10 Rock Band Reunions That REALLY Didn't Work
6. A Different Kind of Truth - Van Halen
The entire fallout between David Lee Roth and Van Halen has been the stuff of rock legend ever since the '80s. While Roth was known as the good time spirit of the band since the day he joined, his insistence on sticking to the formula led to massive tension between the group, ending with Van Halen ditching him for Sammy Hagar right at the height of their fame. Those bridges seemed to be burned for good by the '90s, but the next decade saw a rock and roll miracle occur.
Although A Different Kind of Truth has Eddie's song Wolfgang subbing in as the bass player for Michael Anthony, this was supposed to be the triumphant return that we were all waiting for, only for everything to sound really off. While you can blame a lot of this on the fact that Dave is not the screeching singer that he was back in the day, a lot of the songs aren't really fleshed out either, with Tattoo feeling way too corny and others going on way too long.
For most of the hardened Van Halen fans, the lack of Michael Anthony's harmonies is also a big disappointment, but the whole album isn't really a total loss. This is not going to go toe to toe with the best Roth era albums or anything, but considering the colossal failure of Van Halen III, this is Van Halen going out on their own terms and making one last record for us.