10 Hard Rock Albums That Are Hated By The Fans
3. Van Halen III - Van Halen
The idea of Van Halen continuing without one of their lead singers isn't really considered the worst thing in the world. These guys were built to last beyond just one pinup star at the front, and they managed to do the impossible in the mid '80s by replacing David Lee Roth with Sammy Hagar and not missing a beat in the process. The band were in a much different place in the '90s though, and the Gary Cherone era of the band is a time that's best left in the past.
Although the camaraderie between the band and Gary may have been a little bit better than what was going on with Sammy, most of Van Halen III takes a severe nose dive from the minute it starts, feeling more like an Eddie Van Halen solo joint than a mainline album. For all of Gary's strengths as a singer in his own right, most of this album just sounds like him doing a bad impression of what Sammy does, which leads to more than a few times where his screams sound closer to an injured cat.
The band really believed in this new direction though, and it leads to songs that go on for anywhere between 7-9 minutes and say virtually nothing in that entire runtime. It's a miracle that they managed to get Diamond Dave back in the band in the late '00s, but it would have been worse if this were the last record that Van Halen ever made.