Few people know – even some rabid VAN HALEN fans – that the Sammy Hagar-era albums have been remastered as part of the WB Records ‘Forever Young‘ series. These are the only remastered versions available of these albums, and one of you asked for all to be featured here, all out of print and hard to find.
Let’s go with the excellent “Balance – Forever Young series remastered“, indeed one of the more balanced Van Halen albums ever, and one of my favorites.
All Van Halen albums from the Sammy Hagar-era have that bombastic, glossy ’80s production, but especially on the first two, the bass presence is scarce, typical from the era.
“Balance” belongs to other era, the mid-90s, and Bruce Fairbairn’s production is really complete and organic. The regular CD pressing sounds great to me, but this Japanese remaster is even better.