Search - Van Halen :: Fair Warning

VanHalen In Their Prime

Juan A. Mitchell | 08/15/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I was a huge VH head by the time this album dropped and like most people into VH, I bought every single album they put out during the DLR era. VanHalen's Fair Warning album is perhaps VH, the band, musically in their finest hour. It's also their darkest-sounding record. The music here sounds a bit dark because it reflected the growing tension between DLR and Eddie at the time, and Ed's spinning out of control drug and alcohol use, but besides that, its probably the best guitar playing Eddie's ever done on an entire record. Eddie's brilliant opening to "Mean Street" and the song "Unchained" are the best highlights of this album-there is drop D tuning throughout much of this whole record-another reason for its darker feel. The execution and speed of his playing on each song is innovative, mind-blowing and brilliant and it's the fastest I've ever heard him play-like he's taken his frustrations out through his playing. In fact the entire band played excellently throughout this whole record, which is why a lot of people feel (me included) that this is their best ENTIRE original (no covers) record."