The Official Van Halen, "Blood and Fire" review thread

[Seshmeister]

Still my favourite song on the album, brilliant writing by Dave.

[Combat Ready]

Still my favourite song on the album, brilliant writing by Dave.

Good call Sesh.....Agreed!

[VanHalener]

-Outstanding-

A serious contender for my favorite song on the album.

=Roth & Roll=

[golitely]

My favorite so far and it begs to be done live..about 3 songs in, the audience response to the cues will be over the top.

[78/84 guy]

I don't love this one. Good tune but I don't love it & would rather hear other new stuff live.

[Zing!]

Seriously hoping they get this into the set by the time 5/19 rolls around. Definitely needs to be a single - but closer to summertime.

I think they need to hire Spielberg to direct a video for this one. Like one of those old-school short movie vids that lasted about ten minutes with actors and sets and the works. Have a retro 80's southern California vibe to it culminating with live footage in LA from the current tour. Well, they probably couldn't get The Bearded One as he's pretty booked up. But I bet they could get John Landis!

[VanHalenI]

One of my favorites off the album great lyrics. Ain't no better than that.

[golitely]

I admit, I'm slow on the uptake. Finally got that breathing he does after the "Look at all the people here tonite" is supposed to sound like a crowd cheering. Still my favorite so far.

[Full Bug]

At the moment I cannot decide if 'Blood and Fire' is my favorite, its that or 'As Is' or 'Stay Frosty', these 3 songs blow my mind.....Well, the whole album does so....
For some reason I cannot get into 'Chinatown', maybe it will grow on me....

[DLR Bridge]

As Is is my favorite, but for some reason, I think I would like to hear more songs from them done in the vain of Blood & Fire, should we ever get another batch. This song is the perfect blend of 1985 and now.

[sadaist]

'As Is' or 'Stay Frosty',

#3 & #4 are fighting it out right now for me. It's Big River and Honeybabysweetiedoll. Blood and Fire is coming in at #5, and rounding out the #6 spot is You And Your Blues.


This has been Kasey kasem and we'll see you all next week.............

[BenJammin]

Love Blood & Fire as well as the rest of the album, but gotta say something is bothering me here.

I won't say exactly, but listen carefully to the background vocals at 3:54, does that sound suspect to anyone?

[SNIPER]

Love Blood & Fire as well as the rest of the album, but gotta say something is bothering me here.

I won't say exactly, but listen carefully to the background vocals at 3:54, does that sound suspect to anyone?

I listened to that section a few times with head phones. I can't make anything out of it. What do you hear?

[SNIPER]

I love this song!

[BenJammin]

Sorry for the suspense, but I'm gonna let it go for a day before I say it.

[SNIPER]

Okay, fair enuff.

[DLR Bridge]

I'm gonna listen to that 2 second part 500 times on the train ride home tonite.

[Full Bug]

Personally, I think the weakest song on the album is 'Outta Space'.....

[vandeleur]

blood and fire is my fav song on the album ....... or cd or am showing my age .

[sadaist]

Personally, I think the weakest song on the album is 'Outta Space'.....

I kinda dig Outta Space. I think it was originally penned by my ex-wifes blue jeans.

[gbranton]

Personally, I think the weakest song on the album is 'Outta Space'.....

........And personally, it's my favorite.

[vandeleur]

Lmao..

[vandeleur]

Oh that was to sadist blue jeans gag it took forever to come through on the iPhone

[knuckleboner]

i wish this song was on tour. almost kind of seems like the van halen anthem. the last quarter century we've been through blood and fire. but he told us he'd be back. and now look at all of the people here tonight. this thing should be LIVE!

[vanshipman]

I love Outta Space as well, would make a great opening song. Blood and Fire is just great, I've learned that one and will be making my own instrumental version of it, just for fun. A very fun song to play.


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[BenJammin]

I listened to that section a few times with head phones. I can't make anything out of it. What do you hear?

Okay, I know I'm going way out on a limb here but here goes.... sounds like Sam there.

Okay, okay simma' down! I know it sounds crazy and one would think "why in the hell would they do that?" and Dave would rather slit his own throat than have anything from Sam on his record.

Don't know if it was a mistake (they did a LOT of mixing on this album, right?) or some stupid contractual thing because maybe Spam worked on some part of that song in another form and they were forced to 'hide' him in the mix somewhere to keep him off their back, dunno.

But to my stupid ear, that just doesn't sound like Dave (of course he's all over his backing vocals on this one), it sounds more like Sam's tone there for those 1.nn seconds ("Ohhhhhh-no"). It's right there at 3:54, not to be confused with 3:50 which is Dave no doubt.

Sorry, had to say it. Not trying to get flamed or start a bunch of shit here. Still love the song but everytiime I hear it (probably about 40-50 times by now), that part has been becoming more and more noticeable to me.

[Zing!]

i wish this song was on tour. almost kind of seems like the van halen anthem. the last quarter century we've been through blood and fire. but he told us he'd be back. and now look at all of the people here tonight. this thing should be LIVE!

No doubt - this tune seems custom made for live shows, and its lyrics seem like they would be a break for Dave's vocals. Can't help but feel that they should have built this whole album release and tour around this one song. Blood And Fire Tour 2012 - first single instead of Tattoo. Ah well - hindsight is 20/20.

[DLR Bridge]

Oh, that's all Benjamin? That wasn't so bad. I thought you were going to pinpoint what old song that part was pulled from. If I'm troubled about anything at all from this CD (album), it's the looming possibility that some of the truly vintage sounding screams and such were hijacked from old recordings and peppered through out. This is something I hope I'm wrong about, but to me, those instances are like baby white elephants in the room.

[BenJammin]

Oh, that's all Benjamin? That wasn't so bad. I thought you were going to pinpoint what old song that part was pulled from. If I'm troubled about anything at all from this CD (album), it's the looming possibility that some of the truly vintage sounding screams and such were hijacked from old recordings and peppered through out. This is something I hope I'm wrong about, but to me, those instances are like baby white elephants in the room.

Thanks. Based on your response maybe I shouldn't have been so anal about bringing it up but I'm sure you know how that might sound like sacrilege to some
My main point was to see if anyone heard what I did, but I got wrapped around trying to being diplomatic about it.

[ELVIS]

But to my stupid ear, that just doesn't sound like Dave (of course he's all over his backing vocals on this one), it sounds more like Sam's tone there for those 1.nn seconds ("Ohhhhhh-no"). It's right there at 3:54, not to be confused with 3:50 which is Dave no doubt.

Sorry, had to say it. Not trying to get flamed or start a bunch of shit here. Still love the song but everytiime I hear it (probably about 40-50 times by now), that part has been becoming more and more noticeable to me.

Drugs are bad, mkay...

Listen to it in mono...

But what you're suggesting is out of the realm of possibilities...

It's worse than me saying it's Ed playing bass, even...

[fryingdutchman]

If I'm troubled about anything at all from this CD (album), it's the looming possibility that some of the truly vintage sounding screams and such were hijacked from old recordings and peppered through out. This is something I hope I'm wrong about, but to me, those instances are like baby white elephants in the room.

Dude...you and I should go bowling. I thought the exact same thing. There are some screams in there that sound way too "vintage", and not at all in keeping with Dave's current vocal abilities. In particular there's one in "The Trouble With Never" that sounds like it was pulled from a DLR soundboard off the internet and mixed into the song.

In fact, there's somewhere else around here where I joke about Shanks or someone else pulling old screams and howls from a soundboard and putting them in the mix.

[DLR Bridge]

Thanks. Based on your response maybe I shouldn't have been so anal about bringing it up but I'm sure you know how that might sound like sacrilege to some
My main point was to see if anyone heard what I did, but I got wrapped around trying to being diplomatic about it.

The way I see it, fuck it. Similarities can always pop up between human voices. Besides, any similarity there was purely unintentional. When I first heard Finish What Ya Started, I remember thinking, now this fuck is taking a stab at singing like Dave. Now he has the nerve to say if this version of VH were to consider doing anything from his God forsaken era, maybe Dave could pull of that song. Man, I just keep finding more reasons to hate that guy!

[fryingdutchman]

Oh, that's all Benjamin? That wasn't so bad. I thought you were going to pinpoint what old song that part was pulled from. If I'm troubled about anything at all from this CD (album), it's the looming possibility that some of the truly vintage sounding screams and such were hijacked from old recordings and peppered through out. This is something I hope I'm wrong about, but to me, those instances are like baby white elephants in the room.

Choose your "whoo", "ooooohhhh", or "yeeeeaahhhhh" here...

http://www.soundboard.com/sb/David_L...oundboard.aspx

[DLR Bridge]

Dude...you and I should go bowling. I thought the exact same thing. There are some screams in there that sound way too "vintage", and not at all in keeping with Dave's current vocal abilities. In particular there's one in "The Trouble With Never" that sounds like it was pulled from a DLR soundboard off the internet and mixed into the song.

In fact, there's somewhere else around here where I joke about Shanks or someone else pulling old screams and howls from a soundboard and putting them in the mix.

That's funny! The vintage sound is definitely present. Whether he put his nuts in the vice for this recording, will never know for sure. Check out the one in She's The Woman just as the solo goes from wah wah to melodic. There are a couple in As Is.

[Zing!]

Dude...you and I should go bowling. I thought the exact same thing. There are some screams in there that sound way too "vintage", and not at all in keeping with Dave's current vocal abilities. In particular there's one in "The Trouble With Never" that sounds like it was pulled from a DLR soundboard off the internet and mixed into the song.

In fact, there's somewhere else around here where I joke about Shanks or someone else pulling old screams and howls from a soundboard and putting them in the mix.

I do think they cut and paste a few screams here and there on ADKOT, but at least they did it in a subtle way. It's not so completely obvious that the casual listener would know the difference. Die hard Dave fans can even pick out what screams are from where, but I think of it as a spice that adds to the VH flavor. There's just enough there to satisfy - but if they would have put any more in it would have been too much. The scream in Blood And Fire (right after the 'say it like ya mean it' part) is a perfect example. It's there. It adds a kick-ass element to the song. But it's buried just enough in the mix not to be a distraction. Maybe Dave pulled it off for real - maybe he's still able to manage one or two of those on a good day - who knows. Doesn't really matter to me one way or the other. The song kicks ass. The album kicks ass. The tour so far is kicking ass. No need for me to nitpick the songs to pieces now that we've had a little time to savor the flavor.

[fourthcoming]

That's funny! The vintage sound is definitely present. Whether he put his nuts in the vice for this recording, will never know for sure. Check out the one in She's The Woman just as the solo goes from wah wah to melodic. There are a couple in As Is.

That's funny you brought up the she's the woman scream......it's so subtle....first heard it with headphones.....it's an extended one too.....definitely an old school one. He pulled a few screams out at MSG last week that didn't sound half bad to me.

[DLR Bridge]

Right after "say it like you mean it" he's screams guess who's baaacckk!! Wouldn't that one have to be new, or are you talking about a different one? Regardless, wish I could blast it at work.

[DLR Bridge]

That's funny you brought up the she's the woman scream......it's so subtle....first heard it with headphones.....it's an extended one too.....definitely an old school one. He pulled a few screams out at MSG last week that didn't sound half bad to me.

He sure did! Hats perpetually off to that man.

[Zing!]

He pulled a few screams out at MSG last week that didn't sound half bad to me.

I thought so too. Dave's voice seems to get stronger the more he tours - he should record the next VH album on the road this year. I was really hoping VH would record after '08, as Dave was singing his nuts off at that point. When I saw him live solo back in '06, it seemed like he was definitely preparing himself, training so to speak, for the upcoming VH reunion in '07. His outfits were basically the same - his stage presence - no more leaps off the drum riser, etc. Can't help but wonder if he was seriously out of commission with some kind of virus after the new year. If VH were rehearsing as much as Dave says, his voice should have been up to speed. It took him a few shows to hit his stride - but to my ears he's definitely getting stronger vocally.

As for the She's The Woman scream - that's pretty funny. Never noticed that before. Totally sounds like a Runnin' With The Devil scream. Good stuff!

[SNIPER]

Okay, I know I'm going way out on a limb here but here goes.... sounds like Sam there.

Okay, okay simma' down! I know it sounds crazy and one would think "why in the hell would they do that?" and Dave would rather slit his own throat than have anything from Sam on his record.

Don't know if it was a mistake (they did a LOT of mixing on this album, right?) or some stupid contractual thing because maybe Spam worked on some part of that song in another form and they were forced to 'hide' him in the mix somewhere to keep him off their back, dunno.

But to my stupid ear, that just doesn't sound like Dave (of course he's all over his backing vocals on this one), it sounds more like Sam's tone there for those 1.nn seconds ("Ohhhhhh-no"). It's right there at 3:54, not to be confused with 3:50 which is Dave no doubt.

Sorry, had to say it. Not trying to get flamed or start a bunch of shit here. Still love the song but everytiime I hear it (probably about 40-50 times by now), that part has been becoming more and more noticeable to me.

Not gonna slam you, sir. But NO fucking way that is Spammy.