't connect. Enjoy if you like... this definitely isn't for me.

It’s extremely difficult to maintain a relevant rock band when the entire music industry in the mid-90’s was in deep with the grunge era, Eddie and the gang pull it off nicely when most other bands could not.

Good album

Too bad it ended, because overall this was a great effort with a couple outstanding Ed tunes! (see: DTMWLCD)

The Seventh Seal (5 stars) kicks it off with Hagar’s 4th best song in VH. Dang, they blew it. Can’t Stop Loving You (0 stars) is their third-worst song. Don’t Tell Me is fine (3 stars), but it’s too depressing. The lyrics bum me out. Amsterdam (2 stars) is at least a straight-ahead rock song. The likable things in it end there. Big Fat Money/Strung Out all the definition of filler. 1 star each. Don’t get me started on Not Enough (1 star). Strung Out ruined the inside of that piano, and then they still used it. Nobody likes piano ballads, guys. Pianos are gay. Then we have Aftershock (4 stars). Finally, a second redeeming quality! Then we have... Doin’ Time. (1-star) Yes, AVH is a great drummer, but don’t you dare put this as good. Baluchitherium (4 stars) manages to give Balance a “big three” by being straight-up awesome. Take Me Back is 1-star Feelin' is another 1-star

Feelin’ is a great song.

Sonically this is one of the best sounding albums. The songwriting could have been a little better but there are still 5-6 strong tracks including a few gems (Seventh Seal, Can’t Stop Loving You and Feeling).