Van Halen's new album described as "fucking killer" and "vintage Van Halen"

According to a couple of hard-rockers who've had an advance listen to bits of the upcoming Van Halen album--its first with David Lee Roth since 1984--the California quartet has returned to its raunchy roots.

Creed and Alter Bridge guitarist Mark Tremonti recently spent time at Van Halen's 5150 studio listening to the forthcoming material, and told Colorado's 94.3 KILO Radio what he'd heard.

"What makes it so great," Tremonti said, "is that they took what they could from all their old demos back in the '80s and pretty much did what they could to create songs out of old ideas. So it sounds like vintage Van Halen. Musically, it sounds in the era. I didn't hear any vocals--David [Lee Roth] was not there. It was just [Eddie, Alex, and Wolfgang Van Halen] and the music sounded like very authentic, old-school Van Halen."

Sevendust drummer Morgan Rose also had the opportunity to preview the much-anticipated music, and described it on the vhlinks.com forum as "fucking killer. Eddie hasn't sounded this good since Balance. Dave's voice sounds great. Alex is absolutely bombastic."

The as-yet-untitled album was engineered by Ross Hogarth, who filled Ultimate-Guitar.com in on the status of the project.

"The whole Van Halen record has been recorded and we're all excited," said Hogarth, whose previous credits include Motley Crue, Coal Chamber, and Devildriver. "We have just started mixing the record. I'm really stoked about it, as it is the original band, Eddie and Alex with Wolf playing bass, and David Lee Roth singing, it's the killing side of Van Halen at the top of their game again with Diamond Dave, and the band on fire."

Rumors have been circulating in the rock world that a new Van Halen single will see release sometime this month. Roth recently posted a message on his website that simply read "Get ready." Hey, if the new tune sounds anything like this, we're in:

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