Jason Savio

“I’m so nervous/Don’t know my place/A life without you/I’m not ready to move on,” Wolfgang Van Halen sings on “Distance,” a song dedicated to his late father Eddie Van Halen. “Distance” is a bonus track on Wolfgang’s self-titled debut EP under the moniker Mammoth WVH. After touring with his father in Van Halen as the band’s bass player during the group’s reunion, the 30-year-old Van Halen is stepping out on his own with a very honest and heartfelt effort. It’s an impressive start, most notably how he writes, sings and plays every instrument himself. He is the son of Eddie Van Halen, after all.

Going into Mammoth WVH, you really need to throw away any expectations of it sounding like a Van Halen record, because it’s not. Sure, Van Halen is in the name, but this is a whole different beast and is quite unfair to compare what Wolfgang is doing with what his father did during his legendary career. With that said, it is near impossible to not hear flourishes of Eddie’s showmanship here and there in Wolfgang’s playing, not just on the guitar but on every instrument. There are flashes of guitar fireworks in “You’re To Blame” and the opening “Mr. Ed,” but they’re just that—flashes. Wolfgang isn’t trying to be his father and that’s a good thing. He’s doing his own thing. 

It doesn’t come as much of a surprise that Wolfgang is a talented musician, playing drums, bass and piano (in addition to guitar) at a top level. Each song is tight with a late ‘90s/early 2000s alternative hard rock feel. What does come as a surprise, though, is his singing. When he toured with Van Halen, Wolfgang did backup vocals, but here he is front and center, displaying pipes that no one knew he had. His passionate delivery fits perfectly with his anxiety-filled lyrics about navigating loss and rocky relationships. “One by one/Remembering a brighter sun/All you love will fall away,” he sings in the radio-hit-waiting to happen “Think It Over.” In the heavy “Stone,” he adds, “It’s all been turned to stone/You’ll end up here alone/In the end.” Dark and foreboding? Yes, but it doesn’t come off as cheap or an act. Wolfgang has obviously been through some stuff–might even be mad at a person or two–and does a solid job of shaping it into honest music. On the flip side of that, by the record’s end you kind of get the feeling that you listened to the same song over and over again—each one hitting that similar note of emotion.

There is certainly more positive than negative to get from Wolfgang’s debut. If there is any major drawback, it’s that Eddie isn’t here to see the album come to fruition. He likely got to hear some of it before he passed, but it sure would have been nice for him to have the chance to hold the finished product in his hands like everyone else. Although Eddie might be gone, Wolfgang has shown that he is more than capable of carrying the Van Halen torch. What’s more heartening is that Wolfgang is aware of what he’s stepping into and how he got to where he is, as evident in the album’s liner notes where he writes, “This one’s for you, pop.” 

For more, visit: Mammothwvh.com.