Although the VAN HALEN News Desk announced recently that the limited edition remastered vinyl releases of Van Halen II, Women And Children First and 1984 "have been pushed back until sometime in early 2011" (quote has been removed from their site now), Warner Music Canada has all three albums scheduled for December 21st, official sources tell BraveWords.com.

BW&BK; master reviewer Martin Popoff gives his take on the slabs of crucial Van Halen history found in his Top 500 Heavy Metal Albums Of All Time (ECW Press - see Martinpopoff.com for more info).

II (Warner '79)

A block-chopped shock to the system after the locked-down fire of the greatest hard rock debut of all time, II ambled into view with a laid-back cover of You're No Good. And as we progressed through the barely 31 minutes of mayhem, we found more chemistry and less ambition, Van Halen setting about defining an eccentric sound that would be indelibly theirs right through to Gary Cherone. This was the work of a band virtually knocking it out live, no apologies, little forethought, rough charm, immense innate talent. 'Beautiful Girls' and 'Dance The Night Away', both light, airy and poppy, would be the hits, but the metal roared behind the scenes, with 'D.O.A.', 'Light Up The Sky', 'Somebody Get Me A Doctor' and 'Outta Love Again' chugging along, pollution control be damned.

9/10

Women And Children First (Warner '80)

Van Halen follow up II with a record that is even more of an untamed conundrum, Women and Children First (love the way that has nothing to do with the front cover) offering a fuller, more powerful recording but an even more provocative concept of what constitutes a "song." But by this point, Van Halen could do no wrong. Whatever their definition, they were right. And if we had doubts, bow to the majesty of the musicianship and shut yer gob, 'Loss of Control', 'Tora! Tora!', 'Everybody Wants Some' and 'Could This Be Magic?' be damned. This is Van Halen's trouncing, pounding jam band album, Eddie coming up with textures for riffs ('Everybody Wants Some' - two "!!"'s evidently optional, 'Romeo Delight', 'And The Cradle Will Rock'.) and sheer noise for the boys (Fools), while three snatches of patches on here could be classified as novelty tunes, if not that, certainly casual, spontaneous ideas, the type of boozy contraption Zeppelin conjured seemingly at will and bravely deemed album-worthy. Just another day at the office, another part of the three-ring circus that is the shambled, random chain of events that haphazardly begets a reason for these instantly inspired shirkers of work to make a record.

9/10

1984 (Warner '84)

Housing the elixir of life, the distilled essence of Van Halen's formidable chemistry, 1984 finds the band brasher more than ever in their disdain for making records, building songs out of nothing much at all. And when that idea peters out, the band, with a silent bubble of flatulence, reach into the sad sack grab bag for songs as old as the aeons-distant first record. Of course, the hero-famished amongst us thought they were serious, throngs of sheeply radio slaves pushing soundcheck shadow jams like 'I'll Wait', 'Panama',

'Hot For Teacher' and 'Jump' to messianic status, perhaps appropriate, for who has actually seen the messiah? But 'Drop Dead Legs', 'House Of Pain' and lone smart cookie 'Girl Gone Bad' make up for the dross. And like I say, that dross is perhaps golden fleece for other reasons, reasons of abstract and ideals, things we can't see or even hear, things to do with jazz.

7/10