With themes of anger, violence, pornography, and the such, Van Halen dives into the darker side of life and explores all the shady back alleys, hidden smut shops, and local rumble lots. Heck, even the cover is creepy, with it’s weird art and depictions of violence. Some dude is getting his face smashed in from the full mount position while a crowd gathers to witness. The lyrical content is way different, changing from the let’s get drunk and screw variety to things like: “And Someone said Fair Warning/ Lord Will Strike That Poor Boy Down/ Turned From Hunted Into Hunter/ Went To Hunt Somebody Down.” Yeah, there’s a lot of that.
The music is much darker and brutal as well, with Eddie VH bringing plenty of guitar muscle to the party. The intro to “Fair Warning,” has Ed taking his two-handed tapping on the fretboard to the next level and adding rhythmic slaps to the formula. It’s a wrist breaking exercise to be sure, but Ed makes it sound… well, not simple, but certainly more fluid than your average guitar slinger.
This is maybe my favorite Van Halen album of them all. It sort of goes back and forth between this one and the first one, but this one has more substance and atmosphere. Highly recommended album featuring a quite different look at the mighty Van Halen. —Michael
