10 HYPED Albums That Didn't Live Up To Their High Expectations

Van Halen being without a singer hasn't really been anything new. Even though it seemed catastrophic when David Lee Roth left the band for the first time back in the mid '80s, these guys were too big to quietly retire, drafting in Sammy Hagar and going on to even greater success for the rest of the decade. They were at a low point when Sammy left though, and bringing in Gary Cherone didn't exactly give us the same magic that we got back in the glory days.

From the first few notes of Van Halen III, you can tell that something is clearly off, with one track bleeding into the other with no semblance of structure between any of the sections. Since Diamond Dave and the Red Rocker were known for fleshing out the songs while they were in the band, a lot of these feel more like jam sessions than actual songs, which is made even worse when Cherone tries to put some grit into his voice.

While Dave and Sammy both have unique approaches to rock vocals, having Gary just try and copy Sammy's vocal delivery doesn't work at all, making the entire thing sound like a bad cover band trying to play Van Halen tunes. It also doesn't help that this record is obnoxiously long, with no one knowing when to quit and stretching every song out to nearly 7 minutes. There was a lot of potential going into this record, but all we were left with was the reminder that the Van Halen brothers needed Sammy and Dave back in the old days.