Watch On
Wolfgang Van Halen and his band Mammoth (which has now seemingly dropped the ‘WVH’ tag) have returned with a wild new song that goes big on the two-hand tapping – and it’s joined by a horror film-inspired music video video that boasts an all-star, werewolf-fighting cast.
There’s a wiff of From Dusk Till Dawn in the video for The End. The band arrives at a club and are greeted by Danny Trejo, who tells them that certain regulars don’t like loud noises – playing ballads would be advised. The mystery letter that had sent Mammoth there, however, asks for a rock show that will kill – and that it does.
Telling his band to keep things “civil”, Wolfgang launches into an unapologetically incendiary tapping run that nods to his late, great father, Eddie Van Halen, as none other than Slash looks on approvingly.
Wolfgang then hurtles into a nifty, harmonic-laced verse riff, backed by some commendable slap bass from Ronnie Ficarro.
Trejo had strictly told the band “No solos!”, but as the band go about their business, half the audience gets savaged before their eyes by, erm, zombies, werewolves and vampires. In the crowd, there’s also a now-zombified Myles Kennedy, who goes on an impressive killing streak.
Wolfgang, meanwhile, then struts through the maelstrom while delivering a tastefully virtuosic solo. Full of EVH-inspired tapping licks and fast-but-tasteful runs, it stays true to his father’s solo lesson about melody first, virtuosity second.
The way he looks into the camera as he does so, waltzing over the tables as chaos ensues around him, is a direct salute to his father’s moves from the Hot For Teacher video.
Wolfgang has also nailed the fine balance between honoring his father’s playing style and establishing his own. We’ve seen him deliver some other show-stopping tapping solos, but this might be his best, and most individualistic, yet.
Wolfgang’s mother, Valerie Bertinelli, who recently shared her thoughts on a Van Halen biopic, also features, throwing punches while Slash continues to look nonchalantly on, enjoying the show.
Fretboard pyrotechnics aside, this feels like the first big rock video in quite some time and, importantly, neither the song nor the playing gets overshadowed by the blood-soaked visual entertainment. Horror effects icon Greg Nicotero (Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, Sin City) has more than played his part.
“I’ve had the tapping idea on the intro for The End since before Mammoth,” Wolfgang reveals. “I was able to fit it into this world. It’s still over-the-top and shreddy, but it’s also melodic and controlled.
“Overall, I was doing some different things on the record, and I knew this was going to be a big step. Once we finished The End, it felt really special to me.”
The dropping of the ‘WVH’ moniker feels like a big moment for the band, too. Historically, Wolfgang has written and performed all instruments on their records and has previously said he’s a drummer first. But this might be the dawn of a more collaborative future for the band.
Either way, the song is great, the video is sheer class, and it’s a genius promotion for the band’s Autumn U.S. run, with Myles Kennedy in support. How’s that for marketing?
The tour starts, poetically, on Halloween in a currently unspecified location, and lasts through to December 7, where the tour wraps in another to-be-confirmed location. It’s all very mysterious.
Before that, Wolfgang will feature at Black Sabbath’s blockbuster final show in Birmingham, England, this summer, having played Crazy Train at Ozzy’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction last year.
Wolfgang has also recently spoken about how he helped bring Van Halen back from the brink in the early 2000s, and gifted his guitar hero his brand-new signature guitar, the EVH SA-126 Standard.
