The Guitar World staff has compiled a list of Van Halen albums ranked from worst to best according to the publication's readers. Following is an excerpt from the rundown.

Guitar World: "Come what may - or may not - from Eddie, Alex , Dave and Wolfie (and, who knows, even Sammy and Mike) in the future, one thing we’ll always have is Van Halen’s 12 mostly great, often incredible and, in a few instances, truly monumental studio albums, featuring some of the greatest electric guitar playing of all time.

It’s a catalog that is largely unrivaled in hard-rock history - not least in part due to the fact that it all features the man Guitar World's online readers named as the greatest guitarist of all time - and thus it’s no easy task to rank the albums in any sort of value order. Nevertheless, we asked you, our readers, to do it, and you delivered."

11) Van Halen III (1998)

The band’s sole effort with Gary Cherone on lead vocals doesn’t tend to be remembered fondly, but clearly readers found enough redeeming music on III to elevate it out of the bottom slot here.

At the very least, the end of the Van Hagar era saw Eddie once again unleashed – his six-string acrobatics take centerstage, and, just because he can, he throws in a hefty amount of bass, piano and, um, singing as well. An outlier that, 21 years on, is worthy of revisiting.

8) OU812 (1988)

The band’s second album with Hagar saw them settle into the AOR-oriented sound that would characterize their partnership going forward.

“We were more comfortable and relaxed,” Eddie told us of the album, which included the hits When It’s Love and Finish What Ya Started. “We opened the doors and it all came out. It’s more mature, too. When we recorded When It’s Love, I was so focused.”

2) Fair Warning (1981)

The least commercial of all Roth-era albums is also among their tightest and hardest-hitting.

“On Van Halen, I was a young punk, and everything revolved around the fastest kid in town, gunslinger attitude,” Ed told us. “But I'd say that at the time of Fair Warning, I started concentrating more on songwriting."

Which is evident in the rock-solid, indelible grooves of classic fare like the prowling opener Mean Street and the chest-beating Unchained, both of which – sorry Ed – are pretty untouchable from a guitar slinger perspective as well.

Check out the complete list here.