Balance

Hard rock turned brooding and heavy in the mid-’90s, and Van Halen responded with some of their toughest and most emotionally direct music. The dark, gnarled tones of Eddie Van Halen’s guitar on “The Seventh Seal” express his struggles with sobriety, while “Aftershock” is a no-nonsense examination of failed love. But a Van Halen album wouldn't be complete without a party anthem: “Amsterdam” is a thunderously funky ode to the city’s red-light decadence.