A Different Kind of Truth was the first full length studio album with former lead singer David Lee Roth after almost three decades. It’s needless to say that Van Halen (VH) fans were in a frenzy. It’s probably an understatement. The question was, do Roth and the boys still have that chemistry or magic? The answer is …YES!!!!
A Different Kind of Truth was an exciting and thrilling record, and even with mostly positive reviews, the album hadn’t resonated with the VH fans as much as the band would have liked. This is unfortunate, the album may be one of the better reunion albums in rock history.
In my opinion, there are few factors that really hurt the album sales. First, besides that it took almost 30 years to get a new album with Roth, it was 14 years since any kind of new Van Halen music came out. It definitely, I believe, really hurt the momentum for any new release and made expectations way too high. Second, apparently a lot of the fans were disappointed that most of the tracks from a A Different Kind of Truth were comprised mostly of unreleased demos from the band's archives. Third, the last album with Roth was the era defining 1984 and A Different Kind of Truth had more in common with Women and Children First and Fair Warning, which may have confused the fan base. Forth, after nearly a decade with Sammy Hagar as lead vocalist, a lot of the newer VH fans just preferred Hagar and some didn’t even know that Roth was a former lead singer. This definitely made it a little harder for the album to get embraced by the fan base. Fifth, a lot of Hagar fans were upset with his departure and simply saw this reunion with Roth as a cash grab. Sixth, a lot of people really didn’t like the first single Tattoo, making most fans reluctant to get on board with this new release.
Regardless, the album really needs to be rediscovered. It’s simply an unrelenting hard rock album. Perhaps if they changed the track listing a bit and released a different first single *(I still think Tatoo is a fun song) like She’s the Woman or the piece de la resistance, Stay Frosty , the album would have done a whole better.
Still, if you like VH or hard rock then you really need to rediscover, A Different Kind of Truth