There\u2019s a moment about halfway through Wolfgang Van Halen\u2019s second album, on the excellent rocker \u201cOptimist,\u201d where you completely forget that you\u2019re listening to Eddie Van Halen\u2019s son. <\/p>\n
The vast majority of Mammoth II, <\/i>like the debut, is modern rock that fits in line with most anything you hear on a current rock radio station (Alter Bridge, Chevelle, etc.) and with a metal inspiration; Van Halen cited Meshuggah, for example, as an influence on the sound here. Other than the occasional guitar solo, there\u2019s almost nothing that links this to Wolf\u2019s famous father\u2019s band, and that\u2019s the goal. <\/p>\n
Not that Wolf is ashamed of that legacy or anything; he played bass in that band for the last 15 years of its existence, he records in his dad\u2019s studio, and Mammoth was Van Halen\u2019s original name before David Lee Roth and Michael Anthony joined up, so the legacy is honored while a new path is forged. And since few musicians are able to do this so well, it must be noted whenever it occurs: Wolfgang plays every instrument here and wrote all the songs himself. The only thing he didn\u2019t do is produce.<\/p>\n
The attention to detail is admirable, and the songs sound great, even if they aren\u2019t always memorable or original-sounding. \u201cOptimist\u201d is a clear highlight, particularly that instrumental midsection and the double kick drum, while \u201cAnother Celebration At The End Of The World\u201d is a fast, fun party rocker and a tip of the hat to Eddie with its brief hammer-on guitar solo (\u201cTake A Bow\u201d is the other EVH tribute here, a seven-minute riff-rocker during which Wolfgang plays a long solo on his dad\u2019s old equipment). <\/p>\n
Much of this would sound good on the radio, especially the rockers with pop smarts like \u201cErase Me\u201d and \u201cMiles Above Me,\u201d but WVH is more focused on what sounds good on stage, which a lot of this music will. The above highlights (and closer \u201cBetter Than You\u201d) have energy and focus and dynamics, not just riffs and shouting; there\u2019s a reason Mammoth was picked to open for bands like Metallica, and it\u2019s not the family name. Some variation in the songwriting would have made this one even better, but Mammoth II <\/i>is a step up from its predecessor and a huge step forward for Wolfgang Van Halen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":34838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[10718],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-46705","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-mammoth-wvh","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46705"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}