Van Halen: The Eruption and the Aftershock by Michael Christopher was received directly from the publisher and I chose to review it. I am of the age where I grew up with Van Halen, saving my money in advance so I could purchase their next cassette (small plastic thing with spools and "tape" inside it that played music), whenever it dropped. The music was awesome but was one of the shorter new music offerings each year or so. This book is for the Van Halen fan who never read any other books about them or paid much attention to music mags in the past. it covers the band's ups and downs, their shenanigans and everything about them over the years. I recommend it as a coffee table type book or for your book shelf if a collector.

4 Stars.

I love reading informational books about favorite artists, musicians, public figures, etc. There is usually so much passion behind them, why else would you write about them, right?
Well, I found that this book was lacking a bit in the passion, which is disappointing. The foreword started off great, talking about the love for Van Halen... then it kind of tapered off. I wasn't really moved by this read until the author talked of the passing of Dimbag Darrel (another favorite of mine) and the eventual end of Eddie Van Halen.
That being said, it was very informative and I'm glad I had the chance to read it. I did learn some new bits of information I hadn't known before.
It's a good addition to anyone's shelf, granted you're into rock music.

Subtitled: The Eruption and the Aftershock

I received an advance reader copy of this book from the publisher through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

While I have enjoyed a lot of Van Halen’s music (regardless of whether it was David Lee Roth or Sammy Hagar singing), I have never been an extremely passionate fan of the band. After reading a book earlier this year about the emergence of hair bands in the 1980s that dated the beginning of that movement to the signing of Van Halen’s first record deal, I immediately put in a request to read this book when I first saw the listing for it on Net Galley.


The book begins with a brief biographical section about Eddie and Alex Van Halen’s childhood, then moves on to the evolution of their band up until the addition of lead singer David Lee Roth. Once that happens, the book shifts into a year-by-year account of the band’s career. Through this book’s album-by-album detailing of all the Van Halen albums and the hit songs on them, I gained a deeper appreciation of the sheer number of recognizable songs the band created. I now realize that Van Halen is greatly underrepresented in my music library.

A major portion of the book covers the drama surrounding who would be Van Halen’s lead singer, a controversial topic that began with David Lee Roth’s departure from the group after their 1984 album, and his subsequent replacement by Sammy Hagar. The controversy didn’t end there, as it dragged on for years and still remains a hot topic of discussion among the group’s fans today.

I gave Van Halen five stars on Goodreads. I’ve really come to enjoy these kind of music ‘biographies’ because they help fill in gaps in my knowledge during the times in my life when I didn’t follow music as closely as I did when I was younger.

This book was super informative, but I was yearning for there to be a more personal touch to the book. In the epilogue, the author shares more of his passion about the band, but I wish I could have seen more of that energy radiate throughout.

The book touches on a lot of the fun trivia about the band while giving an inside look at how Van Halen solidified its place in the top rock bands of all time. Particularly interesting was the red thread of the fights the band had over the lead vocalist.

If you’re a fan of Van Halen, this book is a fun read, but be aware the book doesn’t feature the most gripping storytelling. All in all, I would have given this a 3.5, but rounding down to the nearest whole star.

One year ago today, a guitar god passed away from a long on and off bout with cancer. This book covers more than the exalted Edward Van Halen, one of the most brilliant musicians of our time--it chronicles the entire history of the band. You'll learn about the Van Halen brothers, their cohorts in their band, and the ebbs and flows in their careers and lives.

If you've read other publications, books, and interviews, followed the band closely throughout the years, and consider yourself a dedicated fan, this book may be a little too much like an overview. It's an excellent way to learn about Van Halen if you didn't live through these years when Van Halen dominated the charts, but a lot of the material you may be familiar with already.

Even though I grew up listening to VH, a few items did come as news to me. I was actually surprised I didn't know these facts, so I gained that from the book. On the other hand, the book jumps from 2012 to Eddie's untimely death in 2020, so I felt that was somewhat shortchanging the fans.

For the most part, though, I felt it was a rehash for me and nothing new. I cannot say that I didn't enjoy it, though. I loved going through the journey once again and revisiting the Sammy years even though I am Team Diamond Dave forever. But I feel like this combined a bunch of materials already out into one book, and there are other books I prefer.

I found the writing engaging and the research thorough, but this is a book to start your education on VH, not to continue it. One thing I really thought was excellent was the series of interviews with fans to settle the debate between Dave and Sammy. Most did lean toward Dave, and you even do learn who allegedly made more money for the band. So that was a strong point for the book.

What a good story.

I normally prefer memoirs, but the author manages to captivate the star that EVH was.

He also does a good job of giving us an overhaul impression, with some interesting tidbits along the way.

Well researched and well written.

Great pace.

This was a really fun, informative book about one of the most popular rock bands of the 1980s. I myself wasn't an Uber-fan, but some of my young friends were. The first time Van Halen came into my consciousness was with its huge MTV hits "Jump" and "Hot for Teacher" (which must make the top ten list of Videos You Could Never Make Now). It was a nice trip down memory lane to get the stories behind how the albums and songs of my youth came to be, and how the band's formative years - before my time - came to be. I was glad that the book didn't concentrate too much on the partying and womanizing aspects of the band, which I'm sure went on - this was the 80s, after all - but isn't that interesting to me. I stopped quite a bit while reading to look up videos and then even reaction videos to the videos. That epic solo Eddie Van Halen did of "Eruption" live is quite something! No doubt he is one of the best guitarists of the past 100 years. There also were some fascinating little tidbits I never would have guessed, such as that David Lee Roth's voice was considered so poor that there was a big push to replace him right after the band was signed. I always thought his intelligent and semi-comical delivery was one of the band's great strengths. Not to mention his on stage acrobatics.

All in all a very entertaining read.

If you're new to Van Halen you can start with this book, although there are other options I would recommend. The author, Michael Christopher was an early Van Halen fan and when he was preparing to release his book "Depeche Mode FAQ-The World's Greatest Synthesizer Band...(really?) when Eddie Van Halen died in October, 2020, This is a book consisting of past band, individual member interviews and whole graphs taken from other VH books.; specifically Neil Zlowzower's Van Halen and Noel Monk/Joe Layden "Running With The Devil"--a classic. And Eddie ex, Valerie Bertinelli.
If you're looking for some new Van Halen material--this isn't it. -That band is gone.