10 Greatest Final Rock Albums Of The 2010s
6. A Different Kind Of Truth - Van Halen
There's nothing quite like welcoming an old member back into the fray to reignite a band's spirits. This is what happened in 2012, when Van Halen released their first album with David Lee Roth since 1984.
That's both the name of the album and the year in which it was released, which is fun.
Van Halen themselves had been MIA since 1998 and the dismal failure that was Van Halen III. Although original bass player Michael Anthony wasn't involved, Eddie's son Wolfgang was on hand to take over his duties, keeping things in the family with a 75:25 split of the Van Halen bloodline.
Roth's voice had seen better days, but there was still enough energy in his lungs to produce a collection of fine hair metal throwbacks. There was a lot of joy in these new songs, a sense of fun that been missing from the band for a very long time, which an utter delight to hear after so many years.
The band decided to wrap things up following Eddie's death in 2020, leaving A Different Kind of Truth as their goodbye. Thank God it wasn't Van Halen III - that would have been a very depressing ending.