They knew they were venturing into uncharted territory. Heavy-metals and impressionists alike both knew that. They also knew they would be branded as weird, turned inside out, loud and noisy, with blemish as a principle for everything, with a frenzied pace, with atmosphere more important than the formal line, the distortion of the instrument How do you paint an eruption?
What does fire sound like? Who said that they cared about being understood? It was enough just to have people follow you, right? Eddie Van Halen as a kid listened to all the musical greats who came before him and began it all, and who seemed terribly old to him. His generation was weaned on blues before developing a background in rock'n'roll or swing, and when it was his turn to bear witness, he came and turned everything upside down, because everything taken for granted can be rendered disposable, especially if you are prepared to develop alternative potions and your buddies want a new poison.
So, the day he grabbed a Gibson and began to research it and understood things others had never even suspected; he knew he could create atmospheric brushstrokes with his guitar. Strumming and plucking his instrument, the young Dutchman added pulses, imagining the piano keys his father had taught him to play as a child, combined into a new formula.
And so, without intending to, he managed to paint the most important heavy rock album in rock history. Van Halen had grabbed the accessory, whose detail had inspired the greats of decades past, and used it as their motivation for creating a revolution, the soundtrack of boys who were not from the post-war era; to them, Elvis had always been fat and Queen , a sugar-coated imitation of the truth.
Thus, in the early works of the combo out of Los Angeles , one can appreciate the sound of a powerful voice coupled with torn, distorted and powerful guitars. And based on these strokes, they reaped millions in sales, picking up sidelong glances from rivals along the way. Was noise no longer enough?
