By STEVE MASCORD
ONE musician recently commented on social media that in the case of Wolf Van Halen, the apple HAD indeed fallen far from the tree.
It was a simple and direct insult – that the 32-year-old multi-instrumentalist had not inherited the talent of his father, the late Edward Van Halen.
The evidence on the second Mammoth WVH album makes it difficult to argue Wolfgang is not talented, whether you like the music or not. He writes, plays and arranges everything.
But to be as innovative has his father, Wolf would have to utilise that talent in a genre other than rock. Rock is now a closed oeuvre, it is defined by its limitations. If it’s truly innovative, it can no longer be rock. That is the nature in which rock is dead, not that it is no longer being practised in a compelling and entertaining way.
Mammoth is definitely rock; it trades in Foo Fighters-style tightly-wound riffs and plaintive melodies. Mammoth II is simply a better record than its predecessor even though it doesn’t have a track as memorable as “Distance”.
Wolfgang likes to address the travails of life as a celebrity in a social media world – he may be the first young hard rock artist famous enough to be able to do this with any depth.
He may also be the last.
“I’m Alright” is probably the best track on offer here – it’s uplifting and fun which is a nice change of pace from what’s on most of both albums s – and this is the subject matter that is address.
“Now fuck off and back away and let me be,” he said to a troll who apologies for an insult much like the one in the first paragraph of this review.
If you think albums of this ilk and vintage lack ear worms, a few listens will have “Right?”, “Better Than You” and “Erase Me” digging satisfyingly into your cranium from the opening bars. WVH and Mammoth are developing agreeably in front of us, even if some will always be repelled by the compression and that lack of Van Halen references.
Wolf will never do anything new or truly revolutionary within the generally agreed parameters of what rock is. And neither will anyone else – ever again.
I for one am happy the apple has still fallen in our yard and not someone else’s.
