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''A Different Kind of Truth'' is the twelfth and final studio album by American
rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
band
Van Halen Van Halen ( ) was an American rock band formed in Pasadena, California, in 1972. Credited with "restoring hard rock to the forefront of the music scene", Van Halen was known for its energetic live shows and for the virtuosity of its lead gu ...
. Released on February 7, 2012, by
Interscope Records Interscope Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M imprint. Founded in late 1990 by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field as a $20 million joint venture with Atlantic Records of Warner Mus ...
, this is Van Halen's only studio album on Interscope and its first full-length album of studio material with lead singer
David Lee Roth David Lee Roth (born October 10, 1954) is an American rock singer. Best known for his wild, energetic stage persona, he was the original lead vocalist of the hard rock band Van Halen across three stints, from 1974 to 1985, in 1996 and again fro ...
since ''
1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...
''. Likewise, ''A Different Kind of Truth'' was Van Halen's first studio album since 1998's ''
Van Halen III ''Van Halen III'' is the eleventh studio album by American rock band Van Halen, released on March 17, 1998, by Warner Bros. Records. Produced by Mike Post and Eddie Van Halen, it was the band's first studio album in three years after ''Balance'' ...
'', as well as their only studio album recorded without bassist Michael Anthony, who had played bass on all of the band's previous albums;
Eddie Van Halen Edward Lodewijk Van Halen ( , ; January 26, 1955 – October 6, 2020) was an American musician and songwriter. He was the guitarist, keyboardist, backing vocalist, and primary songwriter of the rock band Van Halen, which he co-founded along ...
's son Wolfgang replaced Anthony for the album, making this his only studio album with the band. It would also be Van Halen's final studio album before Eddie's death and the group's subsequent disbandment in 2020. ''A Different Kind of Truth'' was recorded at
Henson Recording Studios The Jim Henson Company Lot, formerly A&M Studios, is a studio property located just south of the southeast corner of North La Brea Avenue and Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Originally established by film star Charlie Chaplin, the property serv ...
and Eddie Van Halen's own
5150 Studios 5150 Studios is Eddie Van Halen's recording studio in the Studio City neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. The studio is located at 3371 Coldwater Canyon and was built so that Eddie Van Halen could have more control over the recording proce ...
and produced by
John Shanks John Matthew Shanks (born December 18, 1964) is an American songwriter, record producer and guitarist. Early life and education John Matthew Shanks was born in New York City. Shanks moved to Los Angeles when he was 17 years old. He was in a ban ...
. Seven of the album's 13 songs are musically re-worked and lyrically re-written songs that had been demoed in the late-1970s/early 1980s, but never officially released. The album received positive reviews upon release, with several writers referring to it as a return to form, and multiple publications ranked it as one of the best albums of 2012. It was also a commercial success, debuting in the top ten on numerous
record chart A record chart, in the music industry, also called a music chart, is a ranking of Sound recording and reproduction, recorded music according to certain criteria during a given period. Many different criteria are used in worldwide charts, often ...
s. It debuted at No. 2 on the ''Billboard'' 200 and, by the end of 2012, had sold in excess of 411,000 copies in the United States alone. The album was promoted with an arena tour.


Background

In 2007,
Van Halen Van Halen ( ) was an American rock band formed in Pasadena, California, in 1972. Credited with "restoring hard rock to the forefront of the music scene", Van Halen was known for its energetic live shows and for the virtuosity of its lead gu ...
reunited with original lead singer David Lee Roth – who had left the band in April 1985, at the peak of their global popularity – for a North American Tour. This tour added bassist
Wolfgang Van Halen Wolfgang William Van Halen (, born March 16, 1991) is an American musician. The son of guitarist Eddie Van Halen, he performed alongside his father as the bassist for the rock band Van Halen from 2006 to 2020. He also performed with the heavy ...
, the then-16-year-old son of guitarist
Eddie Van Halen Edward Lodewijk Van Halen ( , ; January 26, 1955 – October 6, 2020) was an American musician and songwriter. He was the guitarist, keyboardist, backing vocalist, and primary songwriter of the rock band Van Halen, which he co-founded along ...
and actress
Valerie Bertinelli Valerie Anne Bertinelli (born April 23, 1960) is an American actress. She first achieved recognition as a child actress, portraying Barbara Cooper Royer on the sitcom ''One Day at a Time (1975 TV series), One Day at a Time'' (1975–1984) for w ...
, forcing out original bassist Michael Anthony, who would go on to form both Chickenfoot and
Sammy Hagar and the Circle Sammy Hagar and the Circle (also known as The Circle) is an English-American rock supergroup band originally formed in Miami in 2014, consisting of former Montrose and Van Halen vocalist Sammy Hagar, original Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony ...
with Van Halen's second lead singer,
Sammy Hagar Samuel Roy Hagar (born October 13, 1947), also known as the Red Rocker, is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He rose to prominence in the early 1970s with the hard rock band Montrose and subsequently launched a successful solo car ...
. The reunion tour consisted of 74 shows from September 2007 to June 2008, and became the band's highest-grossing tour of its thirty-year history, earning over $93 million. Eddie Van Halen was reluctant about the possibility of recording new material with Roth in 2009, citing the poor reaction to the three new songs recorded with Hagar for the 2004 compilation '' Best of Both Worlds''. After Wolfgang became enthusiastic about recording a new Van Halen album, Eddie's opinion changed: "We're doing this lbumfor us." Eddie, Wolfgang and
Alex Van Halen Alexander Arthur Van Halen (; born May 8, 1953) is an American musician, best known as the drummer and co-founder of the Rock music, rock band Van Halen. The band was formed in 1972 by Alex Van Halen, his younger brother Eddie Van Halen, Eddie, ...
began
jam session A jam session is a relatively informal musical event, process, or activity where musicians, typically instrumentalists, play improvised solos and vamp over tunes, drones, songs, and chord progressions. To "jam" is to improvise music without exte ...
s at the former's
5150 Studios 5150 Studios is Eddie Van Halen's recording studio in the Studio City neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. The studio is located at 3371 Coldwater Canyon and was built so that Eddie Van Halen could have more control over the recording proce ...
three months after the tour's completion. During this time, Wolfgang discovered rough, unreleased demos from the band's archives. After listening to these and believing they had potential, he brought them to Alex and Eddie to rework and refine. The first of these tracks, "She's the Woman," was completed by August 2009. It had originally been demoed by the band in the mid-1970s. Roth decided to join the project after hearing this song, as well as two other reworked tracks: "Let's Get Rockin'" – later renamed "Outta Space" – and "Bullethead." The demos also included tracks done in an attempted 2000 reunion album with Roth. Wolfgang's original intention with the album was to create a collection of previously released "B-sides". According to Eddie, this would mean deep album tracks, such as "Drop Dead Legs" and "Girl Gone Bad", along with three reworked demos, with Eddie saying: "It would
ave been ''Alta Velocidad Española'' (''AVE'') is a service of high-speed rail in Spain operated by Renfe, the Spanish national railway company, at speeds of up to . As of December 2021, the Spanish high-speed rail network, on part of which the AVE se ...
a record of our more hardcore songs and none of the pop stuff. That was the initial plan, but the deeper we dug, the more we found. At the same time I was writing new songs. Dave got very excited about that. We all did. We ended up recording demos for 35 songs." After deliberating over whether to self-produce the album or choose a producer from a list that included
Rick Rubin Frederick Jay Rubin (; born March 10, 1963) is an American record producer. He is the co-founder (alongside Russell Simmons) of Def Jam Recordings, founder of American Recordings, and former co-president of Columbia Records. Rubin helped popula ...
and Pat Leonard (who had involvement on their scrapped album Love Again), Roth suggested
John Shanks John Matthew Shanks (born December 18, 1964) is an American songwriter, record producer and guitarist. Early life and education John Matthew Shanks was born in New York City. Shanks moved to Los Angeles when he was 17 years old. He was in a ban ...
. Shanks liked the first three songs and agreed to produce the album, working alongside Wolfgang to pick the demos that would be developed into the album's tracks. While all of Van Halen's albums since ''
1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...
'' had been produced inside 5150, Roth persuaded the band to work at
Henson Recording Studios The Jim Henson Company Lot, formerly A&M Studios, is a studio property located just south of the southeast corner of North La Brea Avenue and Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Originally established by film star Charlie Chaplin, the property serv ...
, where he had been recording for more than a decade.


Recording and production

By mid-January 2011, the band had moved into Henson Studios with Shanks, staff engineer Martin Cooke and engineer Paul David Hager. The band would record music for 12 hours a day, five days a week, with Roth coming in to track his vocals at night. The instrumental tracks were completed within three weeks. Eddie said that he was relieved to relinquish some of the production work to his son, who was considered by the band to be acting in a co-production role: frequently talking to Shanks, being consulted by his father on the musical direction and developing the songs. Along with creating new bits, such as a new
breakdown Breakdown may refer to: Breaking down *Breakdown (vehicle), failure of a motor vehicle in such a way that it cannot be operated *Chemical decomposition, also called chemical breakdown, the breakdown of a substance into simpler components *Decompo ...
on "She's the Woman"—as the original ended up being used on '' Fair Warning''s (1981) "Mean Street"—and an arrangement for "Stay Frosty," Wolfgang improvised some bass sections, such as the capo intro to "Chinatown." By the end of March 2011, the band returned to finish the record at 5150 with engineer Ross Hogarth. Most of the work at 5150 was for guitars and bass, as Eddie "couldn't hear them at Henson the way I'm used to." Both he and Hogarth felt that attempts at mixing there were not progressing due to sound-quality issues. Eddie attributed this to the tape machines at Henson, claiming that: "Everything ended up sounding like it had a sock over it." The final mix took place over a period of six weeks in the summer of 2011, with each song taking a day to mix. Hogarth indicated that because the process was done at a
mixing console A mixing console or mixing desk is an electronic device for mixing audio signals, used in sound recording and reproduction and sound reinforcement systems. Inputs to the console include microphones, signals from electric or electronic inst ...
, "We couldn't move on to the next song until a mix had been approved by everyone and could go off the desk." Hogarth would start with the drums, adding bass and guitar to finish a
backing track A backing track is an audio recording on audiotape, CD or a digital recording medium or a MIDI recording of synthesized instruments, sometimes of purely rhythmic accompaniment, often of a rhythm section or other accompaniment parts that live music ...
, which would be complemented with multing (hiving off different sections of a given part to different tracks) and
parallel compression Parallel compression, also known as New York compression, is a dynamic range compression technique used in sound recording and mixing. Parallel compression, a form of upward compression, is achieved by mixing an unprocessed 'dry', or lightly com ...
. It was then finished by bringing in Roth's vocals, backing vocals, and further details such as ad libs, screams and guitar solos. Hogarth aimed to "bring Ed's guitar sound into the modern era, but maintaining all the DNA of the past." He suggested that the guitar sound be split naturally between stereo channels, instead of separating
lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...
to the left channel and panning effects to the right by using two
guitar amplifier A guitar amplifier (or amp) is an electronic device or system that strengthens the electrical signal from a pickup on an electric guitar, bass guitar, or acoustic guitar so that it can produce sound through one or more loudspeakers, which a ...
s placed far apart. The idea was to have a guitar sound "that was wide and mono, and not digital
delay Delay (from Latin: dilatio) may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Delay 1968'', a 1981 album by German experimental rock band Can * ''The Delay'', a 2012 Uruguayan film People * B. H. DeLay (1891–1923), American aviator and acto ...
-driven, and it's what you hear on the record, with only a few overdubs." A more-complex structure would be utilized for Wolfgang's bass, as the band wanted "a bass sound that covered the whole spectrum, from high to low and clean to dirty," and his instrument was recorded by up to eight separate microphones. A multi-mic set-up was also employed for Alex's drums, with most of the final drumming coming from overhead microphones. Roth's vocals were all recorded at Henson, without
compression Compression may refer to: Physical science *Compression (physics), size reduction due to forces *Compression member, a structural element such as a column *Compressibility, susceptibility to compression * Gas compression *Compression ratio, of a ...
.


Composition and style

''A Different Kind of Truth'' was described by Roth as "a sort of collaboration with an Halen'spast." Seven of the album's tracks are based on material which Roth suggested dated back to between 1975 and 1977, while Eddie indicated that others had been composed "when I was still in high school and even junior high." "Blood and Fire" dates back to 1984. An instrumental version of the song, titled "Ripley," appeared in Eddie's score for the film '' The Wild Life''. The original title had been inspired by the Ripley guitar used by Eddie on the demo, and he sent that guitar back to
Steve Ripley Paul Steven Ripley (January 1, 1950 – January 3, 2019) was an American recording artist, record producer, songwriter, studio engineer, guitarist, and inventor. He entered the music industry in 1977. He was also the leader/producer of country rock ...
for repair so that it could be used on the album version. According to musician Frank Meyer, who claims to have heard the demo, "Blood and Fire" was one of four songs demoed during a 2000 reunion attempt with Roth and Michael Anthony, along with "As Is", "Honeybabysweetiedoll" and "The Trouble With Never". Roth rewrote the lyrics for most tracks, as he wanted to incorporate a point of view from his current personal life. He declared that: "All music is autobiographic. Particularly when it's not meant to be," adding that by retooling the songs "there is a body of new that meets halfway there, that I think makes very colorful sense." Only the lead single "
Tattoo A tattoo is a form of body modification made by inserting tattoo ink, dyes, and/or pigments, either indelible or temporary, into the dermis layer of the skin to form a design. Tattoo artists create these designs using several Process of tatt ...
" contains a
synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...
, which was played by Roth. Two other songs, "You and Your Blues" and "As Is," have a processed guitar that sounds like a synth. Roth also performs acoustic guitar on the intro for "Stay Frosty", a song he had written which was re-arranged by Wolfgang, and is reminiscent of "Ice Cream Man," a track from Van Halen's 1978 debut. Among the
effects units An effects unit or effects pedal is an electronic device that alters the sound of a musical instrument or other audio source through audio signal processing. Common effects include distortion/overdrive, often used with electric guitar in el ...
used by Eddie on the album were his signature model
MXR Phase 90 The MXR Phase 90 is a phaser effects pedal introduced in 1972 by MXR. History The Phase 90 was the first pedal sold by MXR and helped launch the company in 1974. The original model had a simple orange enclosure with a script style MXR logo. In ...
, a Whammy pedal, and a
Wah-wah pedal A wah-wah pedal, or simply wah pedal, is a type of electric guitar effects pedal that alters the tone and frequencies of the guitar signal to create a distinctive sound, mimicking the human voice saying the onomatopoeic name "wah-wah". The p ...
. The latter is prominently featured on the "kind of
Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most ...
-ish" "The Trouble with Never."


Release and packaging

Van Halen amicably split from long-time label
Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...
in 2001, although they would later sign a one-record deal with the label shortly afterwards for the 2004 release ''The Best of Both Worlds''. The band briefly entered into negotiations with
Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...
, but these stalled after Roth indicated he would not sign with the label. In November 2011, the band signed with
Interscope Records Interscope Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M imprint. Founded in late 1990 by Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field as a $20 million joint venture with Atlantic Records of Warner Mus ...
, after its chairman
Jimmy Iovine James Iovine ( ; ; born March 11, 1953) is an American entrepreneur, record executive, and media proprietor best known as the co-founder of Interscope Records. In 2006, Iovine and rapper-producer Dr. Dre founded Beats Electronics, which produces ...
became personally involved in negotiations. "Tattoo" was released as the album's lead single on January 10, 2012. One day after its release on
iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...
, it was the No. 1 selling rock song in the United States, Canada, Finland and the Netherlands, while also charting in Sweden, Belgium, Germany and the UK. By January 23, the song peaked at No. 1 on ''
Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
s Hard Rock Singles chart, becoming the No. 1 most played song at classic rock radio, as well as the most added song at
mainstream Mainstream may refer to: Film * ''Mainstream'' (film), a 2020 American film Literature * ''Mainstream'' (fanzine), a science fiction fanzine * Mainstream Publishing, a Scottish publisher * ''Mainstream'', a 1943 book by Hamilton Basso Mu ...
and
active rock Active rock is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations across the United States and Canada. Active rock stations play a balance of new hard rock songs with valued classic rock favorites, normally with an emphasis on the harder edge o ...
radio. Two days later, excerpts of both "Tattoo" and "Stay Frosty" were featured on ''
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation ''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'', also referred to as ''CSI'' and ''CSI: Las Vegas'', is an American procedural forensics crime drama television series that ran on CBS from October 6, 2000, to September 27, 2015, spanning 15 seasons. This wa ...
''. The record was released on February 7, 2012 in both standard and deluxe edition versions, with the latter containing a bonus DVD titled ''The Downtown Sessions''. This DVD included acoustic versions of "
Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...
," "You and Your Blues" and " Beautiful Girls." A performance of "You Really Got Me" from this acoustic session was posted online to promote the album. A double gatefold vinyl edition of the album was sold exclusively through
Live Nation Entertainment Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. is an American global entertainment company and monopoly that was founded in 2010 following the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster. The company promotes, operates, and manages ticket sales for live entertainme ...
. On February 28, "She's the Woman" was serviced to radio as the second single. Its music video was released online on April 13, and on May 4 a promotional vinyl
7-inch single In music, a single is a type of release, typically a song recording of fewer tracks than an LP record or an album. One can be released for sale to the public in a variety of formats. In most cases, a single is a song that is released separate ...
was serviced to 83 independent record stores to be given with purchases of ''A Different Kind of Truth''. The band members opted to avoid excessive promotional press, an attitude that Roth described as "a sterling statement" on them not following "so many people on television telling you why you should buy something". The
cover artwork Cover art is a type of artwork presented as an illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product such as a book (often on a dust jacket), magazine, newspaper (Tabloid journalism, tabloid), comic book, video game (box art), Album, ...
was designed by Los Angeles-based Smog Design, following a concept sent by Roth. Smog co-owner John Heiden picked the image, featuring a
New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midw ...
J-3A Dreyfuss Hudson steam locomotive, photographed by
Robert Yarnall Richie Robert Yarnall Richie (1908–1984) was an American photographer who worked as a freelance commercial and industrial photographer, in Texas and worldwide. Richie's work is significant for its artistic qualities as well as documentary informatio ...
, from the
Southern Methodist University , mottoeng = "The truth will make you free" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = SACS , academic_affiliations = , religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church , president = R. Gerald Turner , prov ...
's photo library, stating he chose it because "Richie's angle on the photo makes it look like the locomotive is in motion and coming off the page." Aside from the reversed angle of the train, the artwork shares similarities to the 1975
Commodores Commodores are an American funk and soul band, which were at their peak in the late 1970s through the mid 1980s. The members of the group met as mostly freshmen at Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) in 1968, and signed with Motown in ...
album '' Movin' On''. The booklet includes Roth's hand-written lyrics for the songs. Regarding the title, Eddie stated that he liked it because "there's always their reality of what other people think, and there's just the different kind of truth, which is the real truth."


Tour

After performing three warm-up shows at
Cafe Wha? Cafe Wha? is a music club at the corner of MacDougal Street and Minetta Lane in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. The club is important in the history of rock and folk music, having presented numerous musicians and ...
in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, Henson Studios in
Hollywood, California Hollywood is a neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. Its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the U.S. film industry and the people associated with it. Many notable film studios, such as Columbia Pictures, ...
, and The Forum in
Inglewood, California Inglewood is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 107,762. It was incorporated on February 14, 1908. The city is in the South Bay ...
, Van Halen began their
A Different Kind of Truth Tour A Different Kind of Truth (or Viva La Van Halen Tour) was a 2012–13 concert tour for hard rock band Van Halen. It was Van Halen's tour in support of their 2012 album, '' A Different Kind of Truth''. History On December 26, 2011, the officia ...
in
Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...
on February 18. This tour consisted of 46 shows, ending on June 26 in
New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster.
; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...
, and was the eighth-most-lucrative concert tour of 2012, with a total gross of $54,425,548 and attendance of 522,296. A second North American leg was cancelled, with the band claiming exhaustion. This was followed by the postponement of three Japanese concerts, as Eddie underwent emergency surgery to treat
diverticulitis Diverticulitis, specifically colonic diverticulitis, is a gastrointestinal disease characterized by inflammation of abnormal pouches—diverticula—which can develop in the wall of the large intestine. Symptoms typically include lower abdominal ...
. In 2013, Van Halen performed the rescheduled Japanese concerts, along with headlining gigs at three festivals: Stone Music Festival in
Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
(the band's first concert in Australia since 1998), Rock USA at Ford Festival Park in
Oshkosh, Wisconsin Oshkosh is a city in Winnebago County, Wisconsin, of which it is the county seat. The city had a population of 66,816 in 2020, making it the ninth-largest city in Wisconsin. It is also adjacent to the Town of Oshkosh. History Oshkosh was ...
, and the California Mid-State Fair in
Paso Robles Paso Robles ( ), officially El Paso de Robles (Spanish for "The Pass of Oaks"), is a city in San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. Located on the Salinas River approximately north of San Luis Obispo, the city is known for its hot ...
.


Reception

Upon its release, ''A Different Kind of Truth'' received positive reviews from music critics. At
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an
average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...
score of 73, based on 21 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". It also holds an aggregate score of 6.9 out of 10 at
AnyDecentMusic? AnyDecentMusic? is a website that collates album reviews from magazines, websites, and newspapers. Primarily focused on popular music – covering rock, pop, electronic, dance, folk, country, roots, hip-hop, R&B, and rap – albums are adjudg ...
, based on 16 reviews. ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' gave the album four stars out of a possible five, calling it was a "frequently thrilling return" with songs that "crackle, fizz, and bulge with priapic exuberance". Likewise,
AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
writer
Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance writer, occ ...
rated the album four stars out of five and wrote: "Van Halen are using their history to revive their present and they succeed surprisingly well on ''A Different Kind of Truth''." ''
The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
''s Steven Hyden stated, "After so many years of fumbling dysfunction that reduced the once-proud Van Halen name to a laughingstock, ''A Different Kind Of Truth'' matters because it's a reminder of why this band mattered," while noting that, "Roth deserves some of the credit for that. For whatever reason, when Roth is in the band, Eddie Van Halen plays guitar like the world wants him to play guitar." ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' gave the album 3.5 out of 5 stars, with critic Rob Sheffield stating, "Van Halen's 'heard you missed us, we're back' album is not only the most long-awaited reunion joint in the history of reunion joints, it is—against all reasonable expectations—a real Van Halen album." William Clark of Guitar International gave the album a positive review, and said that the record features "some of the most elaborate, expansive, and simply wowing guitar playing that Eddie has passionately poured into a single album". ''
Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning * Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis * Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...
'' wrote, "the frantic, haute-for-teacher 'As Is' and the mid-tempo shoulda-been-the-single 'You and Your Blues' can hang with any heavy-breathing romp they made in their heyday." Jerry Shriver of ''
USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...
'' gave the album 3.5/4 stars, saying that "this is the true kick in the butt that arena rock desperately needs." However, in the newspaper's year-end retrospective,
Edna Gundersen Edna Gundersen is an American journalist who was a longtime music writer and critic for ''USA Today''. Gundersen grew up in El Paso, Texas. She attained a degree in journalism from the University of Texas at El Paso and then wrote features and en ...
listed ''A Different Kind of Truth'' among the overrated albums of 2012, stating that "the reheated meat-and-potato riffs of Van Halen's past had critics swooning and fans panting, but vanished from the charts after the band's tour was scrapped" and the album got shut out of
Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...
nominations. ''
Guitar World ''Guitar World'' is a monthly music magazine for guitarists – and fans of guitar-based music and trends – that has been published since July 1980. ''Guitar World'', the best-selling guitar magazine in the United States, contains original art ...
'' picked ''A Different Kind of Truth'' as the best album of 2012. ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' named "Stay Frosty" the 16th best song of 2012, and the magazine's readers ranked it the fifth best album of the year. The record was also a commercial success. ''A Different Kind of Truth'' entered the US ''Billboard'' 200 at No. 2, selling 188,000 copies in its first six days of release, becoming the group's 14th consecutive top ten album in the US. By the end of 2012, the album had sold 411,000 copies in the US, making it the 71st best-selling record of the year, and the third highest-selling hard rock album. The record also debuted at No. 6 on the
UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...
with first-week sales of 14,040 copies, making it their highest-charting album ever in the country. In Japan, it debuted at No. 3 on the
Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in Nov ...
chart, and was one of the few albums by western artists to appear on their year-end tally, finishing at number 89 with 79,517 copies sold.


Track listing


Personnel

Van Halen *
David Lee Roth David Lee Roth (born October 10, 1954) is an American rock singer. Best known for his wild, energetic stage persona, he was the original lead vocalist of the hard rock band Van Halen across three stints, from 1974 to 1985, in 1996 and again fro ...
 –
lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of t ...
,
synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...
on "Tattoo",
acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...
on "Stay Frosty" *
Eddie Van Halen Edward Lodewijk Van Halen ( , ; January 26, 1955 – October 6, 2020) was an American musician and songwriter. He was the guitarist, keyboardist, backing vocalist, and primary songwriter of the rock band Van Halen, which he co-founded along ...
 –
guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...
,
backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are use ...
*
Wolfgang Van Halen Wolfgang William Van Halen (, born March 16, 1991) is an American musician. The son of guitarist Eddie Van Halen, he performed alongside his father as the bassist for the rock band Van Halen from 2006 to 2020. He also performed with the heavy ...
 – bass, backing vocals *
Alex Van Halen Alexander Arthur Van Halen (; born May 8, 1953) is an American musician, best known as the drummer and co-founder of the Rock music, rock band Van Halen. The band was formed in 1972 by Alex Van Halen, his younger brother Eddie Van Halen, Eddie, ...
 –
drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...
Production *Dan Chase –
digital editing Digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operate in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital media can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, and preserved on a digital ...
*Martin Cooke –
engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...
*Paul David Hager – assistant engineer *DeGolyer Library, SMU – cover image courtesy *
Bernie Grundman Bernie Grundman is an American audio engineer. He is most known for his mastering work and his studio, Bernie Grundman Mastering, which he opened in 1984 in Hollywood. The studio, which includes engineers Chris Bellman, Patricia Sullivan, and Mi ...
 – mastering *George Hernandez – Inner sleeve design *Ross Hogarth – mixing *Robert Y. Richie Collection – cover image courtesy *
John Shanks John Matthew Shanks (born December 18, 1964) is an American songwriter, record producer and guitarist. Early life and education John Matthew Shanks was born in New York City. Shanks moved to Los Angeles when he was 17 years old. He was in a ban ...
 – producer *Smog Design –
album cover An album cover (also referred to as album art) is the front packaging art of a commercially released studio album or other audio recordings. The term can refer to either the printed paperboard covers typically used to package sets of and 78-r ...
*Peter Stanislaus – assistant engineer *Van Halen – producers, mixing


Charts


Weekly charts


Year-end charts


Certifications


Notes


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Different Kind Of Truth, A Van Halen albums 2012 albums Interscope Records albums Albums produced by John Shanks Albums recorded at A&M Studios