This week, I've heard eruption twice on BBC 6 Music. The only other time I've heard it on the radio was on the announcement of Eddie's death

This got me thinking... what kinda band was Van Halen? I'm not talking about the aged late 80s -> 200X band living off the former glories band but the band from Van Halen I --> 1984 (personal favourite is Fair Warning, so dark and moody).

They definitely weren't punk, or 80s rock/metal, the NWOFBH hadn't happened, though they provided a lot of the musical vocabulary. They were (technically) 70s rock but they have a snap, drive and energy which is missing from most of that genre. They also have sharp pop songs without long boring guitar solos

They only naff thing about them is the lyrics/singing. Dave Lee Roth could be hit and miss and tbh, I think that some deeper, stronger lyrics instead girls, girls, girls would have been better 40 years later. The underlying music track, the tight high vocal harmonies, pounding rhythms, driving bass and the anti-melodic mind-blowing solos seamless linking with tight rhythm riffing of EVH, stand the test of time and are still inspiration.

Maybe, they were just Van Halen and just like any another killer band, they defined their sound and everyone else sounds like them.