Van Halen: Balance (2LP)

30th Anniversary reissue of Van Halen’s multi‑platinum tenth studio album. The 2 LPs feature the 2023 remastered Balance album (drawn from The Collection II), with etching on side 4.

Originally released on January 24, 1995, Balance launched at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, becoming Van Halen’s fourth consecutive chart‑topping album. It also marked the final studio collaboration of the classic lineup: Sammy Hagar, Eddie and Alex Van Halen, and Michael Anthony.

Review:

Balance is Van Halen’s final studio album with Sammy Hagar at the helm, and fittingly, it lives up to its title—it’s an album teetering between harmony and tension, evolution and eruption. Released in the twilight of the band’s “Van Hagar” era, this record captures a band both refined and restless.

From the opening riff of “The Seventh Seal,” it’s clear that Balance is moodier and more atmospheric than its predecessors. There’s an almost cinematic weight to the production, with swirling textures and layered guitars that hint at deeper emotional undercurrents. Eddie Van Halen’s guitar work is still virtuosic, but here it feels more deliberate, less about flash and more about tone, texture, and weight.

Sammy Hagar delivers one of his strongest vocal performances on a Van Halen album—there’s grit in “Don’t Tell Me (What Love Can Do),” vulnerability in “Not Enough,” and raw swagger in “Big Fat Money.” Lyrically, the album takes darker turns, reflecting a band navigating internal struggles and external pressures.

“Aftershock” and “Feelin’” are underrated deep cuts that showcase the rhythm section’s thunderous backbone—Alex Van Halen’s drums boom like war drums, and Michael Anthony’s bass glues the chaos together while lifting the harmonies with his iconic backing vocals.

Even the instrumentals—like the brief but haunting “Strung Out”—feel loaded with meaning. There’s an almost elegiac quality to parts of the record, like the band sensed a storm coming.

Balance isn’t the arena party of 5150 or the radio-slick gloss of OU812. It’s introspective, brooding, and sonically rich—one of the band’s most mature works. As a closing chapter to the Sammy era, it’s a fitting and fascinating sendoff. Not perfect, but compelling—and undeniably Van Halen.

BY RUE MORGUE RECORDS